Holbrook Meteorite

A COLLECTION OF "PEAS" FROM A FAMOUS AMERICAN METEORITE "STORM"

The Holbrook meteorite fall has been one of the more fecund meteorite strewn fields in recent memory, in large part because of how many small pieces of the meteorite fell in a relatively concentrated area. As a result, although tens of thousands of pieces of Holbrook – many of them known as "peas" because of their small size – were found right after the fall, hundreds of pieces have been picked up in the decades since. Some of the pieces offered here were collected by E.K. Gibson, member of the Astromaterials Research Group at Johnson Space Center.

This lot includes not only includes 20 "Holbrook peas," but also a W. Molino artwork depicting the Holbrook fall, published Oct. 6, 1946 in Italian newspaper La Domenica del Corriere with the caption reading:

"A meteor shower. On a village in Arizona – on the border with Mexico – just during the passage of a caravan, an avalanche of stones suddenly fell from the sky. The unexpected and unpredictable phenomenon caused great panic, and some men were crushed by the boulders falling from the sky."

Despite this caption, it is unlikely that any men were "crushed" by Holbrook — indeed, although there were larger pieces of Holbrook, most were no more than a golf ball in size, and many were considerably smaller than that.

As a classic meteorite from a large and historic fall, pieces of Holbrook can be found in most of the major institutional meteorite collections around the world.

REFERENCES:

Meteoritical Bulletin Entry for Holbrook