Sikhote-Alin Meteorite

This nickel iron meteorite fell on Feb. 12, 1947 in the Sikhote-alin Mountains of Eastern Siberia, Russia. It is the largest observed meteorite fall in history, with over 23000 kg raining down on the earth in the form of iron shrapnel and the more rare individual fallen meteorites such as this one. A couple years ago, the Russian government has made it difficult to export, and diggers I knew said there was almost nothing left to find.

This specimen has two faces; one side is covered in regmaglypts and along the edges it has a lip that formed when it was falling through the atmosphere while oriented on one side (the friction creates heat that melts the surface of the iron and it ripples  to the edges of the piece and creates a lip). The other side is more coarse.  it weighs 94 grams.