The Iron Mountain When British explorer Sir John Ross encountered Inuit Greenlanders wielding iron tools in
1818, he was mystified; after all, they did not have the technology to extract iron from
ore. They told Ross that their iron source was a saviksoah-an "iron mountain"-but
refused to disclose its location. Scientists back in England partially solved the puzzle by
analyzing some of the tools and determining that they likely came from a meteorite.
Subsequently, several other explorers attempted, and failed, to confirm the source's
existence. In 1894, however, American explorer Robert Peary had better luck. The Inuits
were now obtaining iron through trade; they no longer needed the iron mountain and
were willing to reveal it. A guide led Peary to three meteorites, which are currently
housed in New York's American Museum of Natural History. The most massive, called
Ahnighito, weighs thirty tons and is the largest meteorite in any museum.
What is the main idea of the passage?
The Greenlanders' mysterious iron mountain was eventually revealed to be
three large meteorites.
Inuits in Greenland described the source of their iron tools as an iron
mountain.