Hoba meteorite site

The largest known meteorite, about 60 tonnes, still lying where it was found on a Namibian farm.

Key facts

Where

near Grootfontein, Namibia

Kind

Visitor site

Visiting

Open-air site or visitor centre

The Hoba meteorite is the largest known single meteorite and the most massive piece of natural iron known at Earth's surface. It is a flat slab about 2.7 metres square and almost a metre thick, and it weighed about 60 tonnes when it was found in 1920 by a farmer ploughing his field near Grootfontein. It has never been moved.

Hoba was declared a national monument in 1955 to stop people breaking off pieces, and a visitor centre now stands beside it, with stone steps around the slab so that visitors can sit and look at it. It is a IVB iron, a group very rich in nickel, about 16 per cent. Its flat shape may have helped it slow down in the air, so that it landed without making a crater.

Highlights

• Hoba about 60 tonnes Iron, IVB

Related pages

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