Pallasovka 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 ...

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 ...

found in 1990 near the town of Pallasovka,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

History

One single mass of was found from the town of Pallasovka by N. F. Kharitonov (a local resident) on a

dike Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...

on the edge of an artificial

water reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

. The

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

and dike were built in 1978 using explosives so the mass has probably been lifted to the surface from a depth of about 2 m. In fall 2004, Kharitonov gave a small sample to A. Ye. Milanovsky who transferred it to the Vernadsky Institute (

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) and then proved its meteoritic origin.

Pallasovka and Peter Pallas

The town of Pallasovka was named after

Peter Pallas Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son ...

(1741-1811), a famous naturalist who took part in the discovery and the study of the first

, a type of stony-iron

named after him. Coincidentally, Pallasovka is a pallasite meteorite named after a town named after the discoverer of pallasites.

Composition and classification

This

consists of approximately equal parts of

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 ...

and metal. Some olivine crystals reach a size of . Its composition is similar to the Main Group pallasites, however it is called anomalous because chromites differ in composition both from that of the Main and Eagle Station pallasite groups.D. A. Sadilenko, S. E. Borisovskiy, A. V. Korochantsev, A. M. Abdrakhimov, M. A. Ivanova, D. I. Zhuravlev
''Discovery, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Chemistry of Pallasovka, a New Pallasite from Russia''
. 37th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2006), Abstract #1623

Specimens

The main mass has abundant rusty fusion crust with some

regmaglypt This is a glossary of terms used in meteoritics, the science of meteorites. # * 2 Pallas – an asteroid from the asteroid belt and one of the likely parent bodies of the CR meteorites. * 4 Vesta – second-largest asteroid in the asteroid bel ...

s and was held by an anonymous purchaser. A 9336 g sample and one polished section are on deposit at Vernad.

References

{{Meteorites by name Meteorites found in Russia Volgograd Oblast 1990 in the Soviet Union

History

Pallasovka and Peter Pallas

Composition and classification

Specimens

See also

References