Iron boulder - Stockholm, Stockholm
Posted by: 
Coland
N 59° 22.084 E 018° 03.204
34V E 332556 N 6584743
A massive iron boulder from Ovifak, Greenland. It is a rare example of naturally occurring metallic iron, which is very rare on earths surface.
Waymark Code: WMNKP0
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Date Posted: 03/30/2015
Views: 19
This boulder of massive iron, weighing 22 metric tons was found by the Arctic explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld at Ovifak on Disco Island off the west coast of Greenland during his expedition there in 1870, and transported home with great difficulty the year after.
Three smaller boulders, one now in Copenhagen, one in Helsinki, and one in Gothenburg, were also collected at the same time. The big iron boulder was moved to its present location here in Frescati in 1916, together with the rest of the museum.
Naturally occurring metallic iron is very rare at the surface of the Earth, as iron tends to rust (just as the surface of this boulder has done). Nordenskiöld, who was professor in mineralogy at the museum, thought that the boulders were iron meteorites. Already in 1879, however, it was shown that this is not the case.
The boulders were formed when iron-rich basaltic lava reacted with underlying coal beds, creating such reducing conditions that native metallic iron segregated from the lava into massive nodules - a rare geological process. As the surrounding basalt eroded, the resistant iron nodules remained as loosa boulders on the seashore at Ovifak.
Source: information sign at the location
Type of Display: Geological
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