Howardites
Meteorites of Britain and Ireland · England

The Hambleton meteorite

Britain's only pallasite: olivine crystals set in metal, first mistaken for industrial slag on a moorland track.

Key facts

Found
2005
Where
the Hambleton Hills, North Yorkshire
Type
Main-group pallasite (stony-iron)
Mass
about 17.6 kg
Where it is kept
Museum and private collections
Nation today
England

In August 2005 the meteorite hunters Rob and Irene Elliott found heavy, rusty masses on a track in the Hambleton Hills on the western edge of the North York Moors. At first they looked like slag, the waste from iron smelting that is common in the British countryside. Tests proved otherwise: they were pieces of a pallasite, totalling about 17.6 kilograms.

Pallasites are stony-iron meteorites made of crystals of the green mineral olivine set in iron-nickel metal. Hambleton belongs to the main group of pallasites, which probably formed where the metal core of a melted asteroid met the rocky mantle around it. Cut and polished, its metal shows the Widmanstätten pattern and its olivine glows yellow-green.

Hambleton is the only pallasite ever found in Britain or Ireland, and only the second British meteorite with metal as a major part, after Rowton. It was probably on the ground for a long time before it was found. It has been suggested that it might be linked to a great fireball seen over Britain in 1783, but there is no proof.

Did you know?

Did you know?

Hambleton is the only pallasite from the UK or Ireland.

Did you know?

Slag, the waste from smelting, is the most common thing mistaken for a meteorite in Britain, and Hambleton was nearly dismissed as slag.

Find out more

Nearest other British and Irish meteorites

Related pages

Meteorite types: Main-group pallasites