Beschreibung:

Stony iron—PAL Kiowa County, Kansas It was in the late 19th Century that outside attention was first brought to what would be known as Brenham meteorites. Eliza Kimberly, a homesteader, correctly believed the unusual rocks scattered across her property were meteorites, so she collected them. Her suspicions were confirmed in 1890 when scientists affirmed the extraterrestrial origin of several masses, and the area was dubbed "The Kansas Meteorite Farm." While there is uncertainty regarding whether area Native Americans witnessed the fall itself, petroglyphs have been found nearby depicting what could have been the Brenham event. The presence of Brenham meteorites in burial mounds as far away as Ohio—including jewelry fashioned out of Brenham meteorites—indicates that Native Americans, like modern collectors, were transfixed by these stunning extraterrestrial stones. In 1929, after having recovered multiple specimens, the "Father of Meteoritics," Dr. H. H. Nininger plotted what he believed to be the Brenham meteorite strewn field (the elliptical area in which pieces of the Brenham meteorite are strewn across Earth's surface). Seventy-five years later, meteorite hunter Steve Arnold reviewed archives and came to believe that what Nininger thought to be an impact crater was more likely a buffalo wallow. Based on this premise, and utilizing data provided by local prospector H. O. Stockwell, who in the 1940s recovered several large pallasites using a primitive, wheelbarrow metal-detector, Arnold replotted the strewn field, and discovered the main mass of Brenham and a handful of other smaller masses. The present cross-section slice is from this more recent find in 2005. This is a pallasitic meteorite—a group representing less than 1% of all meteorites. Polished on both sides to a mirror finish revealing its olivine gem-laden interior, measures 14 x 10in and weighs 878 grams (1.9lbs).