IRON, COARSEST OCTAHEDRITE – IIAB MARITIME TERRITORY, SIBERIA, RUSSIA (46°9' N, 134°39' E)

A SIKHOTE-ALIN METEORITE WITH NATURALLY FORMED HOLE & FUSION CRUST

The Sikhote-Alin event was the largest meteorite shower of the last several thousand years. After having broken off from its parent body 320 million years ago, the enormous iron mass from which this meteorite is derived wandered through interplanetary space until it encountered Earth on February 12, 1947. At 10:30am, a fireball brighter than the Sun (it created moving shadows in bright daylight) exploded at an altitude of about 5 km over Eastern Siberia. Sonic booms were heard at distances up to 300 km from the impact point. On the ground, chimneys collapsed and windows shattered. A 33-km-long smoke trail in the sky persisted for hours. Iron meteorites were scattered over an elliptical area with many producing impact holes as large as 28 meters across. A famous painting of the event by artist and eye-witness P. I. Medvedev was reproduced as a postage stamp issued by the Soviet government in 1957 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the meteorite fall. As a result of a long indpendant plunge through the atmosphere—not the low atmospheriJ7c explosion (constrast this specimen with Lot 6), vibrant peaks and valleys rendered in smooth undulating surfaces provide a contrasting play of shadow and light, embellishing this specimen’s abstract form. Vividly exhibiting the monumental forces exerted on a meteorite traversing our atmosphere—compelling from any angle, in any orientation, this is an exquisite Sikhote Alin meteorite.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue note.