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The Peekskill Meteorite’s Silver Anniversary: 1992 to 2017

Its hard to believe that the Peekskill Meteorite is already a quarter-century old.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Peekskill Meteorites, I am sharing some pictures of my slice along with a few words about the features that makes Peekskill such a wonderful specimen beyond the rather impressive artifacts of its fall.

 

Peekskill is one of those meteorites whose fame guarantees that it will be represented in any serious collection. Peekskill has it’s own displays in many museums, especially New York’s American Museum of Natural History. The AMNH houses one of the greatest meteorite collections in the world including the largest meteorite in captivity. And the AMNH is only an hour’s drive south of where Peekskill had its little fender bender with a 12 year old Chevy Malibu.

 

Peekskill meteorite
Peekskill is a Monomict Breccia H6 Chondrite. As a monmict, the broken pieces are part of the same matrix. Like a river of broken ice chunks, the pieces of this cosmic puzzle are all there, just not in they right order.

Notice the rich metal flake of this H chondrite. Shiny iron is everywhere, but scattered throughout the slice like a dusting of metal snowflakes across a rocky landscape.

 

Peekskill is known for it’s especially thick crust that developed over the long flight it had through earth’s atmosphere. A flight that was heavily photographed at the time. In fact it was not until the Chelyabinsk, Russia fall of 2013 that better video was captured of a meteorite captured by the earth.

 

A further treat of the crust is the rich dark color and the bubbly surface. Sometimes it takes a magnifying glass to truly appreciate fusion crust.

 

The 23 gram slice in my collection was about third or fourth representative as I upgraded through the years. Some meteorites are worth constant attention, and when a better piece is available, one must strike while the iron (and the stone) is hot, so to speak.

 

From Weston to Creston: A compendium of Witnessed US Meteorite Falls 1807-2016. 

And almost as if to celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the American meteorite named Peekskill, Frank Cressy has published a new book about Witnessed Meteorite Falls in the United States. The book From Weston to Creston contains 257 pages and covers 169 meteorites of which 152 are documented witnessed falls, and 17 are probable or possible meteorite falls.  Thanks Frank!
(Click to email Frank for ordering details)

Until next time….

Martin Horejsi

Martin Horejsi

Dr. Martin Horejsi is a Professor of Instructional Technology and Science Education at The University of Montana, Missoula. A long-time meteorite collector and writer, before publishing his column "The Accretion Desk" in The Meteorite Times, he contributed often and wrote the column "From The Strewnfields" in Meteorite Magazine. Horejsi is also the Lead Technology Reviewer for The National Science Teaching Association, and just celebrated his 22th year working with NASA and the JPL in education and public outreach (EPO), and is a NASA Solar System Ambassador. Horejsi specializes in the collection and study of historic witnessed fall meteorites with the older, smaller, and rarer the better. Although his meteorite collection once numbered over a thousand pieces with near that many different locations, several large trades and sales and trades have streamlined the collection to about 250 important locations with all but 10 being witnessed falls. Many of the significant specimens in Horejsi's collection are historic witnessed falls that once occupied prominence in the meteorite collections of Robert A. Haag, James Schwade, and Michael Farmer. Other important specimens were acquired through institutional trades including those from The Smithsonian Institution, Arizona State University, and other universities. Horejsi was awarded the Harvey (Nininger) Award in Tucson in 2006, The Brotherhood of Guardians of the Ensisheim Meteorite in 2011, a JPL Inspiration Person, on the JPL STARDUST Team that was awarded the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Annual Trophy in 2008, and former board member of the International Meteorite Collectors Association, and the Northwest Council for Computers in Education.
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