Arispe Meteorite
Iron, IC
Found in Sonora, Mexico in 1896
Circa 1955, a woman out walking near her rural village in Sonora, Mexico (the find site for Arispe) noticed an unusual iron-like rock weighing nearly 61 pounds. She gave the rock to her grandson who eventually moved to San Antonio, Texas, keeping the rock with him as a curiosity. Many years later, the grandson’s friend, Tim Eidson, noticed the rock and purchased it from the grandson, thinking it might possibly be a meteorite. He was correct. As an exact find location had not been noted, the new iron was originally named Nova 057 and—after donating a small piece that Tim and his friend Pete Rios had removed—the specimen was initially and incorrectly classified as a common IIAB iron. Subsequently, the “Eidson Iron” was studied by three prominent meteorite academics, including the late Dr. John Wasson at UCLA, and was reclassified as an extremely rare IC iron. There are only twelve known IC irons in all of meteorite science. Arispe is one of those twelve and, after further work was carried out, a determination was made by meteoriticists the “Eidson Iron” is indistinguishable to Arispe, and Nova 057 was discredited.
These slices, upon brand new classification, are the newly-available examples of the extremely-difficult-to-acquire historic Arispe.
