.65" Pallasite Meteorite (3.3 g) - NWA 4482

NWA 4482 is a 5.8-kilogram pallasite meteorite found in 2006. It was purportedly found in Algeria and purchased in Morocco. The original find consisted of about 30 magnetic pieces containing bright yellowish green silicates. Almost all of the metal has oxidized to a dark gray or brown, though fresh metal can still be found in some specimens.

About Pallasites

Pallasite meteorites are a class of stony-iron meteorites. They were once believed to have originated at the core-mantle boundary of asteroids that shattered through impacts, but a recent hypothesis is that they are a mixture of core and mantle minerals.

Pallasite meteorites consist of olivine (peridot) crystals surrounded by iron-nickel matrix. Upon acid etching, some pallasites display interweaving structures known as Widmanstätten patterns (or Thomson lines) in the metallic matrix. These structures are iron-nickel alloy crystals, typically kamacite and taenite, that cooled over millions of years in the vacuum of space.

Pallasites are quite rare: only about 200 are known, and only four have had observed falls. This represents less than 0.2% of all classified meteorites!