Las Palmas Geoff Notkin Collection 995.2g

Description

In his global travels spanning over two decades, Geoff Notkin amassed a truly world-class collection of meteorites, which we are pleased to present. These pieces are an assemblage of top-quality examples of stone and iron meteorites, pallasite, mesosiderites, impactites, and lunar and Martian specimens. Also represented are historic and rare meteorite types, which often come with the best stories.

Geoff has opened his vault and pulled some of his long-time favorites, meticulously hand-painting Notkin Collection (NC) numbers on some. Experienced collectors will spot famous meteorites among the lot, including rocks Geoff pulled from the ground himself from impact sites around the world. This is a spectacular opportunity for novice collectors as well, who would do well to pick up a Notkin Collection meteorite not likely to circulate the market in the future.

Each Notkin Collection piece is accompanied by a special identification card, signed by Geoff himself, that includes that meteorite’s unique NC number.

The Las Palmas story is an intriguing one, in 2006, a meteorite hunter originally hoping to extend the known boundaries of the Campo del Cielo strewnfield explored far into Formosa Province in Argentina, where he discovered a small and previously unknown meteorite strewnfield 200 miles north of Campo del Cielo, near the town of Las Palmas (“The Palms”). The zone produced about 300 kg of small, beautifully-regmaglypted and highly sculptural iron meteorites. These irons were assumed by many researchers to be examples of the already-known Campo del Cielo meteorite, even though the strewnfields are separated by 200 miles and the Las Palmas strewnfield is perpendicular to the Campo del Cielo strewnfield. Aerolite Meteorites attempted to have the “Las Palmas” meteorite classified three separate times by three different academics and, each time, a different conclusion was reached. One highly respected researcher said he believed Las Palmas to have the same or similar structure and classification as Campo del Cielo, but stated that it was: “On the strange end of Campo.” It is highly unlikely that two meteorite strewnfields that are perpendicular to each other and separated by 200 miles could represent the same fall, although the falls could have originated from the same parent body, but fallen at different times. The Las Palmas individuals are very well preserved, with multiple, fine, small regmaglypts, and most uncleaned pieces display clear remnant fusion crust. These characteristics appear different to the majority of Campo del Cielo finds. “Las Palmas” is not an official name and it is not listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin database. It is, however, without any doubt, a genuine iron meteorite.