| Muonionalusta meteorite | |
|---|---|
 The Muonionalusta meteorite, on loan to the Prague National Museum in 2010. It is the largest meteorite ever exhibited in the Czech Republic. | |
| Type | IVA (Of) |
| Structural classification | Fine Octahedrite |
| Class | Octahedrite |
| Group | Iron |
| Composition | Ni, Ga, Ge |
| Country | Sweden |
| Region | Norrbotten |
| Coordinates | 67°48′N 23°6.8′E / 67.800°N 23.1133°E |
| Observed fall | No |
| Found date | 1906 |
| Strewn field | Yes |
 Related media on Wikimedia Commons | |
The Muonionalusta meteorite (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈmuo̯nionˌɑlustɑ], Swedish pronunciation: [mʉˈǒːnɪɔnalːɵsta])[1] is a meteorite classified as fine octahedrite, type IVA (Of) which impacted in northern Scandinavia, west of the border between Sweden and Finland, about one million years BCE.
The first fragment of the Muonionalusta meteorite was found in 1906 near the village of Kitkiöjärvi.[2] Around forty pieces are known today, some being quite large. Other fragments have been found in a 25-by-15-kilometre (15.5 mi × 9.3 mi) area in the Pajala district of Norrbotten County, approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) north of the Arctic Circle.
The meteorite was first described in 1910 by Professor A. G. Högbom, who named it after the nearby place Muonionalusta on the Muonio River. It was studied in 1948 by Professor Nils Göran David Malmqvist.[3] The Muonionalusta meteorite, probably the oldest known meteorite (4.5653 ± 0.0001 billion years),[4] marks the first occurrence of stishovite in an iron meteorite.
The mineral muonionalustaite, a hydrated nickel chloride, was first found as a weathering product from a meteorite sample.[5]
The name Muonionalusta is Finnish: it comes from the name Muonio (+ possessive particle -(o)n-) and alusta, which in this context means "a place below", i.e. downstream from Muonio.
- ^ Jöran Sahlgren; Gösta Bergman (1979). Svenska ortnamn med uttalsuppgifter (in Swedish). p. 17.
- ^ Holtstam, Dan; Broman, C.; Söderhielm, J.; Zetterqvist, A. (2003). "First discovery of stishovite in an iron meteorite". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 38 (11). Meteoritical Society: 1579–1583. Bibcode:2003M&PS...38.1579H. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2003.tb00002.x.
- ^ Svensson, Daniel. "Muonionalusta". Muonionalusta Meteorites. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Blichert-Toftwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Holtstam, Dan; Bindi, Luca; Karlsson, Andreas; Söderhielm, Johan; Zetterqvist, Anders (2021-01-02). "Muonionalustaite, Ni 3 (OH) 4 Cl 2 ·4H 2 O, a new mineral formed by terrestrial weathering of the Muonionalusta iron (IVA) meteorite, Pajala, Norrbotten, Sweden". GFF. 143 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1080/11035897.2020.1858342. ISSN 1103-5897.