What was the Holbrook meteorite shower?
On 19 July 1912, an estimated 14,000 or more stones fell near Holbrook, Arizona, in one of the largest meteorite showers in North America.
On the evening of 19 July 1912, people near Holbrook, a small town in Arizona, saw a bright fireball and heard a series of explosions. Moments later, stones rained down over an area near a railway siding called Aztec, east of the town.
The shower. Thousands of stones fell, most of them small, many weighing only a gram or less. Estimates put the total at around 14,000 stones or more. Local people and collectors gathered many of them in the following weeks and years. The largest pieces weighed several kilograms. The total recovered mass is estimated at around 200 to 220 kilograms.
Classification. Holbrook is an L/LL6 ordinary chondrite. Its stones have black fusion crust and pale grey interiors.
Ongoing finds. Small stones are still found in the strewn field more than a century later, especially after rain and wind expose them. Many are weathered brown.
Scientific interest. The Holbrook fall provided large numbers of small, well-documented stones for study. It helped researchers understand how meteoroids fragment and how strewn fields form. Holbrook specimens are widely held in museums and private collections.
Desert preservation. The dry climate of Arizona has helped preserve the stones, making Holbrook an example of how arid regions can retain meteorites for long periods.
The Holbrook fall, like Pultusk and L'Aigle, is one of the classic large showers of stones that show the dramatic effects of a meteoroid breaking apart in the atmosphere.