Skip to main content

Story: Meteorites

View Hill meteorite

Image
View Hill meteorite

The View Hill meteorite was found in North Canterbury in 1953. Its surface has been etched with weak acid to show the cross-hatch pattern of Widmanstatten structures, a typical feature of iron meteorites. The lines have been formed by the intergrowth of the nickel-iron minerals kamacite and taenite, as the original rock slowly cooled. Each green bar on the scale represents 1 centimetre.

Using this item

Canterbury Museum

Permission of Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch, New Zealand must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Simon Nathan, Meteorites – What are meteorites?, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/4651/view-hill-meteorite (accessed 5 June 2026).

Story by Simon Nathan, published 2 March 2009.