Stalldahlen

Örebro, Sweden
Fell June 28, 1876

Ordinary chondrite H5
slice, 19,7g

History:
A meteor traversed a part a Central Sweden in a W.N.W. direction, and was plainly visible in the very bright sunshine. It was observed at Stockholm and Södermanland; at 13 English miles S.W. of Linköping it was seen first in a N.W. direction, and at considerable altitude, and it descended almost to the horizon in the west. A loud whistling noise was heared in the air from E. to W., followed by two sharp reports, and other less loud resembling thunder. The fall of the meteorites was witnessed by eight or ten persons, and three or four fragments had been secures by Dr. Lindström. Ställdahlen is a station on the Swedish Central Railway, on the northernmost part of Örebrolän.

After a fireball and detonations, totally 11 meteoritic stones were recovered (the largest ~12.5 kg). Some meteorite pieces fell in the water and was lost.The early literature reports the presence of prominent, but equilibrated olivine and pyroxene (in chondrules, fragments, and grains) accompanied by troilite, Fe-Ni metal, and even some chromite. Subsequent refinements (e.g., specific olivine composition [Fa19]) place Ställdalen as a somewhat brecciated, but otherwise mostly normal ordinary chondrite within the L chondrite geochemical group (low bulk iron). Three roughly concordant cosmic ray exposure (CRE) ages of ~3 Ma for Ställdalen have been derived from He, Ne, and Ar isotopic systematics.

Ställdalen is the most massive of the 9 clearly witnessed Swedish meteorite falls currently listed at the Meteoritical Bulletin Database (October 2015). Three other Swedish falls are also classified as H5 chondrites (Hessle, Hedeskoga, Lillaverke). For over a century the largest portion of the Ställdalen mass (>20 kg) has been held in Stockholm. An additional 3+ kg are at Uppsala University and smaller amounts are elsewhere.

Specimen Description:
This is a part slice with crust. Piece is cut from a bigger stone that is ex Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet Stockholm. Piece comes with a copy of the museum label.

References:
Metbull data base