DOCSLIB.ORG

Chondrites and Chondrules

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chondrites and Chondrules THIN SECTION OF CHONDRITE viewed through the microscope moved from their matrix in a chondrite. The sections were photo. (top) is interspersed with chondrules (colored bodies). The photo· graphed through polarizing filters, which here give the chondrules micrograph at bottom shows round chondrules that have been reo their color. Chondrules range from size of a pinhead to that of a pea. © 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC Chondrites and Chondrules The first are stony m�eteorites; the second, the small spherical bodies they contain. There is evidence that the chondrules date back to the opening stages in the evolution of the solar system by John A. Wood n 1802 an English chemist named bodies occurring in chondrites soon came similar to those of the solar atmosphere. Edward C. Howard cautiously titled to be called chondrules. In 1930 the German spectroscopists I a paper he had written "Observa­ From the beginning investigators Ida and Walter Noddack pointed out tions on certain stony and metallic Sub­ have tended to believe that chondrites additional evidence. They found that stances, which at different Times are said are pieces of planetary matter in a very chondrites contain a more generous as­ to have fallen on the Earth." Howard primitive state. If this matter is not still sortment of trace elements in measur­ seems to have been the first person to in exactly the form it took when the able amounts than any type of earth examine carefully the internal structure planets first coalesced, it is not many rock does. In particular chondrites con­ of stony meteorites, and in all four speci­ evolutionary steps removed from that tain, mingled together, lithophile, chal­ mens he studied (stones from England, form. Recent studies of chondrites and cophile and siderophile elements-ele­ Italy, Bohemia and India) he found chondrules provide reinforcement for ments that respectively tend to associate "abundant small bodies, some perfectly this concept and tell a story about the with silicate and oxide material, sulfide globular, others rather elongated or early history of the solar system. material and metallic iron material. If elliptical." Their size ranged from that the chondrites had been melted in the of a pinhead to that of a small pea, and The Antiquity of Chondrites parent meteorite planet, or if any kind their color from gray to brownish. of extensive material transfer had oc­ At that time the idea that meteorites At first the belief that chondrites are curred, the lithophile, chalcophile and were of extraterrestrial origin enjoyed primitive planetary matter stemmed siderophile elements would have tended roughly the same reputation flying largely from the mystique that is natu­ to segregate themselves as they have in saucers do today. In 1803, however, the rally excited by material from inter­ the earth. French village of L'Aigle was pelted by planetary space. In 1929, however, the Finally, isotopic-dating techniques de­ a shower of falling stones so dense first quantitative evidence appeared. At veloped during the past decade have (more than 2,000 were recovered) that that time the astrophysicist Henry Nor­ shown that although chondrites are very the Academie des Sciences was moved ris Russell, working at the Mount Wilson old-older than any earth rock studied, to appoint a commission, headed by the Observatory, used solar spectrograms to their ages clustering around 4.6 billion eminent physicist Jean Baptiste Biot, to make the first crude estimate of the rela­ years-they have been cold, inert bodies investigate the event. Biot's detailed re­ tive abundances of the elements in the most of this time. Some chondrites have port eliminated the possibility that the sun's atmosphere. He found that the recently been found to contain excessive stones were a hoax or a terrestrial abundance pattern for metallic elements amounts of the rare isotope xenon 129 phenomenon. Soon the idea that meteor­ matched the abundances in chondrites [see "The Age of the Elements in the So­ ites are fragments of another planet or fairly well. Later and more precise work IaI' System," by John H. Reynolds; SCI­ planets, probably broken up by mutual on the composition of the solar atmos­ ENTIFIC AMERICAN, November, 1960]. collisions, won wide acceptance. phere showed the match to be quite Xenon 129 is produced by the decay of After Biot's report museums began to striking [see illustration on page 75]. Ap­ iodine 129, an isotope with a half life collect meteorites enthusiastically. By parently both sun and chondrites were that is brief by cosmic standards: 