University of Alberta Meteorite Collection

Canada's largest university meteorite collection, keeper of pristine frozen pieces of Tagish Lake.

Key facts

Where

Edmonton, Canada

Kind

University collection

Visiting

Public gallery or display at a university

The University of Alberta holds more than 1,800 meteorite specimens, the largest university-based collection in Canada. It is used for research on how meteorites form and change, and for teaching.

Its most precious holdings are pieces of Tagish Lake, a carbonaceous chondrite that fell onto a frozen lake in northern British Columbia in January 2000. A local man collected several stones from the ice within days, without touching them with his hands, and kept them frozen. They have never thawed, so they preserve volatile organic compounds and ices that would be lost at room temperature, and they are kept in a freezer to this day.

The collection also holds iron meteorites from the small Whitecourt crater in Alberta.

Highlights

• Tagish Lake pristine frozen pieces C2-ung
• Whitecourt irons from an Alberta crater 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.