Click here to view the "Meteorite Article Archive". Henbury Iron, octahedrite, IIAB Northern Territorry, Australia Find: 1931 (Alderman) TKW (Total Known Weight): ~ 2 MT When Alderman discovered the 14 craters 120km southwest of Alice Springs in 1931 by the help of his aboriginal scouts, the ground surrounding the craters was litterd with numerous fragments and individuals of the fall. The Aboriginees had declared the crater a tabu by oral tradition since the time of the fall. In their language the place was named "Chindu chinna waru chingi yaku", which means „Sun walks fire devil's rock“. Most of the natives refused to visit the place. In contradiction to other strewn fields of shower producing iron meteorite falls (Cape York, Canyon Diablo, Odessa, Toluca, Campo des Cieolo, Taza) the Henbury iron was never harvested by the natives for tool production. Thus the situation in and around the crater field remained undisturbed until the 30ies of the 20th century. The age of the fall is dated at approx. 5000 years ago. Pictured above is a 1.04 kg Henbury individual found approx. 800m north by northwest from the main craters in the 1980ies. Heavyly sculpted 1.881kg individual in the shape of an inverted mushroom. This particular specimen shows weathered regmaglypts on the pictured side but still has remnants of fusion crust on the bottom of two regmaglypts on the far side. It is found that the part of the meteorite protruding through the surface in find position is usually much better conserved than those parts beneath the soil. Thus the soil embedded part of the meteorite displays exaggerated regmaplypts and sharp jagged edges. The specimen is uncleaned and shows the charecteristic laterite red desert patina of the Henbury crater field. Only slightly wheathered uncleaned 2.765kg individual showing a conical shape and strong orientation. The rear side is one large concave depression with no regmaglypts at all. The breastside displays distinct regmaglypts which morph into gorge shaped furrows towards the edge and away from the apex. Regmaglypted 1.800kg Henbury iron meteorite in the shape of a bifacial neolithic arrow head. Distribution map showing the find location of approx. a tonne of specimens collected by local finders in the Allice Springs area in several decades. It was found that virtually all the meteorites found were restricted to what is a clearly radial pattern in the northeastern quadrant from the larger craters. The map was provided by Don McColl in "The Distribution Pattern of the Henbury Iron Meteorites in Central Australia" in: Meteorite, August 1997, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp 8-11 Detail of a panora mosaic of the Henbury meteorite craters. The photos were taken by Don McColl, former curator of the Museum of Northwest Queensland and one of the most thorough researchers of the Henbury meteorite fall. Click here to view the full crater panorama Heavyly sculpted 1.82kg Henbury meteorite shaped like a foot. Return to the "Meteorite Article Archive".     © 2001-2010 NigerMeteoriteRecon