Faculty
Science
Supervisor Name
Phil McCausland, Roberta Flemming
Keywords
meteorite, XRD, ordinary chondrite
Description
Several meteorites arrive on Earth every day, but only a small percentage of them are found. They are easiest to spot on deserts or frozen ice. Western has a large number of unclassified meteorites found in the Northwest Africa (NWA) and Oman deserts. These meteorites include chondrites, achondrites, irons, and even Lunar and Martian meteorites. Classifying a meteorite requires detailed examination by optical microscopy, as well as micro X-ray diffraction (µXRD), and Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA), to observe their mineralogy (metal, oxide, sulfide, and silicate mineral phases), textures (e.g. chondrules, CAIs) and composition, in order to classify their petrologic type (thermal metamorphic grade), shock metamorphism and weathering stage. This will help determine their origin in the solar system and the significant events that happened since their formation, as recorded by additional phenomena such as shock veining, high-pressure minerals, or aqueous alteration minerals, providing information on the meteorite’s shock and aqueous alteration history. This USRA project includes the research required for submission of a variety of unknown, new meteorites from Western’s meteorite collection for official classification in the Meteoritical Bulletin, using microscopy, µXRD, and EPMA (all available at Western).
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to Phil McCausland and Roberta Flemming for taking me on as a USRI student and for their continuous support.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Included in
Meteorite Investigation and Classification
Several meteorites arrive on Earth every day, but only a small percentage of them are found. They are easiest to spot on deserts or frozen ice. Western has a large number of unclassified meteorites found in the Northwest Africa (NWA) and Oman deserts. These meteorites include chondrites, achondrites, irons, and even Lunar and Martian meteorites. Classifying a meteorite requires detailed examination by optical microscopy, as well as micro X-ray diffraction (µXRD), and Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA), to observe their mineralogy (metal, oxide, sulfide, and silicate mineral phases), textures (e.g. chondrules, CAIs) and composition, in order to classify their petrologic type (thermal metamorphic grade), shock metamorphism and weathering stage. This will help determine their origin in the solar system and the significant events that happened since their formation, as recorded by additional phenomena such as shock veining, high-pressure minerals, or aqueous alteration minerals, providing information on the meteorite’s shock and aqueous alteration history. This USRA project includes the research required for submission of a variety of unknown, new meteorites from Western’s meteorite collection for official classification in the Meteoritical Bulletin, using microscopy, µXRD, and EPMA (all available at Western).