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5.53 gram part slice.   Iron, ungrouped

TKW 6.43 kg. Fall not observed. Found 6 June 2017, Xinjiang, China.

 

Matthias writes:

From the MetBul:

History: Found by Ye Erbo Lati and his companions Wang Ziyao and Yang Guang on June 6, 2017, while they were using metal detectors to search for meteorites in the Gobi Desert. The location is near the small town of Qiake’er in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Altay, Jeminay County, China.

Petrography: (C. Herd, UAb) Optical and SEM investigation of a ~1 × 2.5 cm polished and etched surface reveals a well-developed Widmanstatten pattern consistent with a finest octahedrite (0.06±0.02 mm; n=66), but having a matte appearance typical of hatched ?-structure. In detail, shock-hatching predominates, grain boundaries are irregular, and low-Ni areas consist of irregular, wavy grains. Inclusions on cut surfaces of other samples were noted, but not available for study.

One single mass of 6.43 kg was found, from which this part-slice was cut.

One of the three finders died not long after this event while undertaking another meteorite hunt in the desert.

This part slice shows a Widmanstaetten pattern characterized by a criss-crossing grid of ultra-fine lines (rarely seen before), and fusion crust on two sides. Adrián of Crater Meteorites, owner of the main – and single – disc-shaped mass writes: "Exactly, it is the fusion crust of the upper and lower zone. The original mass was cut into one of its thinest parts to make the analysis and those first slices."

Quite a rare iron. The Widmannstaetten pattern makes me somehow think of a navigation map of an alien spaceship ("left ... right ... right again, right, I told you ... attention, a worm hole, WHAAARRP!! ... e subito left, LEFT! ... here we go").