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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Norton County

Norton County fell February 18th of 1948, on the Kansas/Nebraska border. Norton County is a rare type of meteorite called an aubrite, which is an enstatite achondrite. Aubrites are dominated by enstatite – a pyroxene mineral containing Mg, Si, and O. This mineral is white in Norton County, as opposed to the more normal green […]

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Coolidge

Coolidge is a carbonaceous (C4-ungrouped) chondrite found in Kansas in 1937. According to Meteoritical Society classification, type-4 carbonaceous chondrites mostly have Mg/Si ratios near solar value, oxygen isotope compositions that plot below the terrestrial fractionation line, and abundant metamorphosed chondrules. At the Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies, collection curator and research professor Laurence Garvie deciphers […]

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Camel Donga

Camel Donga is an achondrite found on the Nullarbor Plain of Western Australia in 1984.  The word “donga” is a term for “campsite” in Australia. Camel Donga is a eucrite (monomict breccia), part of the HED group of meteorites (Howardites-Eucrites-Diogenites).  These meteorites are believed to originate from the cooling of magma on the surface of […]

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Parnallee

Parnallee is an ordinary (LL3.6) chondrite that fell February 28th, 1857, in Tamil Nadu, India. Parnallee is a low-iron, low metal (LL) chondrite exhibiting abundant chondrules, un-equilibrated mineral assemblages, and a low degree of aqueous alteration. Over 77 kilograms of the Parnallee meteorite have been recovered to date.  The overwhelming majority of meteorites recovered in […]

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Krähenberg

Krähenberg is an ordinary (LL5) chondrite that fell May 5, 1868, in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany.  The meteorite’s fall to Earth was well-witnessed, and described by English chemist Walter Flight in his 1875 publication History of Meteorites: "A single stone was seen to fall, the sky being clear and bright.  The noise of the […]

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