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The classification of Meteorites1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

G. T. Prior
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Extract

The first broad grouping of meteorites was into irons and stones according as they consisted mainly of nickeliferous iron or of silicates. These were the two main divisions of the first really serviceable classification as applied by Gustav Rose in 1862-4 to the collection of meteorites in the, University Museum of Berlin. In this classification the division of meteoric irons included as separate groups the pallasites and the mesosiderites, in which nickel-iron "rod silicates are present in about equal amounts; and the meteo~fic stones were for the first time split up into chondrites, or stones containing those curious rounded grains (chondrules) peculiar to meteorites, and non-Chondritic stones, which were divided according to mineralogical composition into the groups of eucrites, howardites, &c., still largely recognized.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 19 , Issue 90 , September 1920 , pp. 51 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1920

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Footnotes

1

Communicated by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.

References

page 52 note 1 Farrington, O. C., Analyses of stone meteorites. Field Museum of Nat. Hist., 1911, Pub. 151, Geol. Set., vol. 8, no. 9, p. 195.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 Priorr, G. T., On the genetic relationship and classification of meteorites. Mineralogical Mag, 1916, vol. 18, pp. 26–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 53 note 2 Farrington, O. C., Analyses of iron meteorites, compiled and classified. Field Columbian Museum, 1907, Pub. 120, Geol. Ser., vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 59–110.Google Scholar See also Berwerth, F., Ein natürliches System der Eisenmeteoriten. Sitzungsber, Akad. Wiss. Wieu, Math.-naturw. Klasse, 1914, vol. 128, Abt. 1, p. 1.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 See also Wahl, W., Beiträge zur Chemie der Meteoriten. Zeits. Anorg. Chemie, 1910, vol. 69, p. 67.Google Scholar

page 54 note 2 See W. Wahl, loc. cir., p. 70.

page 54 note 3 Prior, G. T., Mineralog. Mag., 1916, vol. 18, p. 42.Google Scholar

page 56 note 1 From Aubres, the meteorite of earliest date of fall of the group.

page 56 note 2 See p. 52.

page 56 note 3 The ratio is really a little higher, since the olivines in the ehondrites are generally rather richer in ferrous oxide than the pyroxenes.

page 56 note 4 Des Cloizeaux, A., Ann. Chim. Phys., 1864. ser. 4, vol. 1, 515.Google Scholar

page 56 note 5 Wahl, W., Die Enstatitaugite. Min. Petr. Mitt, 1907, vol. 26, p. 1.Google Scholar The name enstatite-augite conveys essentially the same idea as the nsme clinoenstatite.

page 57 note 1 If symbols are considered necessary and convenient, those of the Brezina classification may be used for the different grou~s, with the following additional ones, viz. Au for Aubrite, Cen for Enstatite-chondrite, Cbr for Bronzitechondrite, Chy for Hypersthene-chondrite, and Di for Diogenite.

page 59 note 1 This term is here used as originally by Maskelyne and not in the restricted sense of Brezina (see p. 52).

page 59 note 2 Under this name are included both the groups mesosiderite and grahamite of the Brezina classification, since, as shown by the writer (Mineralogical Magazine, 1918, voL 18, pp. 151-172), no distinction can be drawn between the two as regards the amount ot felspar.

page 59 note 3 See Mineralogical Magazine, loc. cit., p. 171.

page 60 note 1 Or more simply either the ratio of MgO to FeO in the insoluble Mlieate or the ratio of Fe to Ni in the nickel-iron (see Prior, G. T., A method for the quick determination of the approximate amount and composition of the niekeliferous iron in meteorites. Mineralogical Magazine, 1919, vol. 18, p. 849 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

page 60 note 2 Really oligoclase.

page 63 note 1 G. Tsehermak, Mikrosk. Beschaff. der Meteoriten, 1885, p. 8.

page 63 note 2 W. Wahl, loc. cit., p. 84.