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> The Hoba meteorite is an iron meteorite which is the only piece of iron on the Earth not made by men. Author: Digr. CC-BY 3.0 Hmm. The only one? I don't thin

by cronix 8y ago

> The Hoba meteorite is an iron meteorite which is the only piece of iron on the Earth not made by men. Author: Digr. CC-BY 3.0 Hmm. The only one? I don't think so.

PhantomGremlin 8y ago
Yeah, that verbiage also caught my eye. I think they might have been trying to say something like iron meteorites are the only pieces of iron on the Earth not made by men Which, depending on the definition of the words "on the Earth", isn't much better. After all, iron is an element and, according to Wikipedia: is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. The USA has a very large iron meteorite on display. It was "stolen" from native peoples in Oregon and eventually "stolen" again by New Yorkers and put on display. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite Despite my use of "stolen", I think NYC is a great place for something like that. As a child I saw this meteorite in the American Museum of Natural History. Museums are great places. At least 1000x as many people have seen the Willamette Meteorite than have seen the Hoba meteorite.
- cronix 8y ago
  Yes, I actually live in West Linn, OR, and that's what caught my attention since it's kind of famous around here. I had also recently been reading about the dagger found buried with King Tut, which seems to have likely come from a meteor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_dagger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_...
8bitsrule 8y ago
That's ... PR. The Hoba is ~ 84% iron. The Meteoritical Society records over 1200 'Iron meteorites' (FeNi-alloys) https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=&sfor=names&stype=contains&lrec=50&categ=Iron+meteorites&srt= https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=&sfor=names&... Hoba's type is Iron, IVB. It's by far the largest -of that type-. The Cape York (from Greenland, Melville Bay) is type IIIb. (Both octahedrites.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite It's total weight (at least 8 large pieces) is comparable, and its story is much more interesting ... the Inuits used it to make iron-tipped weapons, which caught the explorers' eyes. http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/35667/vol2-CapGH-CapY(LO).pdf#page=4 http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524...

by cronix 8y ago

> The Hoba meteorite is an iron meteorite which is the only piece of iron on the Earth not made by men. Author: Digr. CC-BY 3.0 Hmm. The only one? I don't think so.

PhantomGremlin 8y ago

Yeah, that verbiage also caught my eye. I think they might have been trying to say something like iron meteorites are the only pieces of iron on the Earth not made by men Which, depending on the definition of the words "on the Earth", isn't much better. After all, iron is an element and, according to Wikipedia: is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. The USA has a very large iron meteorite on display. It was "stolen" from native peoples in Oregon and eventually "stolen" again by New Yorkers and put on display. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite Despite my use of "stolen", I think NYC is a great place for something like that. As a child I saw this meteorite in the American Museum of Natural History. Museums are great places. At least 1000x as many people have seen the Willamette Meteorite than have seen the Hoba meteorite.

cronix 8y ago
Yes, I actually live in West Linn, OR, and that's what caught my attention since it's kind of famous around here. I had also recently been reading about the dagger found buried with King Tut, which seems to have likely come from a meteor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_dagger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_meteoric_iron_...

8bitsrule 8y ago

That's ... PR. The Hoba is ~ 84% iron. The Meteoritical Society records over 1200 'Iron meteorites' (FeNi-alloys) https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=&sfor=names&stype=contains&lrec=50&categ=Iron+meteorites&srt= https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=&sfor=names&... Hoba's type is Iron, IVB. It's by far the largest -of that type-. The Cape York (from Greenland, Melville Bay) is type IIIb. (Both octahedrites.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite It's total weight (at least 8 large pieces) is comparable, and its story is much more interesting ... the Inuits used it to make iron-tipped weapons, which caught the explorers' eyes. http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/35667/vol2-CapGH-CapY(LO).pdf#page=4 http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524...