Natural History Museum of Denmark

Home of Agpalilik, a 20-tonne mass of the Cape York iron from Greenland.

Key facts

Where

Copenhagen, Denmark

Kind

Museum

Visiting

Public galleries

The Natural History Museum of Denmark, which includes the former Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen, holds Denmark's national meteorite collection. Because Greenland is part of the Danish realm, its meteorites are a special strength.

The most famous is Agpalilik, a mass of about 20 tonnes of the Cape York iron meteorite from north-west Greenland. The Inughuit people had long chipped iron from the Cape York masses to make tools. The largest mass, Ahnighito, was taken to New York in 1897; Agpalilik was located in 1963 by the Danish meteorite scientist Vagn Buchwald and brought to Copenhagen a few years later. A cut and polished face shows the Widmanstätten pattern of this IIIAB iron.

The museum also studies Greenland's meteorites and the iron tools made from them, which show how people used meteoritic iron long before they could smelt it.

Highlights

• Cape York the 20-tonne Agpalilik mass Iron, IIIAB

Related pages

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