The history of finding another Polish meteorite. The process of meteorite preparation for research and classification. Making 3D copies of the specimen and cutting it.
The paper presents results of bathymetric measurements performed on three crater lakes located in the “Meteoryt Morasko” reserve in west Poland. The maximum depth of the largest of the analysed lakes (1695 m2) was determined to amount to 2.6 m. The parameters of the lake (surface area, depth, etc.) are largely determined by a ditch dug through the crater in the north-western part of the lake, affecting the maximum water volume accumulated in the lake.
Meteorite Antonin fell on 15th July 2021 in Poland. The bolide was observed and recorded by cameras of European Bolide Network, Astronomical Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences. Soon after the fall, specimen of meteorite was recovered and delivered for classification. In this paper, analytical results collected in order to classify the Antonin meteorite are reported. Antonin is L5 ordinary chondrite with deformation degree S3 or S4. This paper includes reports of heterogeneous texture of chondrite and reports on chemical composition of minerals: olivine, low-Ca pyroxene, diopside and glasses, phosphates, chromite and ilmenite, as well as sulfides and native FeNi alloy. The minerals reveal different equilibration degree. Analysis of the texture and chemical composition of Antonin allows to put the meteorite in the framework of current classification of meteorites. It also facilitates making hypotheses on the thermal and collisional processes, that the meteorite experienced while on its parent body.
Suevite is the impact breccia rock with glass particles that attracts the attention of researches because of its broad variability. Many characteristics of the environment and impact process determine this attention, and, in consequence, various descriptions and names of the rock are presented in the literature. The Rochechouart impact structure is a good example of suevite or suevite-like rock diversity in its several localities (Rochechouart, Chassenon, LaValette, Montoume). The relationships between suevite components and target rocks can be exemplified by Kara and Popigai and other astroblemes. To simplify the classification of the rock, its main and more stable components (matrix, glass, clasts) should be considered. More detailed analysis of the suevite components can be used for sub-classifications, similarly as it is done for other Earth rocks. In addition, a short description of suevites from various astroblemes is presented. The possibility of the monomict suevite breccia creation is discussed.
Iron meteorites are meteorites whose main constituent is iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni), which occur in two forms of Fe-Ni minerals – kamacite and taenite. Since their composition makes them more resistant to shattering (crushing), and they are more challenging to ablate when passing through the atmosphere, they statistically fall in the form of larger lumps than stone or iron-stone meteorites. Their metallic structure and highly high weight make them easy to distinguish from ordinary rocks. The mass of all known iron meteorites is over 500 tons, which is ~89% of known meteorites, but falls of iron meteorites account for only 4.56% of all observed falls (wiki.meteoritica.pl). The ten largest meteorites in the world are iron meteorites! In the past, the term siderite was used to describe iron meteorites. The classification of iron meteorites is based on two criteria. The older method is based on the average nickel content and the crystal structure revealed on cut and etched surfaces, the so-called the Thomson-Widmanstätten patterns. In this division, we distinguish three groups: hexahedrites (4–6 wt.% Ni), the most popular octahedrites (6–12 wt.% Ni) and ataxites (>12 wt.% Ni). The second, more recent method of classifying iron meteorites is based on their chemical composition, in particular the content of trace elements such as germanium (Ge), gallium (Ga), platinum (Pt), arsenic (As), gold ( Au) and iridium (Ir). Another parameter that defines the groups of iron meteorites is their mineral composition. “Indicator” minerals are in the form of various compounds and multiple shapes and sizes: sulfides, phosphides, carbides, nitrides, and silicate inclusions. Trace element content versus nickel content reveals chemical clusters representing the different chemical groups of iron meteorites. Some of the iron meteorites come from the partially differentiated asteroid ruptured at the beginning of forming the iron core and the silicate-rich shell (these are groups IAB and IIE). The remaining meteorites from other groups come from the nuclei of minor differentiated asteroids, shattered in collisions shortly after formation.
PL
Meteoryty żelazne to grupa meteorytów, których głównym składnikiem jest żelazo (Fe) i nikiel (Ni), występujące w dwóch formach stopu Fe-Ni – kamacytu i taenitu. Ponieważ ich skład czyni je bardziej odpornymi na rozbicie (kruszenie) i trudniej ulegają procesowi ablacji przy przelocie przez atmosferę, więc statystycznie spadają one w postaci większych brył niż meteoryty kamienne lub żelazno-kamienne. Ich metaliczna budowa i wyjątkowo duża waga czynią z nich meteoryty łatwe do odróżnienia od zwykłych skał. Masa wszystkich znanych meteorytów żelaznych wynosi ponad 500 ton, co stanowi ~89% masy znanych meteorytów, ale spadki meteorytów żelaznych stanowią już tylko 4,56% wszystkich obserwowanych spadków (Wiki.Meteoritica.pl). Dziesięć największych okazów meteorytów na świecie to meteoryty żelazne! Dawniej na określenie meteorytów żelaznych używano określenia syderyt (siderite). Podziału meteorytów żelaznych dokonuje się według dwóch kryteriów. Starsza metoda bazuje na średniej zawartości niklu i na strukturze krystalicznej ujawniającej się na przeciętych i wytrawionych powierzchniach tzw. figury Thomsona-Widmanstättena. Przy takim podziale wyróżniamy trzy grupy: heksaedryty (hexahedrites) (śr. 4–6wt.% Ni), najpopularniejsze oktaedryty (octahedrites) (śr. 6–12wt.% Ni) oraz ataksyty (ataxites) (>12wt.% Ni). Druga, nowsza metoda klasyfikacji meteorytów żelaznych, opiera się na ich składzie chemicznym, w szczególności na zawartości pierwiastków śladowych (trace elements), takich jak german (Ge), gal (Ga), platyna (Pt), arsen (As), złoto (Au) i iryd (Ir). Drugim parametrem definiującym grupy meteorytów żelaznych jest ich skład mineralny. Minerałami „wskaźnikowymi” są występujące w formie różnych związków oraz w różnej formie i wielkości: siarczki, fosforki, węgliki, azotki i inkluzje krzemianowe. Zawartość pierwiastków śladowych versus zawartość niklu ujawnia chemiczne klastry (skupienia, clusters) reprezentujące różne chemiczne grupy meteorytów żelaznych. Część meteorytów żelaznych pochodzi z częściowo zdyferencjonowanych planetozymali rozerwanych na początku formowania żelaznego jądra i bogatej w krzemiany skorupy (to grupy IAB i IIE). Pozostałe meteoryty z innych grup pochodzą z jąder małych całkowicie zdyferencjonowanych planetozymali, rozbitych w zderzeniach, krótko po uformowaniu się.
There are specified criteria used to verify if some geological structure was developed during hypervelocity impact. Some of them are related to the passage of a shock wave through rocks, so are considered as definitive. Porządzie, Jaszczulty & Ochudno are structures discovered in 2014 (based on LiDAR data). They have many features suggesting possible impact origin. In shape of Porządzie there can be even recognized possible traces of shock waves, similar to those present during hypersonic flow (similar to observed e.g. in an airburst shape of extraordinary bright meteors). Unfortunately, this kind of observations (morphometry) on Earth is still considered as not enough to confirm the crater. The aim of recent study was to search for additional traces, which may help to prove that mentioned structures were created during common oblique impact event. Initially there were chosen 3 locations for outcrops, but finally samples were collected from 6 smaller pits. In Porzadzie structure there were discovered cemented rocks with various shape and size (concretions or lithic, parautochtonous breccias) and 2 rocks with possibly shocked quartz, having basal sets of thin and straight lamellae. On once surface there were recognized hierarchal branched (including spoon-like) structures resembling shatter cones. In uprange, at depth of about 50–70 cm, soil was rich in small charcoal pieces (like in other relatively small craters: e.g. Campo del Cielo, Whitecourt, Kaali, Ilumetsa, Morasko). All these observations, taken together with previous results, are about to confirm impact origin of Porzadzie crater.