16.4 1864 almost 200 meteorites had been made from the same parent material, million years. Those chondrites with studied, and it was evident that the great and the metal content of both has re­ excess xenon 129 must have cooled to a ma jority of meteorite falls were stones mained unchanged since. If melting low temperature while they still con­ containing Howard's "small bodies." In or some other form of material trans­ tained some iodine 129, and they must that year a classification of meteorites fer had occurred in the chondrites, it have remained cold ever since, because was set up by Gustav Rose, a German would have segregated the elements and heat would have driven xenon 129 out mineralogist; he named this majority introduced large-scale heterogeneities of the meteorite as fast as it was created class of meteorites "chondrites" after in metal abundances from one chon­ by iodine-129 decay. We conclude that their peculiar internal structure. (Choll­ drite to another. We know such frac­ the time interval between the creation dl'oS was the ancient Greek word for tionation occurs in the earth. No type of the iodine 129 and final cooling of "grain of seed.") The small, rounded of earth rock has metal abundances some chondrites was short-less than 65 © 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC BIRTHPLACE OF STARS is probably in dense clouds of gas and at bottom the nebula NGC 6611 in Scutum Sobieski. Light of neb· dust sucb as these nebulae, which contain stars regarded as young. ulae is emitted by atoms excited by radiation of nearby stars. Photo· At top is the Horsehead Nebula, part of the Great Nebula in Orion, graphs were made with 200·inch telescope on Palomar Mountain. 66 © 1963 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC ' 100 million years. Therefore high-tem­ eralogy. All gradations between these " ... , .. perature evolutionary events could have conditions were observed among the . .. '. : . - . : : . occurred only during the first 2 per cent chondrites. We know that when rocks ' ,. ,' . ' . , " .. o. :. : . or less of the lifetime of these chondrites. or metals are held for months or years . Chondrites fit rather well into the idea at high temperatures (but not melted), ' . ." astronomers currently have of the nature the textures they had at first are often . ' of primitive planetary matter. For many replaced by systems of new, coarser . ,., years it was supposed that each planet crystals. This recrystallization, or meta­ " . condensed directly from a discrete mass morphism, to use a geological term, oc­ '-: .' . of hot gas that had been torn from the curs entirely in the solid state. Petrog­ sun (the Jeans- Jeffreys hypothesis) . This raphers concluded that all chondrites .' .. ... concept was discredited, however, by a once had clear-cut chondrules but that . ' . .. theoretical study showing that hot gas many, like the stone from Milena shown . : would not remain in discrete masses long in the top illustration on the next page, enough to allow condensation. The view have been recrystallized by heat. Pre­ now held by most astronomers is that sumably they were heated in the interior any condensation that occurred yielded of their parent planet or planets. a large number of small granules, or The second inference concerns the "planetesimals," and that later these par­ chondrules themselves. Some were found ticles were brought together to form to contain glass, evidence that they had the planets. According to this picture been melted and then rapidly chilled. ' . ' planetary matter was at first a conglom­ Glassy chondrules occur only in relative­ , ' . , . eration of planetesimals. Can it be that ly unrecrystallized chondrites, so that the . chondrules were the planetesimals? melting cannot be associated with the Studies of the intrinsic properties of metamorphic heating just described. chondrules and chondrites have given The presence of glass, the anhydrous or us part of the information needed to an­ high-temperature character of chondrule swer this question. minerals, the igneous texture of some chondrules and their spheroidal shapes­ Chondrites under the Microscope all these distinctive features of the chon­ drules pointed to the conclusion that Much of this information has come they had once been dispersed droplets from the study of meteorites with micro­ of hot molten silicate: a "fiery rain," in scopes, a study begun by Rose and his the words of the 19th-century English contemporaries. The internal micro­ microscopist Henry Clifton Sorby. Some structure and mineralogy of a rock can or all of the droplets had cooled rapidly -best be disclosed by making a thin sec­ on a time scale of minutes or even sec­ tion of it. A slice of the rock is cemented onds. to a glass slide and carefully ground . ',' down to the thinness of a sheet of paper. The Formation of Chondrules Silicate minerals ground this thin are . quite transparent, so that a fragment Many investigators have speculated = prepared in this way can be viewed on the origin of these hot droplets. Most through a microscope. Thin-section have concluded that the droplets were studies established that the chondrules created on or in parent meteorite planets are unlike any structures occurring in and that truly primitive planetary matter terrestrial rocks but that they are com­ did not contain chondrules.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jahrbuch Der Kais. Kn. Geologischen Reichs-Anstalt
    Digitised by the Harvard University, Download from The BHL http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/; www.biologiezentrum.at Die Meteoritensammlung des k. k. mineralogischen Hof kabinetes in Wien am I. Mai 1885. Von Dr. Aristides Breziua. Mit vier Tafe'.n (Nr. 11— V). Von dieser Saminluug, welche schon zu Chladm's Zeiten von hohem wissenschaftlichen Werthe war und seither inamer eine erste Stelle einnahm, ist seit dem Jahre 1872 keine vollständige Gewichts- liste veröffentlicht worden ; in dem genannten Jahre gab der damalige Director des Kabinetes, Hofrath G. Tschermak, ein Verzeichnisse), das er bei seinem Abgange vom Museum durch einen Nachtrag ^) bis Ende September 1877 vervollständigte. Als mir nach dem Ausscheiden Tschermak's von meinem seither verstorbenen Vorstande, Hofrath Ritter v. Hochstetter, die Obsorge über die Sammlung übertragen wurde, war es mein nächstes Ziel, die Fälle aus den letzten Jahr- zehnten zu vervollständigen und die vielen nur durch kleine Splitter von einem Gramm und darunter vertretenen Localitäten durch grössere Stücke zu repräsentiren, weil so kleine Fragmente die petrographische Beschaffenheit eines gemengten Körpers nicht genügend erkennen lassen. Es zeigte sich bald, dass ein solches Ziel nur durch Anlegung einer eigenen Meteoritentauschsammlung zu erreichen war, welche bei Gele- genheit grösserer Fälle oder Funde mit Doublettenmateriale zu billigen Preisen versehen werden konnte und dann die Erwerbung auch der selteneren und kostbareren Fallorte auf dem Tauschwege gestattete; denn die Meteoritenpreise sind gegen frühere Jahrzehnte so wesentlich gestiegen, dass eine Ergänzung der Sammlung durch vorwiegenden Ankauf nicht mehr möglich ist, während andererseits eine Abgabe an- sehnlicher Stücke aus der Hauptsammlung, wie sie unter Hoernes- Haidinger üblich war, eine gewisse Beweglichkeit der Sammlung hervorbringt, welche bei einem so kostbaren Materiale wohl vermieden werden soll ; auch ein Tausch mit kleinen, von den Hauptstücken abge- kueipten Splittern, wie er ebenfalls häufig stattfand, bringt nur einen ') Die Meteoriten des k, k.
    [Show full text]
  • James Hutton's Reputation Among Geologists in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
    The Geological Society of America Memoir 216 Revising the Revisions: James Hutton’s Reputation among Geologists in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries A. M. Celâl Şengör* İTÜ Avrasya Yerbilimleri Enstitüsü ve Maden Fakültesi, Jeoloji Bölümü, Ayazağa 34469 İstanbul, Turkey ABSTRACT A recent fad in the historiography of geology is to consider the Scottish polymath James Hutton’s Theory of the Earth the last of the “theories of the earth” genre of publications that had begun developing in the seventeenth century and to regard it as something behind the times already in the late eighteenth century and which was subsequently remembered only because some later geologists, particularly Hutton’s countryman Sir Archibald Geikie, found it convenient to represent it as a precursor of the prevailing opinions of the day. By contrast, the available documentation, pub- lished and unpublished, shows that Hutton’s theory was considered as something completely new by his contemporaries, very different from anything that preceded it, whether they agreed with him or not, and that it was widely discussed both in his own country and abroad—from St. Petersburg through Europe to New York. By the end of the third decade in the nineteenth century, many very respectable geologists began seeing in him “the father of modern geology” even before Sir Archibald was born (in 1835). Before long, even popular books on geology and general encyclopedias began spreading the same conviction. A review of the geological literature of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries shows that Hutton was not only remembered, but his ideas were in fact considered part of the current science and discussed accord- ingly.
