WA Science—Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 97: 237–252, 2014 Some Australian contributions to meteoritics from the 19th to the 21st Centuries A W R BEVAN Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, WA 6986, Australia.
[email protected] Meteorites are fragments of natural debris that survive their fall to Earth from space, and meteoritics is the science of their study. Meteorites are fundamental to our understanding of the origin and early evolution of the Solar System. Many have remained virtually unaltered for 4.56 Ga and represent some of the original materials from which the planets were constructed. From the 19th Century onwards contributions to the understanding of planetary materials have been made by Australian scientists in the fields of meteorite recovery, mineralogy, petrology and metallurgy of meteorites, meteorite classification, isotopic studies, geochronology, impact cratering and Solar System formation. This paper documents some of the significant achievements that have been made. KEYWORDS: chondrites, geochronology, irons, isotopes, meteorites, mineralogy, petrology, stony-irons. INTRODUCTION predominantly of silicates (olivine, pyroxene and feldspar) similar to those occurring in terrestrial basalts, Meteorites are a fundamental source of information on but may also contain appreciable amounts of metal; and the origin and early evolution of the Solar System, and stony-irons are mixtures of metal and silicates in roughly meteoritics is the science of their study. The majority of equal proportions. Stony meteorites are the most meteorites are fragments broken from asteroids in solar common, accounting for more than 95% of those orbits between Mars and Jupiter, although few specific observed to fall, whereas irons and stony-irons are rare, asteroids have been identified as possible sources.