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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Gruneberg

Gruneberg is an ordinary (H4) chondrite that fell in Poland the afternoon of March 22, 1841.  At the time of the meteorite’s fall, the town was part of the Prussian region of Silesia.  The Polish name for the meteorite is Wilkanowko.

According to an account published in the American Journal of Science and Arts that same year, local witnesses working in the fields on a clear day, heard what sounded like three claps of thunder, followed by a whizzing sound and a thud, as though something had hit the ground.  Upon investigation, they found a broken piece of the meteorite at the bottom of a fresh, 6” hole.  This 1 kg. stone, fusion-crusted on one side, with 3 broken faces, was the only recovered fragment  of the Gruneberg meteorite, as the other pieces were never found.