Stone-iron meteorite

Stone-iron meteorites , formerly also called siderolites , make up only a small proportion of all meteorites at around five percent . They consist, as the name implies, a mixture of silicate - minerals and for iron meteorites characteristic iron - nickel - alloy . They are further divided into

• Pallasite
• Mesosiderites
• Bencubbinite
• Lodranite
• Siderophyre .

Inside the Pallasites one finds cm-wide, green yellowish magnesium calcareous olivine - crystals which are embedded in a metallic base matrix. Typically the ratio of olivine and metal is around one to two. If the metal content is even higher, the Widmanstätten structures also observed in iron meteorites occur. They probably come from the border zone between the olive-rich mantle and the core of former asteroids, which is dominated by iron and nickel . The other stone-iron meteorites have more complex structures and compositions.