Brenham (meteorite)
Pallasite meteorite found near Haviland, Kansas, U.S.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brenham[1] is a pallasite meteorite found near Haviland, a small town in Kiowa County, Kansas, United States. Pallasites are a type of stony–iron meteorite that when cut and polished show yellowish olivine (peridot) crystals. The Brenham meteorite is associated with the Haviland Crater.
| Brenham | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Stony–iron |
| Class | Pallasite |
| Group | Anomalous Pallasite (Pallasite-an)[1] |
| Composition | 8.5% Ni, 21.5 ppm Ga, 55.5 ppm Ge, 0.023 ppm Ir |
| Country | United States |
| Region | Kansas |
| Coordinates | 37°34′57″N 99°9′49″W |
| Observed fall | No |
| Fall date | 10,000–20,000 years ago[2] |
| Found date | 1882 |
| TKW | 4.3 tons[1] |
 Related media on Wikimedia Commons | |
History
In 1949, a collector named H.O. Stockwell discovered a mass of 453.6 kilograms (1,000 lb),[3] known at the time as "The World's Largest Pallasite Meteorite."
In October 2005, geologist Philip Mani and meteorite hunter Steve Arnold, searching on a farm in Kiowa County, located and recovered the largest fragment ever found of Brenham: a single pallasite mass of 650 kilograms (1,430 lb).[4] This specimen is an oriented pallasite, meaning that its shape caused it to maintain a stable orientation during entry into the atmosphere instead of tumbling, and the third largest pallasite of this type found in the world.[2]
Classification and composition
Specimens
The 650 kilograms (1,430 lb) mass found by Mani and Arnold is currently housed in a private collection in Texas.
The 453.6 kilograms (1,000 lb) mass discovered in 1949 is called The Space Wanderer and is on display at The Big Well in Greensburg, Kansas. It was found, and excavated using hand tools, on the Ellis Peck farm, east of Greensburg, Kansas.
A large collection of Brenham meteorites, along with numerous fragments weighing a total of 8,500 pounds, were once housed at the now-closed Kansas Meteorite Museum and Nature Center in Haviland, Kansas.[5][6]
Fragment housed in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
Specimen almost olivine-less
Small slice at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Meteorite at Big Well museum in Greensburg, Kansas
