Complete Slice of Seymchan Pallasite

Less than 0.2% of all meteorites are pallasites, the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance known. Pallasites originate from the boundary between the stony mantle and molten iron core of an asteroid that broke apart. Unlike the vast majority of other pallasitic meteorites, the dispersion of olivine crystals in Seymchan is extremely heterogeneous. (Olivine is a common magnesium-iron silicate mineral; gem-quality olivine crystals are known as the semi-precious stone peridot.) Some specimens of Seymchan are olivine rich and some are olivine poor; some specimens have no olivine whatsoever. The specimen now offered is a complete slice of a Seymchan pallasite peppered with olivine throughout. It was in the 1960s that two large metallic masses were found in a streambed in a part of Siberia made infamous as the remote location of Stalin’s gulags. Identified as meteorites, they were named Seymchan for a nearby town.

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.