Pultusk is an
H5 ordinary chondrite 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 ...
which fell on 30 January 1868 in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. The event has been known as the stony meteorite shower with the largest number of pieces yet recorded in history. Made up of rocky debris, it consists of
pyroxene
The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...
or
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 ...
chondrules
A chondrule (from Ancient Greek χόνδρος ''chondros'', grain) is a round grain found in a chondrite. Chondrules form as molten or partially molten droplets in space before being accreted to their parent asteroids. Because chondrites repres ...
deployed in mass
plagioclase
Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more prope ...
, there being also
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 ...
.
History
The fall occurred on January 30, 1868 at 7:00 pm near the town of
Pułtusk
Pułtusk (pronounced ) is a town in northeast Poland, by the river Narew. Located north of Warsaw in the Masovian Voivodeship, it had a population of about 19,000 . Known for its historic architecture and Europe's longest paved marketplace ( in ...
, about northeast of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. Thousands of people witnessed a large fireball followed by detonations and a very large shower of small fragments falling on ice, land and houses within an area of about 127 sq km (appx. 78 sq. miles). The estimated number of fragments was 68780.
[This statement has been contradicted by authors and scholars in the field of meteorite studies who estimated the number of fragments to be over 100.000, while other researchers have mentioned a misreading during the analysis of the chemical components and that a more precise number would be something no more than 3.000 stones. → → ]
The fragments ranged in weight from half a gram to (the largest specimen). The overall estimated mass of the meteorites was . The vast majority of the fragments were small (few grams), known as ''Pultusk Peas''. The Pultusk meteorite is the largest stony meteorite shower ever recorded.
Composition and classification
Pultusk is brecciated and contains two varieties of
xenolith
A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...
s embedded in a dark brecciated matrix. It is a veined and brecciated
chondrite
A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primi ...
with abundant xenoliths with various degrees of recrystallisation. Petrologic type 5 xenoliths prevail, so it has been classified as
H5: an ordinary chondrite significantly thermally metamorphosed and with the contours of the
chondrule
A chondrule (from Ancient Greek χόνδρος ''chondros'', grain) is a round grain found in a chondrite. Chondrules form as molten or partially molten droplets in space before being accreted to their parent asteroids. Because chondrites repres ...
s frequently difficult to distinguish. The main minerals are
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
bronzite
Bronzite is a member of the pyroxene group of minerals, belonging with enstatite and hypersthene to the orthorhombic series of the group. Rather than a distinct species, it is really a ferriferous variety of enstatite, which owing to partial alt ...
.
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 ...
,
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 ...
and
chromite
Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The element magnesium can s ...
are also present.
Chemical composition
![Pultusk Meteorite Composition Plot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Pultusk_Meteorite_Composition_Plot.svg)
The chemical elements and the respective quantity found in the Pultusk meteorite have been described as SiO
2 36.44 wt%, TiO
2 0.18 wt%, Al
2O
3 1.88 wt%, Cr
2O
3 0.37 wt%, FeO 9.48 wt%, MnO 0.25 wt%, MgO 23.75 wt%, CaO 1.82 wt%, Na
2O 0.83 wt%, K
2O 0.09 wt%, P
2O
5 0.22 wt%, Fe 16.02 wt%, Ni 1.61 wt%, FeS 5.97 wt%, Fe (metallic) 17.62 wt%, Ni (metallic) 9.13 wt%, Fe as iron sulfide 3.80 wt%, S as iron sulfide 2.17 wt%, total content of iron 27.19 wt%.
[Diakonov, Kharitonova (1961)]
See also
*
Glossary of meteoritics
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 b ...
*
Sikhote-Alin (meteorite)
An iron meteorite fell on the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, in southeastern Russia, in 1947. Large iron meteorite falls have been witnessed and fragments recovered but never before, in recorded history, a fall of this magnitude. An estimated 23 tonnes ...
Gallery
File:Pultusk meteorite - Museum of Technology in Warsaw.jpg, Pultusk fragment, Museum of Technology in Warsaw
File:Pultusk meteorite small.jpg, Pultusk fragment, 74.2 g
File:Meteoryt Pułtusk.jpg, Picture taken at the temporary exhibition at the Museum of Technology, Warsaw
Muzeum Techniki w Warszawie is a museum in Warsaw, Poland. It was established in 1955. It is located in the Palace of Culture & Science.
Exhibits include motorbikes, aeroplanes, 19th century musical boxes, and historic cars.
References
Exter ...
.
Additional information
Notes
References
External links
Museum of the Faculty of Geology of the Warsaw University: Pultusk
Meteorites: An Introduction
on Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
*
{{Authority control
Meteorites found in Poland
1868 in Poland
1860s in science
1868 in the Russian Empire
January 1868 events