Cut, polished and etched slice of the Cape York iron meteorite

Collection Highlights | Updated 10 years ago

Cut, polished and etched slice of the Cape York iron meteorite
Cut, polished and etched slice of the Cape York iron meteorite
Photo from WA Museum

At least eight masses of the Cape York iron meteorite - totalling more than 58 tonnes - have been found in Greenland. The WA Museum obtained a cut slice from one of the masses in 1972 through an exchange with the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen.

Acid treatment has revealed the Widmanstätten pattern that formed by slow cooling of the iron-nickel metal in the solid state within the meteorite’s parent asteroid. The rounded inclusions found in this cut slice are made of the sulfide mineral troilite (iron sulfide, FeS).
 

Meteorite Collection