FROM ONE OF THE LARGEST METEORITE SHOWERS SINCE THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION — SIKHOTE-ALIN - photo 1

FROM ONE OF THE LARGEST METEORITE SHOWERS SINCE THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION — SIKHOTE-ALIN

Lot 57
23.02.2021 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 32 500
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 491267
Lot 57 | FROM ONE OF THE LARGEST METEORITE SHOWERS SINCE THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION — SIKHOTE-ALIN
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 4 000
A fine example from one of the largest meteorite showers of the last several thousand years (see lot 31)and one of the most terrifying meteorite showers of modern times. Its journey began 320 million years ago, when a giant iron mass broke off from its parent body in the asteroid belt and wandered through interplanetary space until it encountered Earth on February 12, 1947. Upon slamming into the atmosphere at cosmic velocity (11 miles/second) it began to break apart, producing a fireball brighter than the Sun as it sailed over Siberia’s Sikhote-Alin Mountains. The shockwaves from the low altitude explosion of the main mass collapsed chimneys, shattered windows and uprooted trees. Sonic booms were heard more than 300 kilometers away and a 33-kilometer-long smoke trail persisted in the sky for several hours. The resulting meteorites produced impact craters as large as 26 meters — with nearly 200 craters catalogued. 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 what many witnesses thought was the end of the world.

There are two types of Sikhote-Alin meteorites: the jagged and twisted specimens that resulted from the low-altitude explosion of the main mass (see lot 27), and the gently scalloped specimens that broke free of the main mass in the upper atmosphere and were sculpted during their plunge to Earth as a result of frictional heating. This is an example of the latter.

Covered with vibrant peaks, folds and blanketed with scores of regmaglypts (thumbprint-like indentations produced during a meteorite’s blazing plunge through Earth’s upper atmosphere). The mass attenuates at the right margin. A large pocket on the reverse is also filled with regmaglypts. Large patches of fusion crust — another product of frictional heating in the atmosphere — are also in evidence. Wrapped in a gunmetal-hued patina with chrome highlights, cleavage along angular crystalline planes is evident — a testament to the monumental forces exerted on this meteorite as it punched through Earth’s atmosphere as part of an extraordinary event, one of the greatest meteorite showers in modern times.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.


70 x 116 x 55mm (2.75 x 4.5 x 2 in.) and 980.2g (2 lbs)
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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09.02.2021 – 23.02.2021
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