Historic Terrestrial Iron
Collection
Robert Lavinsky
Description
The specimen comprises half a nodule of basalt containing elemental iron. It may not be pretty, but this is an important specimen for the species, element, and for historic geology. Native iron is extremely rare in igneous rocks, even though it forms the majority of the earth's core. Here we have an extremely rare mass of terrestrial native iron in rock from the remote Disko Island. Much native iron on the earths surface is in fact extra-terrestrial in origin. This is from the type locality occurrence for native terrestrial iron, and is richly speckled with bright, metallic Native Iron in basalt matrix. This is old, rare, and seldom seen material. The back of the old company specimen label has typed notes indicating this piece was obtained in purchase (P) by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in 1910. The next line indicates that the source was discovered in 1870. The third line of type states that the museum obtained the specimen from R.E. Peary. Traded out of the Museum in the 1980s, this piece has since been in the private collection of Lawrence Conklin.
Locality
Ovifac, Disco Island, Kitaa Province, Greenland
Dimensions
6.1 x 5.1 x 2.1 cm.
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