Undoubtedly, the river transport is very important in tektites distribution. Most of the moldavites are located in fluvial sediments, what indicates their redeposition origin. Similar situation is on the territory of Poland. Finding of the autochthonous Polish tektites seems very difficult and requires further fieldworks.
The paper presents the circumstances and data accompanying meteorite falls in recent years. The study contains descriptions of 21 falls observed in 2020 and 15 falls in 2021. These phenomena took place on all continents, except the polar regions. In conclusion, this work is a collection of several dozen stories about freshly fallen meteorites. They show many aspects connected with the observations and the hunting for new specimens.
The history, how the Mössbauer studies of meteorites began in Poland, was already described in our “Meteorites Odyssey… 20 years have passed”. One late afternoon (it was probably Spring 1995) I [Jolanta Gałązka-Friedman] was sitting in the Nonna Bakun’s office (at Banacha street) and we were talking about planet Mars. Suddenly Mr. Marian Stępniewski jumped to our room saying: We have a new Polish meteorite. It is called Baszkówka. Do you have any suggestion, how could we study this meteorite? Mössbauer spectroscopy – we both answered at the same time. And this is how it started, and it has been continued for the next quarter of a century. The first results of the Mössbauer studies of the Baszkówka meteorite were presented at the ISIAME conference in Johannesburg in 1996. In this paper we present the most important problems related to meteorites, which were investigated by us using Mössbauer spectroscopy. We will, however, show almost no formulas. We will try to explain everything by a method based on plots of Mössbauer spectra. We will try not to boast too much regarding our successes, but to explain also the problems that we were not able to resolve. While investigating the Baszkówka meteorite, we got most fascinated by troilite. We noticed that most of the laboratories determined the Mössbauer parameters of troilite incorrectly. They did not take into account the so-called theta angle, the value of which depends strongly on the number of vacancies and various additives. We thought that the theta angle may show us the parent body of the investigated meteorite. Unfortunately, this hypothesis turned up to be too difficult to defend. Then we studied Morasko meteorite and we discovered, by the comparison with Baszkówka meteorite Mössbauer spectra, and determined – up to now – not identified mineral phases present also in Morasko, such as pyrrhotite, daubréelite, taenite, tetrataenite, antitaenite and cohenite. In 2019 we published in MAPS a paper titled “Application of Mössbauer spectroscopy, multidimensional discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis distance for classification of equilibrated ordinary chondrites” (4M method), in which a new objective method for classification of ordinary chondrites is based on the knowledge of the Mössbauer spectra of the 4 main mineral phases present in the ordinary chondrites of H, L and LL type. Now we are working on the refinement of the 4M method enlarging our collaborative team by various foreign laboratories.
Up to now, twenty Polish moldavites were recovered from fluvial deposits of Gozdnica formation. Apart from typical bottle green colour, moldavites also yield other typical features for tektites like presence of bubbles and inclusions of lechatelierite. Low degree of corrosion and palaeogeography suggest river transport flow from Lusatia to the east direction in the Miocene.
The Ordovician was a period with large meteorite showers, what was confirmed by fossil chondrite finds in Swedish limestones. In Bukówka section near Kielce deposits of the same age are exposed. During field works was noticed that echinoderms do not occur in three samples. It was proved that echinoderms were very sensitive to environmental changes and their disappearance was associated with a meteorite falls.
