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Introduction to Chinese Meteorites

China is a country with over five thousand years of recorded history. Early in ancient times, Chinese people observed and studied meteorites. There are for instance 359 historical records of meteorites seen to fall between July 2, 133 BC and the autumn of 1905. Although collecting minerals is an ancient Chinese tradition, few Chinese appear to have collected these stones from the sky before the great rain of Jilin Chondrites in 1976. Actually recovering meteorites based on historic descriptions is difficult. The precise sites may not always be known, and, meteorites tend to deteriorate over time because of terrestrial weathering, drifting soil, etc. Specimens may have been carelessly lost, thrown away, or ground in to medicine. Thus, meteorites that do survive are all the more precious natural resource. Almost each meteorite I offer for sale comes with an identification picture. I have carefully chosen those specimens for their outstanding or impressive shapes and aesthetic value. Please ask for more information. What follows is an introduction of some famous Chinese meteorites.

Jilin(Stony Meteorites from Jilin)

On the 8th of March 1976, at 15:00 (Beijing Time), a big meteorite came from outer space and was seen to explode over the north suburbs of Jilin City.  rumbling and flashing, it spread numerous pieces in a super meteorite-shower, covered an area up to 500 sq.km. The biggest meteorite weighs up to 1770-kg. Some pieces sank into soil more than 6 meters deep, raising a mushroom dust cloud 50 meters high! The explosion registered 1.7 on the Richter scale of earthquakes.
Jilin meteorites are stony meteorites classified as H5 Chondrites with a total iron content of 28.6%. The Jilin meteorite struck Earth 4.6billion years after it formed within asteroid. Its much larger parent body was once a member of the solar system, somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Numerous collisions with other asteroids caused the asteroid to shatter, and the Jilin meteorite was born.The elliptical orbit of the Jilin meteorite crossed that of Earth, so, there was a chance the two might someday collide.
  Jilin Meteorites include numerous examples of rare minerals. They provide us with rich information about the early history of the Solar System, the atmospheric forces that shape objects moving at high speed, the elements of life, and other fundamentals of science.
The Jilin meteorite consists of 18 chemical compounds, including SiO2, FeO,MgO, Fe and FeS. Minerals include:
Transparent phase- Major minerals:olivine, orthokombic pyroxene, bronzite enstatite, etc.
Others:monoclinic pyroxene, plagioclase, whitlockite, a-cristobalite, orthoclase,zircon, quartz etc.
Opaque phase- Major minerals: kamacite, taenite, and troilite. Others: Chromite, schreibersite, ilmenite etc.
Secondary mineral:magnetite Some of the amino acid in Jilin Meteorites include oxyproline,aminoacetic acid, alanine, serine, and amino isovaleric acid.

Huangzhong Meteorite

  On February 11, 2012 a meteorite shower was witnessed in the Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, China, . 4 stones were recovered, with the biggest one landing on a mountain top, weighing 12.5Kg; the other 3 pieces were all broken when impacting the ground. The strewn field is in a mountainous region, at an average altitude over 2700 meters. Another Stone about 7.5kg landed in Baiya village, created a small crater, and shattering into many pieces. A third stone weighing less than 5kg also broke when it landed in a villager¡¯s yard in Hergey village. A fourth stone about 2kg landed on a concrete road creating a small crater in Yehong village, broke into many pieces. This meteorite appears to be an L chondrite, possibly an L5 or L6 with noticeable shock veins, slickensides and troilite inclusions. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science, from Guilin University of Technology, and from Beijing Planetarium are working on the recovered meteorite samples to classify them. Lets hope for a quick classification of this sixth recorded fall for China.

