Most people know perfectly well that rocksmineralscan look incredible on the inside – but this crabby - sectioned view of a meteorite still caught us by surprisal .
The space rock render above is a clump of the Alvord Meteorite , learn in Iowa in 1976 . The criss - crossing , interior body structure seen here is known as the Widmanstätten Pattern . Commonly found in Fe meteorites , the distinctive design is formed as the liquid alloy at the core of a newly formed meteorite ( comprising mostly Ni and iron)cools very slowlyover the row of zillion of years . ( One idea puts the cooling rate of these molten - core meteorites at1 ° C every thousand year . ) The resultant is a lattice of nickel - iron crystals unlike anything seen here on Earth . ( For a more detailed account of this cooling process , see here . )
More info , via the Iowa DNR Geological Survey Bureau :
ALVORD METEORITE : The Alvord Meteorite was found on or around June 5 , 1976 , on a farm about 13 miles southeast of the Lyon County town of Alvord . Arnis History of Meteorites list it as weighing 17.5 kg ( 38.5 pound ) when found and being an smoothing iron octahedrite ( IVA ) . The find location was listed as 43º 19 ’ 20 ” N , 96º 17 ’ 20 ” W. New info point that the meteorite was found by Herbert Van Engen on the John Mulhall farm , T98N , R46W , Sec 09 , north one-half , about a mile southeast of Alvord . The meteorite was eventually sold to the National Museum of Natural History , Smithsonian Institution for $ 800 , however a slab was cut and retained by the Van Engen family as a souvenir .
A 2d piece was found in 1981 during declivity ploughing by Jim Kelly . This shard weighed 39 pounds and was get in T98N , R46W , Sec 03 , southwestern quarter , about 1.5 international nautical mile south-east of Alvord . This sample distribution was sell to the Smithsonian Institution for $ 800 .
Jim Kelly also reported that a curve ball on the “ exterior ” of the meteorite indicate that the original body was about the size of a “ medicine globe ” ( about 18 ” in diam ) and he believes that it fell in the 19 teens when his father observed an explosion in the sky that was ascribe at the fourth dimension to an explode meteorite .
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