- ********* METEORITE SEYMCHAN PALLASITE *********
- Stony - Nickel & Iron Meteorite (Pallasite)
- Composition: Nickel, Iron, & Olivine Crystals
- A mass too large to move was discovered by the geologist F. A. Mednikov during field work in June 1967. It was situated
in the stream bed of a small unnamed tributary of the Yasachnaya River which is a tributary of the Kolyma
River. The mass was named after the town of Seymchan,
situated about 150 km southeast of the locality of the discovery. It turned out to be a roughly triangular prism,
measuring 60 x 45 x 40 cm with pronounced regmaglypts
and an estimated weight of 300 kg. Another fragment, of 51 kg, was
discovered about 20 m downstream from the first find.
- No analytical or structural work has yet been reported. The large mass is in the Academy of Sciences, Moscow,
the small one, in the Museum of the Northeastern Geological Survey (in Magadan). The information above is from a
report by Tsvetkov (1969; in Russian).[J.T. Wasson (personal communication 1974): Group IIE with about 9.15% Ni,
24.6 ppmGa,68.3 ppm Ge and 0.55 ppm Ir]. (By Vagn. F. Buchwald)
- During the last two years there were some expeditions to this remote place and some hundreds kgs of this meteorite have been
collected.
- The structure of this meteorite includes olivine inclusions, that allows one
to assume, that Seymchan can be an abnormal pallasite. Some samples contain abundant olivine inclusions, and some samples
are only nickle and iron.Others have a structure similar to that of mesosiderite meteorites. The etched and polished
surfaces show very strong and varied Widmanstatten structure patterns.
- (28 grams = 1 ounce)
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