Mean atomic weight Amean of Ensisheim (LL6, fall 1492) ordinary chondrite has been determined using literature data on chemical composition of the meteorite and using relationships: between mean atomic weight and Fe/Si atomic ratio, between Amean and grain density, and between Amean and magnetic susceptibility (Szurgot 2015a–f, 2016a, b, d, e). It was shown that Ensisheim’s Amean = 23.32, and 23.06 for composition without water, and with H2O, respectively. These values are close to the mean atomic weight of LL chondrite falls (Amean = 23.36, and 23.03), and are close to Amean values of LL6 chondrite falls (Amean = 23.30, and 23.06, Szurgot 2016b). Ensisheim’s Fe/Si atomic ratio (0.509) leads to Amean = 23.16±0.12 which is close to the values determined by bulk composition. This means that Ensisheim belongs to LL6 chondrites, as previously classified (Jarosewich i Dodd 1985). Using dependence between mean atomic weight and grain density (Szurgot 2015a–c, 2016d) leads to Amean = 23.70±0.54 (dgr = 3.52±0.04 g/cm3, Macke 2010), and using dependence between Amean and magnetic susceptibility (Szurgot 2016a, d) gives Ameanc = 22.78±0.24 (logc = 4.15±0.09, Macke 2010). Arithmetic mean Amean (dgr) and Amean (logc) gives 23.24±0.65, and arithmetic mean of Amean (dgr), Amean (logc), and Amean(Fe/Si), gives 23.21±0.46 values close each other, and close to Amean(bulk composition) determined using compositional data. Mean atomic number Zmean, and Amean/Zmean ratio of the meteorite have been also determined. Ensisheim’s Zmean = 11.51 for composition without H2O, and 11.40 for composition with H2O. Amean/Zmean ratios are: 2.026 and 2.023, for composition without water, and with H2O, respectively. Ensisheim’s silicates shown values: Amean = 22.19, Zmean = 10.97, Amean/Z mean = 2.022, Fe/Si = 0.355, Amean(Fe/Si) = 22.28, and Fe, Ni metal values: Amean = 57.26, Zmean = 26.96, and Amean/Z mean = 2.124.
Wlotzka scale (Wlotzka 1993) is commonly used to determine the weathering grade of ordinary chondrites. The scale is descriptive and based mostly on a subjective assessment of researcher. In this paper authors define a new, quantitative method to establish the W0–W4 weathering grade, which is based on planimetry of FeNi grains. Results of planimetry are compared with average content of FeNi metal in unweathered chondrites from the same group. Weathering grade estimated by this method are consistent with, or slightly different from the official one determined in classification, what proves the efficacy of the proposed method. Moreover, the method was applied to define weathering grade of meteoritic samples not classified so far: Pułtusk (W2), Thuathe (W2), Gao-Guenie (W2/W3), NWA 5205 (W3), NWA 4505 (W3), NWA 5296 (W2).
The Janisjarvi impact structure is located on the northern edge of Ladoga Lake, in Karelia, Russia. This research was carried out to study the biotite-quartz-feldspar-garnet-staurolite schist and several impact-metamorphosed rocks. In schist, biotite inclusions in garnet, pleochroic fields in biotite and asymmetry in the staurolite-biotite contact were observed. These characteristics were related to regional metamorphism of the target rock, and impact-induced features were not detected. No ‘kinky’ bands were observed in biotite. Fluidal structures and undulose extinction were rare in the analysed specimens. Injections of the tagamite melt into the clasts of cataclased recrystallising glass were noted. Fine-grained grey impact rock was cemented by a glassy micro-net with specimens of recrystallising quartz paramorphosis. In most of the analysed impactites, isotropic spherules and ‘ballen quartz’ structures, as well as sets of PDF (planar deformation features) and PF (planar fractures) in tagamite and quartz paramorphosis specimens were recognised. Except in schist, dynamic recrystallisation by ‘boundary migration’ was common. Secondary mineralisations were found for iron oxides, chlorite and calcite.
PL
Struktura uderzeniowa Janisjarvi znajduje się na północnym skraju jeziora Ładoga w rosyjskiej Karelii. Analizowano łupek typu biotyt-kwarc-skaleń-granat-staurolit ze skał podłoża struktury oraz kilka skał poddanych metamorfozie uderzeniowej. W łupku odkryto inkluzje biotytowe w granacie, pola pleochroiczne w biotycie i asymetrię kontaktu staurolit-biotyt. W biotycie nie zaobserwowano pasm typu ‘kinky’. Struktury fluidalne i faliste wygaszanie światła były rzadkie w analizowanych okazach. Odnotowano injekcje stopu tagamitu w klasty skataklazowanego rekrystalizującego szkliwa. Okaz rekrystalizującej paramorfozy kwarcu był scementowany z drobnoziarnistą skałą impaktową mikrosiecią szkliwa. W większości analizowanych impaktytów rozpoznano izotropowe sferule i struktury ’kwarcu groniastego’, a w tagamicie i paramorfozach kwarcu także od jednego do trzech zestawów lameli deformacji planarnych (PDF) oraz spękania planarne (PF). Spękania planarne były znacznie rzadsze niż deformacje i powstawały w stadium postimpaktu. Z wyjątkiem łupku, dynamiczna rekrystalizacja poprzez „migrację falistych granic ziarn” była powszechna. Stwierdzono wtórne mineralizacje tlenków żelaza, chlorytu i kalcytu.
