Muonionalusta

Iron meteorite, IVA
Arctic Circle, near Muonionalusta Island, Sweden, first known 1906

Meteorites found in remote and nearly inaccessible locales seem to hold a special allure for hunters and collectors alike. Muonionalusta is no exception. The fall site lies north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden and the meteorites found there are so ancient their fall pre-dates at least one ice age. Long-vanished rivers of ice carried meteorites with them for a time, but left the heavy irons behind as they melted, mixing them in with a flotsam and jetsam of mismatched transported rocks known to geologists as terminal moraine. Having been casually “dumped” by retreating ice, the locations and depths at which Muonionalusta meteorites are buried are, therefore, completely random. Conventional meteorite hunting techniques must be thrown out the window by those in search of this ancient and puzzling iron.

The Muonionalusta strewnfield was featured in two episodes of the television series Meteorite Men. Much like the Gibeon iron meteorite from Namibia, Muonionalusta displays a beautiful Widmanstätten etch pattern after preparation in the laboratory.