Meteoritic iron from the Libyan glass area, southwestern Egypt

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Meteoritic iron from the Libyan glass area, southwestern Egypt

ALY A. BARAKAT

Meieoriiics and Planetary Science, 33, A173-AI75 (1998)

 

Abstract— A fragment of a weathered iron meteorite was collected from the Libyan Desert glass area of southwestern Egypt in 1991 May. The specimen is of irregular shape, measuring 5 × 3.5 × 2 cm and weighing 110 g. It is covered by a shiny black layer of magnetite ∼1 mm thick. The interior is brownish‐black in color owing to terrestrial oxidation. An unetched polished surface shows some areas still having remnants of kamacite and taenite. Remnants of the lamellar octahedral structure have been detected. The kamacite bandwidth ranges from 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm. Chemical analysis shows that the meteorite contains 3.4% Ni, 0.24% Co, 85 ppm Cu, 4 ppm As, 132 ppm Au and 2530 ppm Ir. The meteorite was discovered after the discovery of two different chondritic meteorites in the same area; so, it will be named Great Sand Sea 003.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1998.tb01328.x