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Albion and Meteorite! Centerpiece, November 1995

Meteorite! Centerpiece, November 1995
Albion, A New Iron Meteorite (By Russell Kempton)

Basic Truths

"My tomato field burned last night. The ground is scorched" relates a
farmer calling from North Dakota. "It must have been a meteor" he says.
Patiently, I explain a basic truth: "meteors" do not land in a ball of
flame, and suggest that he look for other explanations. Another caller
tells of finding many "perfectly round little meteorites" in a river
stream. I ask if they attract a magnet. "Well, no," he says, "but they
look like meteorites!" Again, I explain a basic truth: meteorites are
not found as perfectly shaped spheres and all will attract a magnet to
some degree. A caller from South Carolina tells of finding a 220 gram
"iron meteorite." He describes "holes" and little pockets of "bubbles"
in the interior. "No," I explain, "it's probably a piece of slag." A
basic truth of iron meteorites is that they do not have "holes" or
vacuoles throughout their interior. Well, we cannot say that any longer.
Unbelievably, an iron meteorite with vacuoles has been found!

Whitman County, Washington, USA

During the winter of 1966 - 1967, a single 12.28 kg iron mass was found
in a wheat field adjacent to the Palouse River in Albion, Washington.
The mass was in the possession of its finder, Kenneth Oliphant, until
sometime in 1991 when it was sectioned to determine if it was a
meteorite. Based upon the initial classification by Dr. John Wasson of
UCLA as a Fine Octahedrite (IVA), it was recently submitted to the
Meteoritical Society with the proposed name of Albion, Washington.
The interior of Albion is remarkable! Occurring homogeneously throughout
Albion are irregular shaped vacuoles - holes ranging in diameter from 4
mm to 9 mm. In one 620 gram slice (174 mm x 134 mm x 6 mm), 9 vacuoles
were observed. The interior of these voids is lined with what appears to
be solid spherical blebs (bubbles) covered with well developed, highly
intergrown cubic crystals of almost pure iron. Of the more than 800
known iron meteorites, none have exhibited any form of vugs or "holes"
within their Ni\Fe structure. To find them in an iron meteorite appears
to "rock the boat" on the way we think of asteroid cores - the parent
bodies of iron meteorites.

Best wishes, Bernd