Meteorites
This sample is from a pallasite called Seymchan which was found in the Magadan district of Russia in June of 1967.
The dark rock areas are iron-rich olivine called fayalite, while the metallic portions are a mixture of nickel and iron almost forming a pattern called widmanstatten.
Below is a sample that was purchased at a mineral shop in Germany. It was not certain it was a meteorite at first.
It is reported to have been collected from Zagora, Morocco.
To learn more about it, it was cut and a polished thin section was made in Brock's petrographic laboratory for analysis.
Below are photomicrographs of this sample, first in plane polarized light and then in cross-polarized light. (click them to expand)
...and here in cross-polarized light. The multi-coloured bands are an unusual form of olivine found in meteorites. Instead of growing in well-formed crystals, the molten olivine grew in elongate forms because material nucleated at the ends of chains faster than it could outward. This sample was confirmed to be a meteorite in this way.
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