Beardsley meteorite, Rawlins Co., Kansas, USA
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 39° 47' 59'' North , 101° 11' 59'' West |
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Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | 39.80000,-101.20000 |
Non-native locality type: | Meteorite |
Meteorite Class: | H5 chondrite meteorite |
Meteoritical Society Class: | H5 |
Metbull: | View entry in Meteoritical Bulletin Database |
Köppen climate type: | BSk : Cold semi-arid (steppe) climate |
Ordinary chondrite (H5; S3)
Fell, 15 October 1929, 23:30 hr; 16 kg
Just before midnite, a dazzling light was seen and thunderous booms were heard as a fireball travelled from ESE to WNW and disappeared at a high altitude. At this time Mrs. Ray Gaines leaned out of her open window and hear the distinct falls of two stones following a whizzing sound. In the next few days she and her family recovered two stones at distances of ~20 and 200 m with the larger stone ~4 kg in mass. In the late summer of 1931 H. H. Nininger secured an additional set of 6 small masses which had been picked up at the time or were recovered during the 1931 plowing season — including a 9.285 kg mass struck by a plow. The stones laying on the ground possessed nearly intact black fusion crusts with occasional brown oxidation stains. In time 60 stones were recovered, ranging in mass from 70 g up to 9.285 kg. Olivine (Fa20) and low Ca-pyroxene ('bronzite') compositions plus total iron contents (26.64 wt%) are characteristic of the H-chondrite geochemical group. Mineralogically, the meteorite consists primarily of dominant olivine and low-Ca pyroxene along with minor amounts of Fe-Ni metal (kamacite and taenite), troilite and, presumably, minor amounts of feldspathic material. Accessory chromite, copper and other minor opaques have been reported. Some of the stones recovered well after the fall, of course, were mildly weathered ('limonite').
A Pb,Th:He age of 3.45 Ga and a moderately short cosmic-ray exposure age of 4.2 Ma are reported. A novel search for remnants of Cs-135>Ba-135 decay suggests that the Beardsley parent body underwent aqueous alteration ~10 Ma after primeval CIA formation in the very early solar system.
The H (relatively high in total iron) chondrites are the second largest group of ordinary chondrite falls and represent over 35% of well-classified, witnessed falls. Beardsley is one of 170 meteorite falls currently classified exactly as 'H5' chondrites (June 2017).
As with many stones recovered in part or as a whole by Harvey H. Nininger, the largest portions of the Beardsley meteorite are now at the Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies (3568 g in 2016).
Mineral List
6 valid minerals.
Meteorite/Rock Types Recorded
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References
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Nininger, H.H. (1932) The Beardsley Meteorite: American Mineralogist 17 (12): 563-566. (Dec 1932).
Waldschmidt, W.A. (1932) The Beardsley Meteorite: American Mineralogist 17 (12): 566-568. (Dec 1932).
Mason, B. (1963) Olivine Composition in Chondrites: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 27(9): 1011-1023. (Sept 1963).
Ramdohr, P. (1973). The Opaque Minerals in Stony Meteorites. Elsevier Publishing Company: Amsterdam; London: New York. 245 pages.
Graham, A.L., Bevan, A.W.R. & Hutchison, B. (1985) Catalogue of Meteorites (4/e). University of Arizona Press: Tucson.
Rubin, A.E. (1990) Olivine & Kamacite in Ordinary Chondrites: Intergroup and Intragroup relationships. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54: 1217-1230. (May 1990).
Wasson, J. & Wang, S. (1991) The histories of ordinary chondrite parent bodies: U,Th-He age distributions. Meteoritics 26(2): 161-167. (June 1991).
Rubin, A.E. (1994) Metallic copper in ordinary chondrites. Meteoritics 29 (1): 93-98. (Jan 1994).
Graf, Th. & Marti K. (1995) Collisional history of H chondrites. J. Geophys. Res. (Planets) 100: 21247–21263. (Oct 1995).
Grady, M.M. (2000). Catalogue of Meteorites (5/e). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge; New York; Oakleigh; Madrid; Cape Town. 689 pages.
Hidaka, H. et al. (2001) Isotopic search for live 135Cs in the early solar system and possibility of 135Cs- 135Ba chronometer: Earth and Planetary Science Letters 193(3-4): 459-466. (Dec2001).
External Links
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php - MeteoriticalBulletinDatabase
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=4984 -Beardsley@MetBullDatabase
http://www.encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com/test/Beardsley_don_edwards.JPG - Small Beardsley specimen
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=4984 -Beardsley@MetBullDatabase
http://www.encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com/test/Beardsley_don_edwards.JPG - Small Beardsley specimen