Article Brings Meteorite To Light

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 1

Article Brings Meteorite To Light

An article on meteorites in the “Museum of Nature” column in “The Press” on May 23 has led to the location of the second largest meteorite found in New Zealand.

It is only the sixth meteorite recognised in New Zealand and is now at the Canterbury Museum, together with the largest known meteorite to have fallen in the country. This was announced by the director of the museum (Dr R. S. Duff) at the monthly meeting of the Museum Trust Board yesterday. The article in “The Press,” which appeared in the weekly column, was seen by the chairman of the Poverty Bay Catchment Board (Mr A. H. Reeves) who was in Christchurch for the week-end. It made him recall a 201 b lump of rusted iron which he had found, in 1915 in the sheep-

yards of a farm at Walngaromia, about 50 miles north of Gisborne. Mr Reeves returned to Gisborne and took the specimen to Mr W. H. Way at the Gisborne Art Gallery and Museum. Suspecting that the lump was a meteorite, Mr Way arranged for it to be sent to the Canterbury Museum for a more expert opinion. The lump, which is about 9in long, is characteristic of an iron meteorite, with the shallow hollows caused by local melting during its highspeed passage through the earth's atmosphere. It is also magnetic, and contains nickel. Meteorites are given the name of the place where they fell or were found, and this one will be known as the Waingaromia meteorite or the Waingaromia iron. It is only the second iron meteorite recorded in New Zealand and with a weight of 201 b 50oz it is the second heaviest of the six known New Zealand meteorites. .

The other meteorites have been of stone. The first iron meteorite found in New Zealand, and also the largest meteorite in the country, is the 741 b rustcovered specimen which was found at View Hill, near Oxford, in 1954, by Mr C. C. Anderson when ploughing a paddock. This also rests in the Canterbury Museum. The museum has the largest collection of meteorites in the country, with specimens of five of the six New Zealand meteorites, as well as 18 meteorites from overseas. Among these is the 10691 b iron meteorite from the huge Meteor Crater in Arizona in the United States. This is the third largest found there and the largest to have been taken outside the United States. Dr Duff said that the Wai-; ngaromia iron would be an important addition to the meteo-' rite collection, and that the museum’s keeper of geology (Mr D. R. Gregg), who also i wrote the article which led <

to the recognition of the specimen, was arranging for the meteorite to be scientifically described and added to the world catalogue. To do this, Mr Gregg was consulting a world authority on meteorites, Dr B. Mason

■of the Smithsonian Instltu- • tion in Washington. Dr Mason - is also a New Zealander. ’ The photograph shows toe Waingaromia iron. The? ! scale at the foot of the > photograph is in centii metres.