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GIBEON, GREAT NAMA LAND, NAMIBIA.
Great Namaland, Namibia, Africa. Found 1836. Iron octahedrite, fine. (IVA) Total weight: 26,000 kilograms.
SIKHOTE-ALIN, Maritime Territory, Federation SSR, USSR.
Coarsest octahedrite (IIB)
Fell February 12, 1947. 10:38 am
IRON
meteorites are composed mainly of iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni) in the form of two nickel-iron alloys, kamacite and taenite. Iron meteorites are easy to tell apart from ordinary Earth rocks because of their metallic appearance and high density. Iron meteorites tend to be bigger than stony meteorites or stony-iron meteorites, because they usually survive passage through the atmosphere intact and suffer much less from the effects of ablation. All known iron meteorites have a combined mass of more than 500 tons – about 86% of the mass of all known meteorites. Iron meteorites are rare and only account for about one in 20 of observed falls.
IRON METEORITES
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Cover of METEORITE magazine February 2007. Featuring the 60th anniversary of the Sikhote-Alin fireball. February 12, 1947
Detailed photo of flow lines on a large Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite.