Willamette Meteorite
Template:Infobox meteorite The Willamette Meteorite, officially named Willamette<ref name=database>Meteoritical Bulletin Database: Willamette. The Meteoritical Society. Retrieved on August 16, 2008.</ref> and originally known as Tomanowos by the Clackamas Chinook<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Native American tribe, is an iron-nickel meteorite found in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in the United States and the sixth largest in the world.<ref>O. Richard Norton. Rocks from Space. USA, Mountain Press, 1994.</ref><ref name=AMNH>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There was no impact crater at the discovery site; researchers believe the meteorite landed in what is now Canada or Montana, and was transported as a glacial erratic to the Willamette Valley during the Missoula Floods at the end of the last Ice Age (~13,000 years ago).<ref name=Pugh>Template:Cite journal</ref> It has long been held sacred by indigenous peoples of the Willamette Valley, including the federally recognized Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR).
The meteorite is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which acquired it in 1906.<ref name=AMNH /> Having been seen by an estimated 40 million people over the years, and given its striking appearance, it is among the most famous meteorites.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Science Channel's "Top Ten Meteorites". Retrieved on November 29th, 2010.</ref> In 2005, the CTGR sued to have the meteorite returned to their control, ultimately reaching an agreement that gave the tribe access to the meteorite while allowing the museum to keep it as long as they are exhibiting it.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="nyt_pact" />
Physical characteristics and formationEdit
The Willamette Meteorite weighs about Template:Convert. It is classified as a type III iron meteorite, being composed of over 91% iron and 7.62% nickel, with traces of cobalt and phosphorus. The approximate dimensions of the meteorite are Template:Convert tall by Template:Convert wide by Template:Convert deep. Most iron meteorites like Willamette have originated from the differentiated core of planetesimals or asteroids that collided with another object. Willamette has a recrystallized structure with only traces of a medium Widmanstätten pattern; the result of a significant impact-heating event on the parent body.<ref name=AMNH /><ref>^ Vagn F. Buchwald: Handbook of Iron Meteorites, University of California Press 1975.</ref> The Willamette Meteorite contains higher concentrations of various metals that are quite rare in Earth's crust. For example, iridium, one of the least abundant elements in Earth's crust, is found in the Willamette Meteorite at a concentration of 4.7 ppm, thousands of times more concentrated than in the crust.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Emplacement and erosionEdit
The lack of an impact crater at the discovery site was only explained after the 1920s, with the new understanding about the Missoula Floods, one of the largest floods documented. These floods were caused by the collapse of an ice barrier during the last deglaciation.
The meteorite presumably landed on an ice cap in what is now Montana or western Canada, and was dragged by the glacier ice to the vicinity of an ice barrier that formed across the Clark Fork River. This barrier had ponded a huge amount of water at Lake Missoula right at the time when the meteorite reached the area and the ice barrier became unstable and breached. The resulting flood involved up to Template:Convert per second of water discharge, with large blocks of ice rafting down the Columbia River and the Willamette Valley at the end of the last Ice Age (~13,000 years ago).<ref name="Pugh" /> Some of these ice rafts included boulders (known as 'glacial erratic' by geologists) like the Willamette meteorite, which eventually sank in the flood waters and settled where they were found by humans.
The deep crevasses of the meteorite resulted from both its high-speed atmospheric entry and its subsequent weathering. Exposed to the elements for thousands of years, rainwater interacted with the mineral troilite, resulting in a form of sulfuric acid which slowly dissolved portions of the meteorite. This resulted in the gradual development of the hollows that are visible today.
Modern historyEdit
In 1902, Ellis Hughes was the first European settler to recognize the meteorite's significance.<ref name=Lange>Template:Cite book</ref> At that time, the land was owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company. Hughes attempted to claim ownership of the meteorite, and secretly moved it to his own land. This involved 90 days of hard work to cover the Template:Convert distance. The move was discovered, and after a lawsuit, the Oregon Supreme Court held that Oregon Iron and Steel Company was the legal owner.<ref>Oregon Iron Co. v. Hughes, 47 Or 313, 82 P 572 (1905).</ref><ref>Preston, Douglas. Strange Journey: Further Travels of The Willamette Meteorite. Meteor Treasures. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.</ref>
In 1905, Sarah Tappan Hoadley, wife of William E. Dodge Jr., purchased the meteorite for $26,000 Template:USDCY. After displaying it at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> she donated it to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> where it has been on display since 1906.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1998, museum curators cut a Template:Convert section from the crown of the meteorite.<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref> That section was traded to a private collector for a Template:Convert piece of a Martian meteorite.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=insensitive/>
In 1999, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (CTGR), a confederation of Native American tribes, demanded that it be returned and filed an action pursuant to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) against the American Museum of Natural History. In response, the Museum filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against the CTGR in 2000. An agreement with the Museum was reached later that year in which the meteorite would remain at the museum with tribal members being able to conduct a private ceremony around the meteorite once a year, and that ownership will be transferred to CTGR should the museum cease to have the meteorite on display.<ref name=nyt_pact>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2006, a Template:Convert, Template:Convert piece of the meteorite, derived from the above noted crown section, was purchased at auction and was displayed at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, until it was returned to the CTGR on February 22, 2019.<ref name=sn>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=tims>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=opb>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In early 2007, in response to a student's request, Representative John Lim introduced a resolution that would demand that the museum return the meteorite to Oregon. The tribes said they were not consulted, they did not support the resolution, and were content with the current arrangement with the museum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In October 2007, plans to auction the crown section led to claims by the CTGR of insensitivity.<ref name=insensitive>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bidders dropped out when an editorial in the Portland Oregonian newspaper asserted the CTGR would file a lawsuit against the new owner, but the CTGR disavowed the editorial and said they had no such intent, and that they could not stop the sale. While the newspaper printed an apology, the specimen was withdrawn.<ref>The Oregonian, Saturday, October 20, 2007 – Apology/retraction on the editorial page</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A lawsuit was filed against the newspaper in Oregon Circuit Court and failed.<ref>Darryl Pitt v. Advance Publications, et al., Oregon Circuit Court, 0810-14798 (2008)</ref>
MassEdit
Different sources report different weights of the Willamette Meteorite, ranging from Template:Convert<ref name=database2>Template:Metbull</ref> to Template:Convert.<ref>Harry Y. McSween. Meteorites and Their Parent Planets. Cambridge University Press, 1999.</ref> Circa 2008, pages of the American Museum of Natural History website stated both "15.5 tons"<ref>Planets Zone, Rose Center for Earth and Space. Template:Webarchive American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on August 16, 2008.</ref> and "14 tons".<ref>Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites. Template:Webarchive American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on August 16, 2008.</ref><ref>AMNH Special Collections: Astronomy slides. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on August 16, 2008.</ref> There are differences between the metric ton (Template:Convert), short ton (Template:Convert), and long ton (Template:Convert), each of which may simply be called a "ton". In 1906, the American Museum of Natural History stated that the weight of the meteorite was "at least 31,200 pounds, or about 15.6 tons",<ref name=AMJ>The American Museum Journal, American Museum of Natural History, 1906.</ref> consistent with American usage of "ton" usually meaning the short ton. Template:As of, the American Museum of Natural History website gives the weight as "15.5 tons".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReplicasEdit
An inexact replica, known as Brown and Black Asteroid, is on display in Eugene, Oregon, outside the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History on the University of Oregon campus.<ref name="UofO">Geology Tour. Template:Webarchive University of Oregon: Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on October 31, 2007.</ref>
A one-fifth-size replica stands in Fields Bridge Park in West Linn, Oregon.<ref>"The Willamette Meteorite, Information Sources and Links". Clackamas County Oregon History and Genealogy. Retrieved on August 16, 2008.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The only exact replica of the meteorite was created circa 2018 by Garrick Imatani, an artist and assistant professor at Southern Oregon University, through a process involving photogrammetry of the original at the American Museum of Natural History, via cooperation with the CTGR, and 3D printing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Imatani also created an interpretation of the meteorite that is on permanent display at the University of Oregon in Straub Hall.<ref name=klcc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
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