Nantan Crystals
Iron, (IAB), Coarse Octahedrite
Found 1958, possible witnessed fall 1516
Nandan County, Guangxi, China


The fall was recorded as being in 1516 -- " During summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest direction, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds". So far almost all the iron meteorites found in the world are discovered meteorites, that is, no one witnessed any fall. The Nantan is an exception. The Chinese people actually saw the star falling almost 500 years ago.

These are the same material as those on the "Nantan" page with one exception. I am not sure when, not sure why but sometime back in the day a large Nantan met with a stick of dynamite. While I am sure the means accomplished the end, one must hope that the folks behind this experiment kept a respectable distance cause,good God y'all!

Interestingly, the shrapnel fragments tended to break cleanly along the coarse octahedral crystal lines creating a kind of 3D Widmanstatten pattern.

Click on images below to enlarge

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Nantan Crystal  Iron, (IAB), Coarse Octahedrite
79.4 gram fragment
$79.00

Nantan Crystal  Iron, (IAB), Coarse Octahedrite
17.7 gram fragment
$18.00

Nantan Crystal  Iron, (IAB), Coarse Octahedrite
16.7 gram fragment
$17.00

Nantan Crystal  Iron, (IAB), Coarse Octahedrite
16.6 gram fragment
$17.00

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