Wabar

Iron, IIIAB
Found in Saudi Arabia, 1863

As a rare sand impact, in a now inaccessible region of the Saudi Arabian desert, the Wabar crater field one of the most elusive and mysterious impact sites on Earth. This, the world’s only known sand craters of significant size, was formed by the impact of a IIIAB iron meteorite weighing many tons. It has a possible fall date of 1863, although some estimates put the age in the thousands of years.

The heat and pressure generated by the event formed a diverse and remarkable collection of Wabar Impactites, including exquisite black glass spheres known as Wabar Pearls. Also found are the strange Wabar Oxidized Irons –a weathered iron meteorite fragment — and the Wabar Iron, in an unaltered state!

The Wabar crater is one of about fifteen craters on Earth from which we have recovered meteorite fragments. An interesting anecdote was reported to our colleagues — some of the iron fragments from Wabar appear “popped,” this phenomena is thought to be caused by high temperatures and pressures at impact. This caused the iron to oxidize rapidly, giving the Wabar Oxidized Irons the classic “weathered” appearance — a feature which typically indicates they have been on Earth a substantial amount of time. This was first time we heard of this phenomena, and if you have further expertise please let us know. The question we ponder is — how is it we see well preserved irons and weathered irons, at the same impact site? Puzzling!

The site has always been nearly inaccessible and has only been visited a few times in history. Average temperatures in summer can reach a blistering 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Shifting sands have slowly filled in the craters over time and they are, today, almost obliterated. First discovered in 1932, differing reports place the number of craters between three and five.

Political events in the Middle East have made the area extremely dangerous and we have been advised by local experts that it is now impossible to reach. As such, we are extremely fortunate to be able to offer this rare and beautiful material.

Please visit our Impactites page for available Wabar Impactite offerings, here: https://aerolite.org/shop/our-impactites/