The Redfields meteorite—A unique iron from Western Australia

1973 ◽  
Vol 39 (301) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. De Laeter ◽  
G. J. H. McCall ◽  
S. J. B. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Nickel Content ◽  
Iron Meteorite ◽  
Grain Structure ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
Unusual Structure ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Australian Museum ◽  
Graphite Inclusions ◽  
Western Australian

SummaryA metallic mass brought to the Western Australian Museum from the Wongan Hills district N.W. of Perth has been identified as an iron meteorite of unique type. It has graphite inclusions about I mm across distributed throughout the metal giving a ‘raisin bread’ appearance. Its nickel content (6·65 %) is comparable with that of coarse octahedrites but the kamacite grain structure is anomalous. Its gallium, germanium, and nickel contents place it close to, but outside, Wasson's chemical group IIb. Taenite is absent and troilite is rare. Neumann bands in the kamacite are distorted and the kamacite has flowed around large schreibersite inclusions. The latter have an exceptionally low nickel content (7·0 %) and probably formed at an unusually high temperature. The kamacite contains more phosphorus than normal iron meteorites, and small schreibersite grains in the kamacite are relatively nickel-poor (22 %). The unusual structure of this iron is thought to be due to one or more of the factors high carbon, high phosphorus, and relatively rapid cooling.

Aspects of reproduction, and morphology of the penis, of Pseudantechinus woolleyae (Marsupialia : Dasyuridae)

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 357 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Erectile Tissue ◽  
Australian Museum ◽  
Seasonal Breeder ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
One Year ◽  
Western Australian

Woolley’s Pseudantechinus, P. woolleyae, has remained virtually unstudied in the 30 years since its recognition in 1988 as a species distinct from P. macdonnellensis. It has a wide distribution in arid regions of Western Australia. What little is known of its biology comes largely from studies carried out over the years 1988–91 on one wild-caught female and her offspring, and a few specimens held in the collection of the Western Australian Museum. P. woolleyae is a seasonal breeder and young are born from late July to early October. They mature when ~7 months old. Both males and females are potentially capable of breeding in more than one year. Males have accessory erectile tissue that does not form an appendage on the penis.

Classification of Iron Meteorites with High Frequency Ultrasonic Waves

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-284
Author(s):  
Dris El Abassi ◽  
Bouazza Faiz ◽  
Abderrahmane Ibhi ◽  
Idris Aboudaoud
Keyword(s):  
Phase Velocity ◽  
Acoustic Impedance ◽  
Nickel Content ◽  
Normal Incidence ◽  
Ultrasonic Pulse ◽  
Ultrasonic Waves ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
Acoustic Transducer ◽  
Pulse Echo ◽  
Non Destructive

We present the results of an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique and its potential to classify iron meteorites into hexahedrites, octahedrites and ataxites by determining their acoustic impedance and phase velocity. Our technique has been adapted from those used in the field of ultrasonic non-destructive investigation of a variety of materials. The main advantage of our technique is that it does not need any preparation of the meteorites like cutting and etching and therefore is rapid, easy and non-destructive. In essence, a broadband acoustic transducer is used in a monostatic pulse-echo configuration which means that both the transducer and the meteorite sample are located in a water bath and adjusted in the way that the ultrasonic pulse shit the meteorite sample at normal incidence. Then the reflected pulses from the front and rear faces of the meteorite sample are measured with the emitting transducer, digitally recorded and processed to analyze the signal. After Fourier transforming the echoed pulses from the front and the rear face of the meteorite sample, the calculated reflection coefficients yield the phase velocity and the acoustic impedance. Our study investigates a variety of iron meteorites collected in Morocco and other countries and it helps to understand how the nickel content of these meteorites affects the acoustic impedance. It reveals that the acoustic impedance of iron meteorites increases with increasing nickel content, so that a further refinement of our technique might have the potential to classify iron meteorites directly and reliably into hexahedrites, octahedrites and ataxites without destroying them.

Scanning Electron Microscopy And Electron Probe Microanalysis Of Extraterrestrial Materials

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
J. I. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
Electron Probe ◽  
Iron Meteorite ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
Slow Cooling ◽  
Electron Probe Microanalyzer ◽  
Extraterrestrial Materials ◽  
Scanning Electron

One of the first samples analyzed by Castaing in his electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) some 50 years ago was an iron meteorite. The Widmanstatten pattern microstructure of iron meteorites can be observed at very low magnifications ( Fig. 1). These meteorites are ideal samples for microanalysis because of the Ni gradient which extends over 10 to 1000 microns in the parent taenite phase of these Fe-Ni samples (Fig. 3). The Ni gradient is the result of very slow cooling of the iron meteorite, in terms of millions of years, within a parent'asteroid.The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used to characterize the microstructure of meteorites, as well as samples from the moon and mars. For example, the microstructure of the dark etching taenite areas (T in Fig. 1) of the Carleton iron meteorite is shown in Fig 2. In this example, precipitates are observed along original martensite laths which form during the cooling of the iron meteorite at low temperatures.

scholarly journals Fe-Ni-P-S Melt Pockets in Elga IIE Iron Meteorite: Evidence for the Origin at High-Pressures Up to 20 GPa

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Litasov ◽  
Svetlana Teplyakova ◽  
Anton Shatskiy ◽  
Konstantin Kuper
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Solid Solution ◽  
Important Implication ◽  
High Pressures ◽  
Bulk Composition ◽  
Parent Body ◽  
Iron Meteorite ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
High Pressures And Temperatures ◽  
Melt Pockets

Here we report new data on high-pressure microstructures in Elga group IIE iron meteorites, made of solidified Fe-Ni-P-S melt pockets and microcrystalline aggregates, which could be formed only at high pressures and temperatures according to the experimental data. The bulk composition of the melt pockets and crystals correspond to the Fe3P-Fe3S solid solution with the closure of an immiscibility gap at pressures near 20 GPa in static experiments. Some other melt pockets fit with the Fe2S-Fe2P compositions, which could also correspond to high pressures and temperatures. The results suggest a late shock episode during the formation of the IIE iron parent body, which may be prior or due to the final disruption that caused the meteorite arrival to Earth. It also has an important implication to the shock features in other meteorites, such as ureilite.

Origin of Iron Meteorite Groups IAB and IIICD

1980 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 781-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Wasson ◽  
John Willis ◽  
Chien M. Wai ◽  
Alfred Kracher
Keyword(s):  
Parent Body ◽  
Iron Meteorite ◽  
Iron Meteorites ◽  
Impact Melt ◽  
Equilibrium Crystallization ◽  
Ni Content ◽  
Oxide Phases ◽  
Host Metal ◽  
Impact Melts ◽  
The Impact

AbstractSeveral low-Ni iron meteorites previously assigned to group IAB are reclassified IIICD on the basis of lower Ge, Ga, W and Ir concentrations and higher As concentrations; the low-Ni extreme of IIICD is now 62 mg/g, that of IAB is 64 mg/g. The resulting fractionation patterns in the two groups are quite similar. It has long been established that, in contrast to the magmatic iron meteorite groups, IAB and IIICD did not form by fractional crystallization of a metallic magma. Other models have been proposed, but all have serious flaws. A new model is proposed involving the formation of each iron in small pools of impact melt on a parent body consisting of material similar to the chondritic inclusions found in some IAB and IIICD irons, but initially unequilibrated. These impact melts ranged in temperatures from ~ 1190 K to ~ 1350 K. The degree of equilibration between melt and unmelted solids ranged from minimal at the lowest temperature to moderate at the highest temperature. The lowest temperature melts were near the cotectic in the Fe-Ni-S system with Ni contents of ~ 12 atom %. Upon cooling, these precipitated metal having ~ 600 mg/g Ni by equilibrium crystallization. The Ni-rich melt resulted from the melting of Ni-rich sulfides and metal in the unequilibrated chondritic parent. Low-Ni irons formed in high temperature melts near the composition of the FeS-Fe eutectic or somewhat more metal rich. We suggest that the decreasing Ge, Ga and refractory abundances with increasing Ni concentration reflect the trapping of these elements in oxide phases in the unequilibrated chondritic material, and that very little entered the Ni-rich melt parental to the Oktibbeha County iron. The remaining elements tended to have element/Ni ratios in the melts that were more or less independent of temperature. The remarkable correlation between I-Xe age of the chondritic inclusions and Ni content of the host metal is explained by a detailed evolution of (mega)regolith in which these groups originated. The most Ni-rich melts could only be generated from an unequilibrated chondrite parent; as the continuing deposition of impact energy produced increasingly higher grades of metamorphism, the maximum Ni content of the impact melts (and their subsequently precipitated metal) gradually decreased.

The Wiluna Meteorite fall, Western Australia—2 September 1967

1970 ◽  
Vol 37 (292) ◽  
pp. 880-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. H. McCall ◽  
P. M. Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Reasonable Estimate ◽  
Total Recovery ◽  
Nickel Iron ◽  
Australian Museum ◽  
Meteorite Fall ◽  
Western Australian

SummaryThe fall of a shower of meteorites numbering several hundred fragments at Wiluna, Western Australia, on the night of 2 September 1967, has been investigated. Although the dispersion ellipse had been largely obscured by removal of fragments before a party of scientists were able to make a field investigation, it has, nevertheless, been possible to make a reasonable estimate of the shower distribution pattern. In spite of this removal of fragments, a number of pieces of meteorite were still found in situ. The bulk of the total recovery is in the collections of the Western Australian Museum, and the physical characteristics of these masses and their petrography is described. In all, some 490 individual fusion-crust coated stones and a large number of broken stony fragments are known to have been recovered. The meteorite is an olivine bronzite chondrite remarkably rich in discrete nodules of nickel iron, up to an inch across, commonly aggregated with troilite. A full chemical analysis of this fresh meteoritic material has been supplied by the British Museum (Natural History).

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