Some interesting meteorites in London, UK.

[3488]

Today: Friday 24th September 2010,

I had the day off work & went to the Natural History Museum in London, UK, with my mother & her friend. The last four are probably the most interesting!!!!!!!!!!!! A few photos I took myself. I have others of other rocks & dinosaur fossils.

All below are clickable thumbnails to larger images. The larger images are only one third of the size of the originals. I had to shrink them as the image hosting site had problems with the full sized ones. If anyone would like any full sized ones, please let me know. I can e-mail.

Laguna, Manantiales, Argentina. Iron Meteorite & Caption.


Vigarano, Italy. Type C Meteorite.


Ghubara, Oman. Type C - S - M (Mesosiderite) Meteorite.


Fragment of Canyon Diablo Iron Meteorite, Meteor Crater, Arizona, USA.


Johnstown, Colorado, USA, stony meteorite.


Types M & C meteorites found in Australia.


Wabar, Saudi Arabia. Iron meteorite.


Wabar, Saudi Arabia, impact glass.


Wellman, Texas, USA. Chondrite meteorite.




Springwater, Saskatchewan, Canada. Pallasite Meteorite. Possibly from the giant main belt Asteroid 2 Pallas????


Atacama Desert, Chile. Large Pallasite Meteorite. Possibly from the giant main belt asteroid 2 Pallas???


Dar Al Gani, Libya. Moon Meteorite.


Nakhla, Egypt, Mars Meteorite.


Andrew Brown.

 

[marsbug]

Beautifull, I hadn't realized the triangular patterning on iron meteorites could be so vivid! Thank you very much 3488.

 

[EarthlingX]

Thank you for taking us to museum

Very pretty rocks

 

[MeteorWayne]

Beautifull, I hadn't realized the triangular patterning on iron meteorites could be so vivid! Thank you very much 3488.

More info on Widmanstätten pattern:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widmanst%C3%A4tten_pattern

 

[xXTheOneRavenXx]

Awesome pics 3488. Thank you for sharing.

 

[3488]

Thanks everyone.

I have put some more stuff on the Forces of Nature thread too.

All of the images on here are one third the original size as the image hosting site was so slow, I had to shrink them. If anyone likes any originals, please let me know. Same for those on FON.

Andrew Brown.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Nice! Thanks!

When I was a kid, I found a rock that, today, I know was the remnants of a meteorite. I kept that rock for ages, though I'm not sure why. As I got older, I suspected it was a meteorite and I suppose I continued to hang onto it because of that. Today, I have no idea where it is. It was about the size of a lemon, maybe a bit larger. I might still have it or I may have returned it to where I found it when I moved. Dunno why I would have done that, but I do things like that sometimes.

Whatever became of that rock is a childhood mystery I'd love to solve.

 

[adrenalynn]

If you have a meteorite the size of a lemon - you're holding a pretty decent new car, at least. Depending upon what it is exactly, it could go upwards of a decent new house in many parts of the country...

 

[MeteorWayne]

That depends on what kind of meteorite it is. I have a potato sized piece of the Canyon Diablo (made Meteor Crater) meteorite (~1.1 kg) that's only worth a grand or so. That's about 5 weeks worth of real estate taxes on my modest home on a tiny piece of land here in Joisey.

I have an image around here somewhere....

 

[adrenalynn]

True - and I did note that it depends upon the specifics. I have a ~2.5kg stony specimen that is worth more than my car (until later today, with any luck... )

 

[a_lost_packet_]

If you have a meteorite the size of a lemon - you're holding a pretty decent new car, at least. Depending upon what it is exactly, it could go upwards of a decent new house in many parts of the country...

I really should see if I can find it in my "still boxed up" stuff. Though, I wouldn't ever sell it. Because of it, I wanted to be a geologist when I was a kid. I joined a "Rock of the Month" club and everything! (They actually sent you small specimens every month.) Yes, my parents paid some company to mail me a rock every month...

 

[MeteorWayne]

"It's a ROCK!!!" :lol:

(just kidding, cause I love geology and minerology almost as much as my other passions )

 

[kg]

The Amherst College Natural History Museum has some nice meteorites as well. This one is one of my favorites.
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/2820 ... G_2489.JPG
It says it formed near the core mantle boundry. I believe that the crystals are olivine?

 

[3488]

The Amherst College Natural History Museum has some nice meteorites as well. This one is one of my favorites.
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/2820 ... G_2489.JPG
It says it formed near the core mantle boundry. I believe that the crystals are olivine?

Thank you very much kg.

The specimen you photographed must be another part of the one I photographed in my opening post.

Yes the crystals are Olivine, lower mantle certainly of a differentiated body. One possibilty of Pallasites is that they may be from the giant asteroid 2 Pallas (Pallasite actually does NOT mean 2 Pallas, rather a name of a late 18th Century scientist Peter Pallas), but by sheer chance some COULD be from 2 Pallas. However, they would come from an asteroid large enough to have differentiated, 1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta & 10 Hygeia certainly are large enough to have differentiated.

Andrew Brown.

 

[kg]

I see that you did post a picture of a piece of the Springwater, Saskatchewan meteorite. Nice to know we have sister meteorites close by!
So what does it take to excavate material from that deep? I would think that an impact that exposed the core mantle boundry of a asteroid would smash it to pieces. How could 2 Pallas survive such a impact?