Muonionalusta Meteorite End Cut // Ver. II

This particular Muonionalusta Meteorite End Cut displays the beauty of the Muonionalusta meteorite in a two-fold fashion. On the rear side, you have the meteorite in its natural form showing its etched faces developed while entering the atmosphere. The front side is cut and polished to bring out the beautiful Widmanstätten pattern. This particular piece has a beautiful luster on the front face and sides.

Muonionalusta is a meteorite classified as fine octahedrite, which impacted in northern Scandinavia—  west of the border between Sweden and Finland— about one million years BCE. The first Muonionalusta was found in 1906.

The Muonionalusta is probably the oldest known meteorite roughly 4.5 billion years old. It is part of the iron core or mantle of a planetoid, which shattered into many pieces upon its fall to our planet. On Earth, the meteorite has experienced four ice ages. It is mainly comprised form a combination of Nickel and Iron and has a very distinct pattern of etching know as the Widmanstätten pattern, thus making this a very interesting specimen and an item of interest among many collectors.