    [Show full text]
  • Redacted for Privacy Roman A
    AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF THOMAS WARD OSBORN IIIfor theMASTER OF SCIENCE (Name) (Degree) inCHEMISTRY presented on August 13, 1968 (Major) (Date) Title: SODIUM AND MANGANESE HOMOGENEITY INCHONDRITIC METEORITES Abstract approved:Redacted for Privacy Roman A. Schmitt Four to six one-gram specimens separated by adistance of several inches were obtained from each of 23 largechondritic meteorites (approximately 1 kg each) representing theolivine bronzite (H5), olivine hypersthene (L6) and enstatite (E5)classifications. Each specimen was analyzed for Na and Mn viainstrumental neutron activation analysis to a precision of about 1. 5% usingthe 2. 75 Mev and 0.84 Mev photopeaks for Na and Mn, respectively. The olivine bronzite (H5) falls were found to exhibit aMn homogeneity dispersion range of 3. 9% to 1. 7% for thelarge individual meteorites; Na dispersion range was 5. 2% to 4. 9%.One group of olivine bronzite (H5) finds consisting of five large meteoritefrag- ments exhibited a Mn dispersion range of 0. 8% to Z.7%; Na dispersion range was 1. 8% to 4. 7%.Another group of olivine bronzite (H5) finds consisting of four large pieces showed a Mn dispersion rangefrom 3. 8% to 17 % ; Na dispersion range,3. 8% to 31 % .The olivine hypersthene (L6) falls showed a Mn dispersion of 1.4% to 3.4%; Na dispersion, 2. 0% to 7. 1 %.The olivine hypersthene finds showed a Mn dispersion range of 2.5% to 5. 3%; Na dispersion range, 1.5% to 7. 6 %.The single enstatite find showed a. relative dispersion of 45% for Mn and 28% for Na.
    [Show full text]
  • La Terre Est Ronde 2015-2016 Ok Mod 2016
    ENSM-SE, 2° A : axe transverse P N 08/02/16 - 1 - ENSM-SE, 2° A : axe transverse P N 08/02/16 - 2 - ENSM-SE, 2° A : axe transverse P N 08/02/16 AVERTISSEMENT AU LECTEUR Aristarque de Samos Malgré plus de 10 années d’ajouts variés et de La dilapidation des ressources naturelles est, pour les modifications — et maintenant de pages web élèves Q- ou MC- nom de combustibles fossiles, irréversible pour la fraction déjà la page.htm, « Question » ou « Mot-Clef » indiqués au long de ce poly et consommée. Elle est même semble-t-il impossible à réduire que vous retrouverez en sur le site http://www.emse.fr/~bouchardon dans la pour les sociétés les moins industrialisées 2. Face à cette rubrique Wiki Elèves 2009-10-11 — ce poly de 200 pages, 23 situation, le plus dérangeant n’est pas tant la disparition tableaux et 310 figures environ n’est toujours pas un cours d’une énergie quand d’autres sont renouvelables et complet. Ce n’est d’ailleurs pas son objectif, même si sans seront largement à la disposition de l’homme dans le doute trouverez-vous ici ou là au long de ces cent cinquante futur, que l’épuisement d’un gisement source d’une foule pages, un fourmillement rebutant de connaissances parfois d’applications autres qu’énergétiques. Sur ce plan là, trop (?) pointues, typiques d’un cours. Le propos est de venir l’irréversibilité de nos actes doit peser dans nos décisions. en aide au lecteur, étudiant de l’EMSE ou autre, dans sa S’agissant d’éléments utiles à la fabrication de nos objets et compréhension des processus naturels en le baladant dans outils manufacturés, l’épuisement de la ressource est virtuel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mineralogical Ma Z:Ine
    THE MINERALOGICAL MA Z:INE Al~I) JOURI~IAL OF THE 1V[II~IERALOGIC~L SOCIETY. No, 90. September, 1920. Vol. XIX. The classification of Meteorites. 1 By G. T. Pazoa, i~.A., I).Se., F.R.S. Keeper of the Mineral Department of the British Museum. [Read January 20, 1920.] HE first broad grouping of meteorites was into irons and stones T according as they consisted mainly of nickeliferous iron or of silicates. These were the two main divisions of the first really service- able 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. At about the same time (1868) Maskelyne used for the British Museum Collection the threefold division of meteorites into siderites or meteoric irons, consisting mainly of nickeliferous iron, siderolites, consisting of metal and silicates in about equal amounts, and aerolites or meteoric stones, consisting mainly of silicates. In Tschermak's modification of the Rose classification, published in 1888, the siderolites were kept, as by Maskelyne, distinct ti'om the irons, the irons themselves were for the first time separated into the groups of I Communicated by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Cosmochemistry