Shenyang Paleometeorites

  Shenyang Paleometeorites are distributed over the area from Lixiang, Dongling district to Yaoqianhutun, Sujiatun district, Shenyang. The features of Shenyang Paleometeorites are as follwed: 1. Shenyang Paleometeorites, which scatered in the Archean granite in southeast suburbs of Shenyang, are mainly distributed over the area from Manshou Mountain to Taizi Mountain, south of Hunhe River. More than 20 paleometeorite concentration areas were discovered within the range which are 20 km length from north to south and 15 km width from west to east. These concentration areas make up Shenyang Paleometeorite Group. The feature of their distribution is the same as modern meteorites shower. 2. The paleometeorites still retain the trace of paleometeorite craters. The form of Shenyang Paleometeorite craters is shown subellipse form or reinform on horizontal profile and basin-like on vertical profile. 3. Suevite was discovered at the contact area of meteorite and Archean granite. The breccias and the cement are all composed of materaial of meteorite and Archean granite. It is simple in composition and great changes in breccia diameter. There are symbols of remelt and recrystallization. The structure of breccias are shell-like. 4. The Paleometeorites have formed derived material. The major original mineral of Paleometeorites were olivine and pyroxene, but absolute majority have derived serpentine, talc, tremolite, actinolite, phlogopite and chlorite. In Archean granite, the target rock, there appears the features of fine-grained, and the composition of quartz are reduce, there are radial chlorite-epidote pellicular veinlet among them. These shows that part of the paleometeorite spouted into the target rock by jet way because of the vaporation, and formed new minerals with the material in the target rock, when the paleometeorite(ultramafic rocks) exploded underground. 5. The chemical composition of Shenyang Paleometeorite belong to lean calcium achondrite, the abundent of rard earth elements are closed to chassignite, and belong to loss type light rare earth. It shoe distinct negative europium anomaly, the contents of iridium are 2.25-5.5 ppb.

Juancheng (Stony Meteorites from Shandong)

  These meteorites are stone, Olivine-bronzite chondrite(H5) fell down on February 15, 1997 (23:30L). Shandong Province, China. Known as "Heze" for the first year, they are formally named Juancheng H5 Chondrite now, after the county name in Heze Region, Shandong Province. The fusion crust is clear and black on most pieces, typically less than 1 mm thick. The meteorites have magnetism, with higher specific gravity than common rocks. The people on the outskirts of the city of Heze (along the Yangtze River) were awakened by brilliant fireball and loud explosions that evening. This fabulous light and sound show heralded the arrival of the newest visitor from out-space, over one thousands fell into the small villages and rice paddies. The people quickly began to recover these beautiful stones as an omen from the sky foretelling the death of their leader (which did indeed happen later!). The Chinese people are very superstitious so very few of these incredible stones have come out of China! The total known weight is less than 100 kilos but we will never have an exact number since many people kept them as mementos of the incredible arrival!

Nantan (Iron Meteorites from Guangxi)

  "During summertime in May of Jiajing 11th year, stars fell from the northwest, five to six fold long, waving like snakes and dragons. They were as bright as lightning and disappeared in seconds". This is the official record of the Nantan's fall in 1516. The Location covers the towns of Lihu and Yaozhai, in Nandan County, Guangxi, China. at 25 degrees 6’N, 107 degree 42’E. The Nantan meteorites were distributed over an area of 27 - 28 -Km long and 8 -Km wide, overlying Permian limestone and surface soils. The occurrence of northwestern elongated zone concurs with the historical description of falling direction. Nantan meteorites have different shapes: spherical, triangle, flat-iron shaped, elliptical, semi-sheered, tongue-shaped, irregular, and so on. Fresh meteorite surfaces are black, and commonly characterized with angular or round melted pits. Because of severe weathering and the humid climate, most of the smaller pieces of the Nantan meteorite are rusty brown in color, with no sign of a melted surface. The average chemical composition is 92.35% iron, and 6.96% nickel. Nantans belong to the IIICD type of iron meteorite, according to the taxonomy of Wasson and others (1980). The weight of Nantan meteorites ranges from 10grams to 2, 000 -kg. The total weight is estimated to have been 9, 500 -kg. Nantans are course octohedrites with Widmanstatten patterns (kamacitelamina) 1 - 3.1 mm wide, that are easily seen in polished pieces. More than ten minerals have been found in the Nantan meteorites. Kamacite and taenite dominate; less common are plessite, scheribersite, triolite, graphite,spherlite, sideroferrite, dyslytite, cliftonite, and lawrencite. The following trace elements have been detected: C, Cu, Co, S, P, Cr, Ga, Ge,As, Sb, W, Re, Ir, Au, Ru, Pd, Os, Pr, and Mn. Ag, Cd.

