LOT 2208

Natural History - Polished Seymchan Meteorite Slab

FOUND JUNE 1967 A.D.

4 3/4 in. (62.4 grams, 12 cm).

A highly polished rectangular slice of the Seymchan meteorite with an exceptional number of transparent olivine inclusions, repaired. [No Reserve]

From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

See Graham, A.L., Bevan, A.W.R. & Hutchison, R., Catalogue of Meteorites, London, 1985, p.323; report of geologist F. A. Mednikov (Magadan, USSR) in a letter, VIII 15, 1967 and of V. 1. Zvetkov (Moscow, USSR) in a letter X 17, 1967; see also Meteoritical Bulletin No.43, Moscow (1968) and database.

The main mass of 272.3 kilograms was found during a survey in June 1967 by geologist F. A. Mednikov. The mass was a triangular-shaped thumb printed meteorite lying among the stones of the brook bed. A second specimen of 51 kilograms was found with a mine detector at a distance of 20 meters from the first in October 1967 by I. H. Markov. During a new expedition in 2004, Dmitri Kachalin recovered about 50 kilograms of new material. Remarkably, about 20% of the new specimens were found to contain olivine crystals, and so revealed the silicate nature of the meteorite. The pallasitic structure was not previously discovered during studies on small metal-only sections of the original mass. The distortion of the Widmanstatten patterns is interpreted as shearing of the superheated meteorite as it broke up in the Earth's atmosphere.