Achondrite, aubrite – AUB; Whitley County, Kentucky (36° 50' N, 84° 21' W)

Highly sought-after by both researchers and collectors, Aubrites represent just 0.1% of all meteorites. There are only 9 witnessed aubrite falls, a storied list that includes some of the more prominent and difficult-to-obtain meteorites known: Aubres, Cumberland Falls, Khor Temeki, Mayo Belwa, Bustee, Bishopville, Shallowater, Peña Blanca Springs and Norton County.

Cumberland Falls fell at approximately noon on April 9, 1919. The typical sonic and visual phenomena associated with a meteorite traveling through Earth’s atmosphere was widely witnessed. The pressure wave generated was so great some witnesses reported they felt an earthquake.

Primarily composed of enstatite, Cumberland Falls is known to contain xenolithic inclusions of ordinary chondritic material and numerous minerals that are rare or do not exist on Earth including caswellsilverite, daubréelite, oldhamite, perryite and schreibersite. The ordinary chondrite inclusions are fragments of an exotic asteroid that was partly melted when it impacted the aubrite parent body at cosmic velocity billions of years ago.

The beautiful mosaic seen in this partial slice is a quintessential example of Cumberland Falls. A polymict breccia (i.e., a breccia composed of several different rock types, in this instance enstatite fragments in a variety of sizes with iron nickel, iron sulfide, graphite and xenolithic chondritic inclusions), this is a superlative partial slice of a preeminent meteorite.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

61 x 46 x 2mm (2.5 x 1.75 x 0.1 in.) and 11.82 grams