Songyuan (Fuyu Meteorites)

According to the report of China's geography and mine newspaper, "In the afternoon of August,15,1993, in the countryside of Songyuan city, Jilin Province, there fell suddenly a rain of meteorites. Four were collected. The biggest one weighs 28-kg, and the smallest one 2.5-kg. The large stremains where it was discovered, inserted 60-cm into the earth. The radius of the meteorite pit is 20-cm. It is estimated that the fallen area is about 10 square km, and some meteorite may still be in the field. Specialists believe these are the same kind of meteorites that fell in Jilin City in 1976. They all belong to stone meteorite. They all belong to stone meteorite. These meteorites typically have a roughly cubic shape with many flat sides that show the high-temperature black fusion crust that formed as they fell at great speed through the atmosphere. Many of these may be seen at the Fuyu District Museum in Songyuan City. "
(from China's admirable stone, by Beijing Technology University)
TYPE: Stone
CLASSIFICATION: Olivine-hypersthene chondrite
PETROLOGIC TYPE: L6

 

Suizhou(Chondrite L6)

SUIZHOU: (L6) Fell April 15, 1986, Suizhou County, Hubei Province, China. A beautiful very light tan with copper colored metal flaking. Chondrite L6. Total mass 70 kg.

Gebi (Iron Meteorites)

China claims what may be the third-largest iron meteorite in the world. It fell in the Gobi Desert in prehistoric times and has been known since the nineteenth century as the "silver camel" by the local kazakh people. In July 1965, the great iron was transported more than 300 miles from Chingho County to Urumshi, the capital of the Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest China. The Gobi meteorite's estimated weight is 33 tons, only a ton less than the Ahnighito meteorite.(from Rocks from space by O.Richard Norton)

Ch'ing-yang

According to a popular saying, It is highly improbable that someone should have or be able to procure any material of the Ch'ing-yang meteorite shower of 1490. Although it is a documented shower but, no material is known to have survived from this historic fall hundreds of years ago.

Here is some background information on this incident:

Stones fell like rain in the Ch’ing-yang district. The larger ones were 4 to 5 catties [about 1.5-kg], and the smaller ones were 2 to 3 catties [about l-kg]. Numerous stones rained in Ch'ing-yang. Their sizes were all different. The larger ones were like goose's eggs and the smaller ones were like water-chestnuts. More than 10, 000 people were struck dead. All of the people in the city fled to other places.

About the Collections of Chinese Meteorites and Tektites

Meteorite List
(Email Bob Yew for Prices and Details)

• Huangzhong:

Item#	Weight	Picture
huangzhong5	5G
huangzhong9	9G
huangzhong16	16G
huangzhong30	30G
huangzhong50	50G
huangzhong93	93G

• Jilin:

 

• Juancheng(Heze):

 

• Sinkiang (Xinjiang) Iron Meteorite:

Sold out

• Nantan:

NT6000	6KG
NT500	0.5KG
NT1100	1.1KG
NT1400	1.4KG
NT1500	1.5KG
NT1800	1.8KG
NT2200	2.2KG
NT2500	2.5KG

Specimen weight range: 0.1kg-10kg.

If you want order large quantity of Nantan or have special requirement,  please email me so that I can get required specimen.
Though some have rust on surface, Specimen are not easy broken.

Songyuan(Fuyu):

SY6100 . 6.1kg 80%crust (Sold Out)

 

Tektites

From Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China: 

Sample

$50/kg+shipment

TK* .  35g(round),35g(round),50g(long) (Sold Out)
If you want order large quantity of Tektite or have special requirement, please email me so that I can get required specimen.

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Acknowledgement

Meteorites Resources
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         The International Meteor Organization
Yale Peabody Museum
The Meteoritical Society
Astronomical Research Network
International Meteorite Brokerage
Meteorite! Magazine
Voyage! Magazine
Sahara Meteorite Prospecting
Call of Catastrophes
Meteorite Exchange
Meteorite Central
Mile High Meteorites
Labenne Meteorites
Michael Casper Meteorites
Robert Haag Meteorites

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Introduction | Information | Meteorite List | Contact