Mont-Dieu Meteorite

Even though the piece on display weighs 435kg, it is only a fragment of a meteorite. It was discovered shattered in pieces near the forest of Mont-Dieu in the north of France. The meteorite’s total weight is estimated to have been more than 800kg, making it one of the biggest meteorites in Europe.

However, as said in the interview with the Belgian Philippe Claeys, it is a lot smaller than the meteorite that hit the earth near Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous era. It had a diameter of 10 to 12km and is thought to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, ammonites and many other species.

This meteorite (here a 41.4cm segment) is an alloy of iron and nickel, which also includes sulphides and silicates.