Image: Murnpeowie meteorite

Description: Murnpeowie Meteorite - this spectacular, 2520 pound iron meteorite was found in the South Australian Outback in 1909. The mass has a well-preserved, dark-colored, outer surface with nice regmaglypts (surface cavities). Iron meteorites exposed at Earth's surface oxidize & rust relatively quickly. Given the fresh nature of Murnpeowie, it's been estimated that it fell to Earth within five years of it being found. This rock is an octahedrite, dominated by kamacite & taenite. Sample material cut away for analysis (see dark orangish-colored area at upper left of meteorite) has shown that the Widmanstätten structure commonly seen in octahedrites is not well preserved in Murnpeowie. This has been inferred to be evidence for a significant heating event at some time in the rock's history. (SAM Met 30A, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Australia) Location: South Australian Outback between Lake Callabonna and Lake Blanche, NE by E of Mt. Hopeless, near the Strzelecki Track, eastern South Australia.
Title: Murnpeowie meteorite
Credit: Flickr: Murnpeowie Meteorite
Author: James St. John
Permission: This image, which was originally posted to Flickr.com, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 16:39, 10 July 2011 (UTC) by Basilicofresco (talk). On that date, it was available under the license indicated. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 CC BY 2.0 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 truetrue
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