Collection highlights
Click on the links below to read more about the meteorites in the Carleton B. Moore collection and view meteorite photos!
Chergach
Chergach is an H5 ordinary chondrite that fell in the Timbuktu district of Mali. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 94), the meteorites fell the 2nd or 3rd of July, 2007. The fall was witnessed by nomads, who reported seeing a smoke cloud and hearing several detonations during the day. Approximately 100 kg of material…
Millbillillie
Over 330 kg (727 lbs) of this eucrite (achondrite) fell in a shower of stones over Millbillillie and Jundee Stations, Wiluna district, Western Australia, in October of 1960. Amazingly, despite the fall being observed by station workers, the first of these meteorites was not collected until 1970. Eucrites are the most common type of achondrite…
Bells
September’s Meteorite of the Month is Bells, a C2-ungrouped carbonaceous chondrite that fell near Bells, Texas, September 9th of 1961. In his 1963 article “The Bells, Texas, Meteorite” (Meteoritics. 2:1, p.67), Oscar E. Monnig describes the fall: "A detonating fireball, September 9, 1961, over northeast Texas resulted in a fall of meteorites. By a prompt…
Acapulco
Acapulco fell in El Quemado Colony, just outside Acapulco, Mexico, August 11th of 1976. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 55), the finder’s account is that “the bolide followed a west to east trajectory, producing a buzz similar to that of a small aeroplane and an impact like that of a cannon ball. It landed…
Chela
Chela is an ordinary chondrite (H5) that fell in the Kahama district of Tanzania around noon on July 12th, 1988. According to the Meteoritical Bulletin (MB 68), locals were alerted to the fall by a loud noise and detonations. They collected several of the fallen stones, and some were sent to the police and to…
Abee
Abee is an EH4 (enstatite) chondrite that fell in northern Alberta. According to Griffin et al. (1992), around 11pm on the night of June 9th, 1952, the sky north of Edmonton was lit up by a brilliant fireball. One observer at a local drive-in movie theater even claimed that it was so bright that the…
Kapoeta
Kapoeta is a howardite (achondrite) that fell in the Sudan at 7pm on April 22nd, 1942. Only one stone, weighing over 11 kg, was recovered, after falling on the Kapoeta-Nathalani road from which the meteorite takes its name. Howardites are mainly composed of brecciated eucrite and diogenite pieces, and are believed to form as a result…
Bruderheim
Bruderheim is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell in Alberta, Canada. Nearly 700 stones fell over an area of approximately 3km, following a widely witnessed bright fireball and detonation, the morning of March 4th, 1960. With a total recovered mass of over 300 kg, the Bruderheim shower represents the largest recovered meteorite fall in Canada,…
Homestead
Homestead is an L5 ordinary chondrite that fell February 12th, 1875 in Iowa County, Iowa. This meteorite was preceded by a bright fireball that was visible across the American Midwest, and fell in a shower of stones over several miles. Over 225kg of this meteorite have been recovered. Early synonyms for Homestead include “Amana” and…
Baxter
Baxter is an L6 ordinary chondrite that fell in Stone County, Missouri. This 611 gram stone, reported to have struck a house in 1916, was purchased for the Nininger meteorite collection after it came to the attention of H.H. Nininger in 1938. Nininger contacted his brother, who lived near the area in which the fall…
