Etched Nantan Meteorites

Iron meteorites are composed primarily of various alloys of iron and nickel (primarily kamacite and taenite), and are derived from planetary cores that were broken apart billions of years ago by catastrophic impact events. The crystalline patterns within Meteorites are known as "Widmanstätten" patterns after the Austrian Count Alois von Widmanstätten who first discovered these patterns in 1808. These patterns are formed of interwoven bands of kamacite and taenite, and can only form over literally millions of years of cooling. It has been estimated that it took about 1000 years for these molten pieces of planetary core to cool by just 1 degree celsius! The beautiful crystalline patterns characteristic of iron meteorites are more than just beautiful oddities-they tell us how long it took for the planetary core from which the meteorite is derived to cool!

The Nantan meteorite fall was witnessed in May of the year 1516 during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Zhengde. Most of the Nantans that you see for sale are heavily rusted. Some are even coated with a "protective" coat to keep them from falling apart. In fact if you were to pick up some of these very rusty Nantans they would feel much lighter than would be expected for an iron meteorite. This is because a large portion of the meteorite is composed of iron oxide (rust) and not iron! By contrast the etched Nantans that we are offering below come from a large, and very stable Nantan. Stable Nantans are very difficult to come by, but are a must if you want to cut and etch them. The beautiful, etched Nantans offered below are the best we've seen. Click on the links for prices, information and a full set of photos: