The Fukang meteorite is a

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

that was found in the mountains near

Fukang Fukang is a county-level city in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Its area is and its population in 2007 was reported as approximately 1.5 million. Fukang is located in Northern Xinjiang in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, north of Ür ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 2000. It is a

pallasite The pallasites are a class of stony–iron meteorite. Structure and composition It consists of centimetre-sized olivine crystals of peridot quality in an iron-nickel matrix. Coarser metal areas develop Widmanstätten patterns upon etching. Mino ...

—a type of

stony–iron meteorite Stony-iron meteorites or siderolites are meteorites that consist of nearly equal parts of meteoric iron and silicates. This distinguishes them from the stony meteorites, that are mostly silicates, and the iron meteorites, that are mostly meteoric ...

with

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...

crystals. It is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.

History

In 2000, near

, a Chinese dealer obtained a mass from Xinjiang Province, China, with a weight of . He removed about from the main mass, and in February 2005, the meteorite was taken to the

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show The Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase are gem and mineral shows that take place annually in late January and February at multiple locations across the city of Tucson, Arizona. Most of the shows are open to the public, except for certain tra ...

, where it was seen by Dr.

Dante Lauretta Dante S. Lauretta (born 1970) is a professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is currently serving as the principal investigator on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. Education He ...

, a professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Subsequently, the mass was investigated at the Southwest Meteorite Center, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory,

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

by Dr. Lauretta and a team of research scientists including Dolores Hill, Marvin Killgore, Daniella DellaGiustina, and Dr. Yulia Goreva, and joined by Dr. Ian Franchi of

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

Classification and composition

The Fukang pallasite contains large, gem quality olivine, or peridot, in a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

matrix. The olivines vary in shape from rounded to angular, many are fractured and they range in size from less than five millimetres to several centimetres. The main mass contains several regions of massive olivine clusters up to eleven centimetres (4.3 inches) in diameter with thin metal veins. Fo_86.4 with molar Fe/Mg = 0.1367, Fe/Mn = 40.37, and Ni = 0.03 wt%. The metal matrix is mostly

kamacite Kamacite is an alloy of iron and nickel, which is found on Earth only in meteorites. According to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) it is considered a proper nickel-rich variety of the mineral native iron. The proportion iron:ni ...

with an average

content of 6.98 wt%. Vermicular sulfide (

troilite Troilite is a rare iron sulfide mineral with the simple formula of FeS. It is the iron-rich endmember of the pyrrhotite group. Pyrrhotite has the formula Fe(1-x)S (x = 0 to 0.2) which is iron deficient. As troilite lacks the iron deficiency whic ...

) is present in some olivine.
Oxygen isotopes: δ^18O 2.569 ‰, δ^17O 1.179 ‰, ∆1 7O = −0.157 ‰.

Specimens

A section weighing of type specimen is on deposit at the

. Marvin Killgore holds an additional section weighing the same amount, as well as the balance of the main mass. In April 2008,

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...

offered the main mass for auction at their Manhattan auction. Bonhams expected to fetch US$2,000,000, but the lot remained unsold. A "window" area of was cut and polished to provide a view into the gem areas of the meteorite.Farlang Team (2008-12-07). Fukang Meteorite, Gemstone Meteorites: a Peridot from Outer Space. Farlang, 7 December 2008. Retrieved from http://www.farlang.com/art/gemstone-meteorites. Main Mass of the Fukang Meteorite

References

External links

*
Southwest Meteorite Laboratory - Fukang Pallasite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukang (Meteorite) Meteorites found in China Stony-iron meteorites Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture 2000 in science 2000 in China

History

Classification and composition

Specimens

See also

References

External links