Bioremediation is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology that exploits the capabilities of microorganisms to degrade organic pollutants leading to complete mineralization. It has become the most preferred technique for oil spill remediation on soil in Nigeria. The study aims to examine the implication of particle sizes on bioremediation of crude oil polluted sandy soil in Okolomade part of Niger Delta Basin, southern Nigeria. Once a week samples were collected for a total of 28 days and were analyzed for chemical and microbial content in an aerobic setting. The classification of the soil samples was done according to the U.S. Bureau of soil classification system, the soil samples were divided into X and Y, where X represented fine to coarse sand and Y represented very fine to coarse sand. The particle size distribution, total hydrocarbon content (THC), total heterotrophic bacteria count (THBC), total organic carbon, soil pH, and available nitrogen and phosphorus were the parameters investigated throughout the 28-day examination of the soil samples. The results shows that the total heterotrophic bacterial count and soil pH increased in all of the soil samples, with samples A for fine to coarse sand (X) and sample E for very fine to coarse sand showing the most significant increase with values of 120 Cfu × 105/g and 266 Cfu × 105/g, respectively. These samples also had the lowest coefficients of uniformity (Cu). The results further reveal that the total hydrocarbons content, available nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as total organic carbon, all decreased noticeably. In contrast to samples with higher coefficient of uniformity values, samples with lower coefficients of uniformity showed a higher decrease in hydrocarbon content, suggesting that particle size distribution affects bioremediation. 0.0899 and 0.0942 were calculated to be the correlation coefficient of total hydrocarbon content vs coefficient of uniformity for fine to coarse sand (X) and very fine to coarse sand (Y). The contaminated soil samples are treated by combining pig manure, NPK 15:15:15, and the microorganism Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the total hydrocarbon content of sandy soil was reduced.
Mössbauer 57Fe measurements of three ordinary chondrites type H and of three ordinary chondrites type LL were performed at room temperature. The spectral areas were fitted using the “Recoil” program (Lagarec i in. 1998). Fitting was repeated three times which allowed us to determinate the differences between the results of fits performed by different persons.
At the end of the 19th century J. Siemaszko revived interest in meteorites in tsarist Russia. He presented information about contemporarily fallen and historical meteorites in popular newspapers and magazines. He also collected meteorites, and his set was the largest private collection in Europe. Siemaszko is considered to be Russian, but he was a Pole who, orphaned in early childhood, studied and all his adult life worked in St. Petersburg, making a lasting contribution to the development of education in Russia.
The Pułtusk H chondritic breccia records a complex impact history and contains various products of impact metamorphism. Here, impact melt lithology is described, which is embedded into the Pułtusk breccia. The impact melt clast is formed by microcrystalline quenched silicates and metal-troilite globules and chondritic relicts are retained in the melt. The relicts record strong shock deformation, S4–S5 and they have well developed foliated fabric of metal grains. The melt formed by severe collision and impact melting on the parent body. The chondritic material was superheated and molten. Silicate melt unmixed from the metal-sulphide melt and both were rapidly quenched. Most likely the event occurred during Late Heavy Bombardment, ~3.6 Ga.
The article presents topics related to meteorites and meteoritics undertaken in the journal „Biblioteka Warszawska” („Warsaw Library”). The monthly „Biblioteka Warszawska” was published in the years 1841–1914 and had a popular science character. Articles in the journal show how knowledge about meteorites changed in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.