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.91" Santa Catharina Iron Meteorite (1.43 g) Slice - Brazil
This is a .91" wide (1.43 gram) Santa Catharina iron meteorite slice from southern Brazil. It comes with an acrylic display case.
About the Santa Catharina Meteorite
The Santa Catharina meteorite is an iron (IAB-ung) meteorite that fell on the island of São Francisco on the southern coast of Brazil. It fell as long as 100 million years ago, creating a crater that is still visible today. It was discovered on the island in 1875, and over 7 tons of the material have been recovered to date.
Santa Catharina has several unusual features: it is an ataxite, a fairly rare group among iron meteorites noted for high nickel contents, but Santa Catharina contains as much as 30 percent nickel. Ataxites like Santa Catharina do not reveal Widmanstätten lines upon etching. It is also unusually troilite-rich, and is extremely weathered. It was considered a nickel ore before official classification.
The Santa Catharina meteorite is an iron (IAB-ung) meteorite that fell on the island of São Francisco on the southern coast of Brazil. It fell as long as 100 million years ago, creating a crater that is still visible today. It was discovered on the island in 1875, and over 7 tons of the material have been recovered to date.
Santa Catharina has several unusual features: it is an ataxite, a fairly rare group among iron meteorites noted for high nickel contents, but Santa Catharina contains as much as 30 percent nickel. Ataxites like Santa Catharina do not reveal Widmanstätten lines upon etching. It is also unusually troilite-rich, and is extremely weathered. It was considered a nickel ore before official classification.
About Iron Meteorites
Iron type meteorites are composed primarily of iron and nickel, and are the remnants of differential cores torn apart at the beginning of the solar system. These metallic meteorites are often the easiest to identify after millions of years post-impact because they are quite different from terrestrial material, especially when it comes to their mass-to-surface area ratio. They are exceptionally heavy for their size since iron is a high-density metal: this is also why the Earth's core is nickel-iron. As planets form, the densest metals form gravitational centers, bringing more and more material into their gravitational pull. In the solar system's rocky planets, these dense materials are most often nickel and iron.
Most iron meteorites have distinctive, geometric patterns called Widmanstätten patterns, which become visible when the meteorite is cut and acid etched. These patterns are criss-crossing bands of the iron-nickel alloys kamacite and taenite that slowly crystalized as the core of the meteorites' parent bodies slowly cooled. Such large alloy crystallizations for mover millions of years and do not occur naturally on Earth, further proving that iron meteorites come from extraterrestrial bodies.
Iron type meteorites are composed primarily of iron and nickel, and are the remnants of differential cores torn apart at the beginning of the solar system. These metallic meteorites are often the easiest to identify after millions of years post-impact because they are quite different from terrestrial material, especially when it comes to their mass-to-surface area ratio. They are exceptionally heavy for their size since iron is a high-density metal: this is also why the Earth's core is nickel-iron. As planets form, the densest metals form gravitational centers, bringing more and more material into their gravitational pull. In the solar system's rocky planets, these dense materials are most often nickel and iron.
Most iron meteorites have distinctive, geometric patterns called Widmanstätten patterns, which become visible when the meteorite is cut and acid etched. These patterns are criss-crossing bands of the iron-nickel alloys kamacite and taenite that slowly crystalized as the core of the meteorites' parent bodies slowly cooled. Such large alloy crystallizations for mover millions of years and do not occur naturally on Earth, further proving that iron meteorites come from extraterrestrial bodies.
TYPE
Iron, IAB (Ungrouped)
LOCATION
Ilha do São Francisco, Santa Catharina, Brazil
SIZE
.91 x .27 x .16", Weight: 1.43 grams
CATEGORY
ITEM
#265734
