The World Largest Piece of Cape York Agpalilik Meteorite at JOGS Gem Show
Meteorites are meteors that reach the surface of the earth without having disintegrated. The Cape York Meteorite, which comes from the center of a small planet that was broken apart, is a type known as an iron meteorite; it is composed of metallic iron and nickel, similar to the metallic core at the center of the earth.
The Cape York Meteorite Shower, named for the site in Greenland at which it collided with the earth some 10 thousand years ago - is 4 1/2 billion years old and was exposed approx 93 million years to cosmic rays, before separating from its planetary mother body. It is the largest meteorite shower known and the classic of all meteorites.
Cape York or Kap York is situated at the northwest coast of Greenland about 65 miles south of Uummannaq at the Buffin Bay. Besides of the Agpalilik, 11 large parts where found since the famous Arctic explorer Robert Peary discovered the first piece in 1894.
It took Peary three years to manage to load the pieces onto ships and required the building of Greenland's only railway. These pieces where sold to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where they still stand.
Five previous expeditions between 1818, when the Greenlandic meteorite field came to be known, and 1883 failed to find parts of the Cape York Meteorite shower. In summer 1963, the fourth major piece of the Cape York meteorite, the Agpalilik, was discovered by Dr. Vagn Buchwald from Copenhagen.
Agpalilik Peninsula where the Agpalilik was found, is located 75 miles southeast of Thule and 10 miles north of the Savigsivik settlement;
The Agpalilik meteorite, also known as the Man, weighs around 20 tons and currently resides in the Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen. Other smaller pieces have also been found, such as the 3 ton Savik I meteorite in 1911, the 48 kg Thule meteorite in 1955, the 7.8 kg Savik II in 1961, and the 250 kg Tunorput fragment in 1984.
The Agpalilik represents a medium Octahedrite III AB iron meteorite and consist of 91% Iron, 7,58% Nickel, 19,2 ppm (10-6) Gallium, 36,0 ppm Germanium and 5,0 ppm Iridium.
The displayed piece of Agpalilik at the J.O.G.S. Show is a solid core piece with wonderful Troilite inclusions with a weight of 100kg.
http://www.jogsshow.com/largest_meteorite.htm
