Detailed information
Dimensions
55 x 77 x 10
mm
Weight
112 g
Locality
Cligga Head, Perranzabuloe St. Agnes District Cornwall, England
Condition
No recorded repairs
Despite the abundance of iron in the Earth's crust, Native Iron is exceedingly rare. Such deposits are termed terrestrial iron to differentiate them from meteoritic iron, as found in meteorites. This half-polished example is from the deposit at B'hl, just south of the village of Weimar in Hesse, Germany. Occurring in basalt, the emplacement of Native Iron appears to be associated with an adjacent layer of coal. This 7.7 x 5.5 cm slice nicely shows-off the finely recrystallised micro-globules and stringers of metallic silver Native Iron, frozen within the supporting matrix of grey basalt, from which it has differentiated. In polished cross-section the Native Iron forms a maze-like structure. The back face of the specimen displays the outer, slightly curved face of the nodular specimen with an oxidised crust similar to that of meteorites.
