UNM Meteorite Museum

On a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2002, I visited the meteorite museum at the University of New Mexico and photographed a few of these rocks that have fallen from space. The museum is organized by the three main types of meteorite: Stony, Iron, and Stony-Iron. In the caption for each photo, I give the name of the meteorite, the location where it was found, and some information copied from the display card.

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The museum is located in Northrop Hall on the UNM campus.


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This "Meteorites of New Mexico" display shows where different specimens have been recovered within the state.


Stony Meteorites

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Norton County (Kansas) (right foreground) - Achondrite (a type of stony meteorite with no chondrules, or spherical inclusions). This is the 2nd largest stone meteorite ever found on earth.


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Pasamonte (New Mexico) - An achondrite with a fusion crust (glassy surface material that was melted during atmospheric entry).


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Dar Al Gani (Libyan Desert) - This meteorite originally came from the planet Mars.


Iron Meteorites

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Sikhoth Alin (USSR) - Hexahedrite (type of iron meteorite with low nickel content, apparently structureless).


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Navaho (Apache City, Arizona) - Octahedrite (type of iron meteorite with medium nickel content). This is 1/2 of the original meteorite, which weighed 1600 lbs.


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Tres Casillos (Mexico) - Octahedrite (note the Widmanstatten pattern of the iron-nickel crystals due to slow cooling in space).


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Wolf Creek (Australia) - Shale ball (completely oxidized iron fragment).


Stony-Iron Meteorites

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Marjalaht (USSR) - Pallasite (type of stony-iron meteorite having a mixture of iron-nickel metal and the stony mineral olivine).


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Brenham (Kansas) - Pallasite (note olivine crystal in metal matrix).

All photos taken using Kodak Ektachrome E200 professional slide film with Olympus OM-1 35mm camera on fixed tripod, scanned with Nikon Coolscan LS-10E.

The meteorite museum is run by the Institute of Meteoritics in UNM's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Admission is currently by advance arrangement only; call (505) 277-1644 to make an appointment. More information may be found at the museum web page.

Revised: April 24, 2006
Copyright © 2003 Joe Orman
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