Fact sheet
This sample is part of a Late Triassic Meteorite impact deposit in SW England. This deposit found near Bristol appears to indicate that Britain was showered with a fine layer of debris from an asteroid impact at the Manicouagan Impact Crater in Canada. The deposit was probably an ephemeral lake in an arid environment and is not extensive. It is thus a protected locality but we are able to include this virtual rock in our collection of British meteorites.
The rock is one of only two pieces of evidence that meteorites have been falling on the British Isles over geological time. The other deposit, at Stac Fada in Scotland is Proterozoic in age.
The rock contains shocked quartz grains, and a range of other broken and shocked minerals and remnant glass. The prominent green balls are clay remnants of glass spheres that were altered soon after they formed. The rock is cemented by a form of K-feldspar known as adularia, and this has helped pin point the age using Ar-Ar dating.
This Collection consists of meteorites that have fallen in Great Britain and Ireland and which are now preserved in museum collections. We have also included samples of the two known meteorite impact deposits in the UK.
The Natural History Museum in London offers more information about meteorites and meteorite categories; there is more information about its meteorite collections here.
