Meteroites from the Henbury Crater, Northern Territory
Guess what we have! We managed to secure a small number of Australian Henbury meteorites from an old collection. We will be releasing these soon-ish.
These meteorites are an Iron IIIAB, octahedrite (this refers to the internal crystal structure) meteorite consisting of 90% iron and 8% nickel.
Around 4700 years ago the meteorite broke up during entry with the fragments impacting in the Henbury Station in the Northern Territory, roughly 130km south of Alice Springs. The impact made 13-14 impact craters that range in size from approximately 7-180m in diameter. The impact then ejected meteorite fragments into the surrounding area. Significance of the site was realised in the 1930's when a survey of the site was conducted.
As the impact occurred during recent times it appears to have been witnessed, with Aboriginal traditions describing "… a fire debil-debil (evil spirit) came out of the sky and killed everything in the vicinity.". An impact of this scale would have indeed been devastating to anything in the area!
We often get people bringing in ironstone pisolites/nodules asking if they have found a meteorite. These can be mistaken for iron meteorites as they look similar, however the weight and surface texture is different between the two.