Name: A Large Taza Meteorite (NWA 859)
Brand: DISCOVERED IN 2001; MODERN CUTTING
Price: 24000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

A Large Taza Meteorite (NWA 859)
Discovered in 2001; modern cutting
Many large samples like this specimen are covered with regmaglypts (thumb prints) formed from the frictional heating which occurs during atmospheric passage. An end piece of this meteorite was removed resulting in a free-standing aesthetic sculpture.
10½ x 6¼ x 4¼in. (27 x 16 x 11 cm)
circa 12kg.

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Lot Essay

Taza is an ungrouped iron meteorite found in Northwest Africa in 2001. The texture of the meteorite is quite unusual: it is a “plessitic octahedrite” consisting of elongated spindles of the low-nickel iron mineral kamacite residing in a groundmass of a fine-grained intergrowth of kamacite and taenite (the high-nickel iron mineral) known as “plessite.” Although the surfaces of many specimens are reddish, some have preserved flow lines and patches of dark fusion crust. The interiors of most samples are fresh and unweathered.

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