TRENTON

Specimen weight: 1,202 grams

This specimen is from the Unites States National Museum of Natural History Collection (Smithsonian) and is museum #2173.  I recently acquired this piece in a large exchange I completed with the museum. I had some of it cut off and the entire piece refinished, so it now weighs less than the original 1847 grams listed on the label.

This beautiful iron was found in Washington County, Wisconsin in 1858. Many masses have been found, with a total known weight of over 505 kilograms. Trenton is an iron, Medium octahedrite (IIIAB).

 

 This piece measures 125 mm by 117 mm by 15 mm. The etch is not as sharp as normal for Trenton, this is likely due to heating caused by drilling the specimen many years ago. It was split by drilling holes side by side to cut the large mass in half. This heat was enough to alter the etch pattern in the meteorite, making it show a weaker Widmanstatten pattern.

This close-up photo shows the nice medium Octahedrite pattern in Trenton.
 
Original Smithsonian label for this specimen, note the weight change on the piece, and now it weighs 1,202 grams.
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