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87862-3 - Cosmochemistry Harry Y. McSween and Gary R. Huss Excerpt More information 1 Introduction to cosmochemistry Overview Cosmochemistry is defined, and its relationship to geochemistry is explained. We describe the historical beginnings of cosmochemistry, and the lines of research that coalesced into the field of cosmochemistry are discussed. We then briefly introduce the tools of cosmochem- istry and the datasets that have been produced by these tools. The relationships between cosmochemistry and geochemistry, on the one hand, and astronomy, astrophysics, and geology, on the other, are considered. What is cosmochemistry? A significant portion of the universe is comprised of elements, ions, and the compounds formed by their combinations – in effect, chemistry on the grandest scale possible. These chemical components can occur as gases or superheated plasmas, less commonly as solids, and very rarely as liquids. Cosmochemistry is the study of the chemical composition of the universe and the processes that produced those compositions. This is a tall order, to be sure. Understandably, cosmo- chemistry focuses primarily on the objects in our own solar system, because that is where we have direct access to the most chemical information. That part of cosmochemistry encom- passes the compositions of the Sun, its retinue of planets and their satellites, the almost innumerable asteroids and comets, and the smaller samples (meteorites, interplanetary dust particles or “IDPs,” returned lunar samples) derived from them. From their chemistry, determined by laboratory measurements of samples or by various remote-sensing techniques, cosmochemists try to unravel the processes that formed or affected them and to fixthe chronology of these events.
    [Show full text]
  • Meteoryt Meteoryt
    BIULETYN MI£OŒNIKÓW METEORYTÓW METEORYTMETEORYT Nr 4 (40) Grudzieñ 2001 W numerze: Do kogo nale¿¹ meteoryty? Tagish Lake, Chassigny, Morasko, Gifhorn MARSMARS OZ£OCONYOZ£OCONY 4/2001 METEORYT 10 lat „Meteorytu”!str. 1 Od redaktora: Meteoryt (ISSN 1642-588X) – biuletyn dla mi³oœników mete- To wydanie „Meteorytu” nosi kolejny numer 40, co dla kwartalnika orytów wydawany przez Olsz- oznacza, ¿e koñczy siê 10 lat jego istnienia. Chcia³bym z tej okazji tyñskie Planetarium i Obserwa- podziêkowaæ najbardziej wytrwa³ym czytelnikom. Nie uda³o mi siê torium Astronomiczne, Muzeum odszukaæ pierwszej listy wysy³kowej, ale na drugiej, z 1993 roku Miko³aja Kopernika we From- widniej¹ nastêpuj¹ce osoby spoœród obecnych prenumeratorów: borku i Pallasite Press – wydaw- Jaros³aw Bandurowski, Janusz Bary³a, Tomasz Celeban, Leszek cê kwartalnika Meteorite, z któ- Chróst, Bartosz D¹browski, Jacek Dr¹¿kowski, Grzegorz Gnysiñski, rego pochodzi wiêksza czêœæ pu- Janusz Kosinski, Micha³ Kosmulski, Anna Kowarska, Jan blikowanych materia³ów. Kozakiewicz, Andrzej Manecki, Marek Micherdziñski, Marek Muciek, £ukasz Obroœlak, Micha³ Ostrowski, Dariusz Piasecki, Redaguje Andrzej S. Pilski Tadeusz Przylibski, Jerzy Puszcz, Krzysztof Socha, Katarzyna Sk³ad: Jacek Dr¹¿kowski Stanilewicz, Krzysztof Szczepaniuk, Marek Wierzchowiecki. Wtedy Druk: Jan, Lidzbark Warm. prenumeratorów by³o akurat 40. Dziêkujê, ¿e a¿ tylu wytrwa³o. Adres redakcji: Objêtoœæ tego numeru wzros³a do 44 stron, aby pomieœciæ skr. poczt. 6 wyczerpuj¹ce opracowanie na temat sytuacji prawnej meteorytów, 14-530 Frombork za które autorom bardzo dziêkujê. Niejednokrotnie styka³em siê tel. 0-55-243-7392 z pytaniem, do kogo nale¿y znaleziony meteoryt, i trudno by³o znaleŸæ e-mail: [email protected] na to odpowiedŸ.