Finnish Museum of Natural History

The home of Bjurböle, the meteorite that crashed through sea ice off the Finnish coast in 1899.

Key facts

Where

Helsinki, Finland

Kind

Museum

Visiting

Public galleries

Finland's national museum of natural history, run by the University of Helsinki, holds the country's meteorite collection.

Its treasure is Bjurböle. On 12 March 1899 a fireball crossed southern Finland and a meteorite punched a hole through the sea ice near Porvoo. When the ice was cut away and the mud below dredged, the stone was found broken into many pieces, with a total weight of about 330 kilograms, which makes it one of the largest stony meteorites known from Europe. Bjurböle is an ordinary chondrite of type L/LL4, so crumbly that its chondrules fall out whole, and it is famous among scientists for exactly that reason: loose chondrules from Bjurböle have been studied around the world.

Highlights

• Bjurböle fell through sea ice in 1899 L/LL4

Related pages

Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.