Along the southern wall of the National Museum of Natural History there is a mysterious giant iron block. It has been sitting there since 1916, and given that it weighs 22 tons it will probably remain in place for a long time.
This block - known as the Iron Block from Ovifak - is one of four blocks of solid iron that were found at Ovifak on the island of Disko off the west coast of Greenland in 1870. It was the professor of mineralogy at the National Museum of Natural History Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld who found and shipped it home to Sweden. Naturally occurring iron on the earth surface is very rare, and professor Nordenskiöld was convinced for several years that the blocks were iron meteorites that fell from space.
However, in 1879 it was established that these were not meteorites. The blocks were formed when iron-rich basalt lava flowed onto a bed of coal, creating such conditions that metallic iron was separated from the lava and formed massive iron lumps in the basalt – a rare geological process. These iron lumps have since been eroded so that they now form loose blocks on the beach at Ovifak.
Sources: https://www.nrm.se/forskningochsamlingar/geovetenskap/samlingarochdatabaser/jarnblocketfranovifak.9000155.html
https://uddautflykter.se/
Photo: Åke Johansson, www.nrm.se