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-84035-4 - Atlas of Meteorites Monica M. Grady, Giovanni Pratesi and Vanni Moggi Cecchi Excerpt More information 1 Introduction Solar System history started some 4567 million years ago specimens collected by government-funded expeditions are with the collapse of an interstellar molecular cloud to a given a year–number combination with a prefix recording protoplanetary disk (the solar nebula) surrounding a central the icefield from which they were retrieved (e.g., Allan Hills star (the Sun). Evolution of the Solar System continued 84001), whereas meteorites collected in hot deserts are through a complex process of accretion, coagulation, simply numbered incrementally by region (e.g., Dar al Gani agglomeration, melting, differentiation and solidification, 262). The rules for naming newly recovered meteorites have followed by bombardment, collision, break-up, brecciation been standardized by the Nomenclature Committee of the and re-formation, then to varying extents by heating, meta- Meteoritical Society, which also assigns names to meteorites morphism, aqueous alteration and impact shock. One of the and keeps track of the total number of reported specimens. key goals of planetary science is to understand the primary This information is available at http://www./pi.usra.edu/ materials from which the Solar System formed, and how meteor/metbull.php. they have been modified as the Solar System evolved. The Newly recovered meteorites are also reported in the last two decades have seen a greater understanding of the Meteoritical Bulletin (published in the journal Meteoritics processes that led to the formation of the Sun and Solar and Planetary Sciences, and updated regularly on the web- System.
    [Show full text]
  • United States National Museum
    U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 149, FRONTISPIECE GEORGE PERKINS MERRILL BORN. MAY 31. 1854. DIED. AUGUST 15, 1929 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION UiNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Bulletin 149 COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF METEORITES BY GEORGE P. MERRILL Head Curator of Geology, United States National Museum UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1930 the Superintendent of For »ale by Documents, Washington, D. C. ------- Price 40 i ADVERTISEMENT The scientific publications of the National Museum include two series, known, respectively, as Proceedings and Bulletin. The Proceedings, begun in 1878, is intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original papers, based on the collections of the National Museum, that set forth newly acquired facts in biology, anthropology, and geology, with descriptions of new forms and revi- sions of limited groups. Copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, are distributed as published to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects. The dates at which these separate papers are published are recorded in the table of contents of each of the volumes. The Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, and other material of similar nature. The majority of the volumes are octavo in size, but a cpiarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable. In the Bulletin series appear volumes under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, in octavo form, published by the National Museum since 1902, which contain papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Meteoritics - Overview
    The history of meteoritics - overview G.J.H. McCALL 1, A.J. BOWDEN 2 & R.J. HOWARTH 3 144 Robert Franklin Way, South Cerney, Circencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5UD, UK (e-mail: joemccall @tiscali, co. uk) ZEarth and Physical Sciences, National Museums Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN, UK (e-mail: Alan.Bowden@ liverpoolmuseums.org.uk) 3Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: This volume was proposed after Peter Tandy and Joe McCall organized a 1-day meeting of the History of Geology Group, which is affiliated to the Geological Society, at the Natural History Museum in December 2003. This meeting covered the History of Meteori- tics up to 1920 and nine presentations were included, the keynote talk being given by Ursula Marvin. There was an enthusiastic audience of about 50, who expressed the view that this meeting should lead to a publication. Dr Cherry Lewis, the chairperson of the group, dis- cussed this with Joe McCall, who said