Types of Meteorite

 Blog Layout

1. Introduction.

2. Iron Meteorite

3. Chondrite Meteorite.

4. Iron Meteorite. 

5. Achondrite Meteorites. 

6. Stony Iron Meteorite.

7. Significance of Meteorite.  

 Introduction.

Meteorites are rocks that fall to the earth's surface from space, that are of variable size and mass. The origin of these rocks includes; asteroids, comets, and planets within our solar system. There are less than 5% of the known as meteorite based on their relative composition in terms of Nickel and  Iron exists in a meteorite alloy. The Nickel-Iron alloy meteorite can be subdivided into three groups as follows; Iron meteorite, Stony Iron meteorite, chondrite meteorite, and the achondrite of the chondrite subgroup.

Types of Meteorite.

In today's blog, I will be talking about these three common types of meteorite, concerning their petrological characteristics and mineralogical and chemical composition. With that said let us explore these three types of meteorites.

Iron Meteorite.

classification of this type of meteorite is based on the elemental content of Germanium, Gallium, and Nickel, including the structures formed from the iron-nickel and also the textural aspect, whether fine-grained with intergrowth or taenite and kamacite, this type of meteorite is rich in ferromagnesium and silicate minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, and iron sulfide minerals are also known as troilite. These meteorites originate from the core of large asteroids.

Chondrite Meteorite.

The mineralogical composition of these types of meteorites includes olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar, troilite with traces of taenite, apatite, chromite, and native copper. They have a textural aspect of spheroidal silicate with grained silicate matrix and metallic sulfides. Chondrites are derived from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, they are several types of chondrite but in this blog, I will only talk about the Achondrite because of its iron-nickel content and also its petrological significance.

Achondrite Meteorites.

content of iron-nickel and a coarse texture compared to any other chondrite, with no chondrules and has a resemblance of terrestrial igneous which could have crystallized from the silicate melt, this type of meteorite is composed of pyroxene, plagioclase feldspars, olivine with traces of kamacite, taecite troilite, chromite, and magnetite. The origin of this type of meteorite is similar to the chondrite but it's derived from the crust of asteroids.

Stony Iron Meteorite.

This type of meteorite is also known as pallasite meteorite, with a mineralogical composition of olivine, nesosiderite, with spheroidal and angular crystals existing within the pallasite as secondary texture. it has sympletic textural intergrowth formed from the crystallization of the pyroxene, a cumulative textural component is also found in this type of asteroids indicating fractional crystallization processing during the formation.

Significance of Meteorite.

The significance of these rocks is more scientific as they provide us with information, relating to the history of our solar system dating back to 4.6 billion years ago and how our solar system evolved to form the sun and planets, meteorites have also been used to help us in determining the age and composition of our solar system and lastly, they provide information relating to the geological history of the earth and the moon.

For more information, you can refer to meteorites.asu.edu