Certified Nantan Meteorite (1516) – Genuine Space Rock

All of our Meteorites are 100% Genuine Specimens & come with a Certificate of Authenticity

Specimen: Nantan Meteorite

Location: Meteorite

Size (picture scale cube=1cm): 24 x 18 x 24mm (0.94 x 0.71 x 0.94 inches)

Weight: 12.49g

High-metal fragments of the famous Nantan Meteorite. These are not the usual highly-weathered specimens, but much more stable samples. The Nantan meteorite fall is one of the very rare witnessed iron meteorite falls on Earth. It fell from the northwest and landed in the city of Nantan, Nandan County, Guangxi Province, China in May of 1516 during the reign of Chinese emperor Zhendge. It was said to have been like “falling stars as bright as lightning that waved like snakes & dragons and then disappeared in a few seconds”. Centuries passed with no further record until 1958, during the severe steel shortage of chairman Mao Tsetung’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ program when even the local farmer’s cooking pots were melted down to produce steel, when some farmers at Nantan suddenly discovered heavy iron rich rocks that they were unable to melt. Government investigators arrived and determined the ‘iron ore’ to be meteorites!

ACTUAL AS SEEN: The image shows the EXACT specimen you will receive. The specimen has been carefully hand selected and photographed. Measurements are as accurate as possible, though be aware measuring precise dimensions can be difficult from irregular shaped items. Whilst we portray colours as close to life-like as we can, colours will vary if taken in sunlight, indoors, from monitor to monitor and device to device. Once this specimen is sold, we will update this listing with new similar selected item, with a new photo and dimensions.