that the material was too small for a Special Publi- cation, but it could be developed by expanding it, taking the history through the 20th century, when there was a revolution and immense expansion both in the scope of meteorite finds and the application of meteoritics to scientific research on a very broad front with the advent of the Space Age. This was agreed and a format of about 24 articles was designed, approaches being made to selected authors. The sections of this Special Publication relate to the early development of meteoritics as a science; collecting and museum collections; researches establishing the provenance of meteorites; and impact craters and tektites.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Meteoritics - Overview
    Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 29, 2021 The history of meteoritics - overview G.J.H. McCALL 1, A.J. BOWDEN 2 & R.J. HOWARTH 3 144 Robert Franklin Way, South Cerney, Circencester, Gloucestershire GL7 5UD, UK (e-mail: joemccall @tiscali, co. uk) ZEarth and Physical Sciences, National Museums Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN, UK (e-mail: Alan.Bowden@ liverpoolmuseums.org.uk) 3Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract: This volume was proposed after Peter Tandy and Joe McCall organized a 1-day meeting of the History of Geology Group, which is affiliated to the Geological Society, at the Natural History Museum in December 2003. This meeting covered the History of Meteori- tics up to 1920 and nine presentations were included, the keynote talk being given by Ursula Marvin. There was an enthusiastic audience of about 50, who expressed the view that this meeting should lead to a publication. Dr Cherry Lewis, the chairperson of the group, dis- cussed this with Joe McCall, who said that the material was too small for a Special Publi- cation, but it could be developed by expanding it, taking the history through the 20th century, when there was a revolution and immense expansion both in the scope of meteorite finds and the application of meteoritics to scientific research on a very broad front with the advent of the Space Age. This was agreed and a format of about 24 articles was designed, approaches being made to selected authors.
    [Show full text]
  • Niobium and Tantalum III
    Rediscovery of the Elements Niobium and Tantalum III James L. Marshall, Beta Eta 1971, and Virginia R. Marshall, Beta Eta 2003, Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5070, [email protected] Figure 1. Map of Berlin. The Apotheke zum weissen Schwan (Apothecary of the White Swan) no longer In the last issue of The HEXAGON 1j we exists; it was across the street from the present Heilige Geist Kirche (Church of the Holy Ghost), which still described how in 1809 William Hyde Wollaston stands today, Spandauer Straße 1, N52° 31.26 E13° 24.19. The Apotheke zum Bären (Apothecary of the (1766–1828) proclaimed 2 the two elements Bear) no longer exists; it was next to the present Nikolaikirche (Nicholas church), Probststraße - N52° columbium (known today as niobium), discov- 31.04 E13° 24.46. The Akadamiehaus (Old Berlin Akademie) was at present 28 Dorotheenstraße (original- ered in 1801 by Charles Hatchett (1765–1847), ly 7 Letzten Straße, then 10 Dorotheenstraße); now a parking garage - N52° 31.14 E13° 23.46. The and tantalum, discovered in 1802 by Anders Humboldt Universität zum Berlin (Berlin University) is located at Unter den Linden 6 - N52° 31.06 E13° Ekeberg (1767–1813), were identical. However, 23.63, with statues of Wilhelm Humboldt, founder of the university (located at “1”) and his brother there was a lingering suspicion among some Alexander Humboldt, the biogeological explorer (located at “2”). chemists that something was not quite right, because the densities of the source minerals eponymous Rose’s metal, a low-melting apothecary, and moved on to the Berlin columbite (from Connecticut) and tantalite (100°C) alloy of bismuth, tin, and lead.4a In Academy in 1800, becoming professor of the (from Finland) were different (5.918 and 7.953, 1771, Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743–1817), University of Berlin when it was founded by the respectively).
    [Show full text]