Aletai Meteorite Fragment - Specimen

Locality: Altay (Aletai) Prefecture, Xinjiang, China (exact mass of origin unknown)

Aletai is the official name for a group of iron meteorite masses found across northern Xinjiang, China. The Meteoritical Bulletin adopted the name in 2016, after chemical and petrographic analyses showed that the masses, including the one long known as Armanty, all came from the same meteorite. Aletai is named after a local county.

The masses form a northwest-to-southeast line about 425 km long, the longest meteorite strewn field known. A 2022 study in Science Advances suggested that the meteoroid came in at a very shallow angle, about 7 degrees, and skipped through the atmosphere like a stone across water before its pieces fell.

Besides the 28-tonne Armanty mass, the recorded masses include the Akebulake mass, found half-covered by a granite slab on a mountainside. In 2011 Aletai city officials built a road to move it to the city hall and protect it from further damage.

This one of a kind Aletai meteorite specimen from China is a dark, heavy iron meteorite fragment with an irregular sculptural shape and a glossy black-brown weathered surface. The piece shows rugged edges, natural pits, and metallic-looking fracture faces, giving it the tough, space-rock character collectors like in iron meteorites.

Aletai is an iron meteorite from Xinjiang, China, an octahedrite that the Meteoritical Bulletin classifies in the rare anomalous IIIE group (IIIE-an). Its first known mass, the 28-tonne Armanty mass found in 1898 in Qinghe County, is still the largest single piece. Paired masses found since bring the recorded total to about 74 tonnes, making Aletai one of the largest known iron meteorite finds. Iron meteorites like this are usually fragments of the metallic cores of ancient differentiated planetary bodies, making them some of the most direct physical evidence of early solar system formation.

In crystal traditions, meteorites are often associated with transformation, cosmic perspective, strength, and connection to forces beyond ordinary earthly experience. People are drawn to them because they are literal pieces of space, carrying the symbolism of endurance, mystery, and ancient movement across impossible distances

Quantity: 1pc
With this product, you will get the actual stone in the photograph.