Esquel

 

Specimen weight: 672.8 grams

This specimen is a partial slice, cut thin enough to show very nice translucency of the olivine crystals, yet thick enough to maintain the beautiful green color. If Esquel is cut too thin, the crystal color fades to a light yellow instead of emerald green. This is a truly museum-quality specimen.

The Esquel meteorite was found in Chubut, Argentina in 1951 by a rancher digging a cattle pond. A single mass weighing more than 700 kilograms was found. Despite more than 50 years of searching, no more pieces of this rare pallasite have been recovered.

 

 This piece measures 210 mm by 190 mm by 5 mm. You can clearly see the beautiful translucent green olivine crystals when held up to the sunlight.

 
This photo shows the near perfect mixture of olivine and metal. It is fascinating to imagine how this formed in the core-mantle boundary of a large asteroid or planet.