Meteorites from the Nullarbor Region

Collection Highlights | Updated 10 years ago

The Nullarbor Region is an area of generally treeless, limestone desert. The region forms part of a larger area called the ‘Eucla Basin’ that straddles the border between Western Australia and South Australia.

The semi-arid to arid climate of the Nullarbor is conducive to the preservation of meteorites. This climate combined with a general lack of vegetation and pale limestone country rock has made the Nullarbor an ideal spotting-ground for meteorites.

Dating of the age of fall of Nullarbor stony meteorites indicates that meteorites have been accumulating there on a stable surface for at least 35,000 years.

To date, many thousands of specimens from about 332 distinct meteorites have been described from the whole Nullarbor Region in both Western and South Australia. A large number of additional meteorites from the Western Australian Nullarbor collected since the early 1980s (>500) remain to be examined, so the exact population currently in collections is unknown, and may be twice the number currently identified.
 

Meteorite Collection