Willamette (meteorite)
Willamette is the name of a meteorite whose discovery in the US state of Oregon is officially given as 1902. However, it came down to earth several thousand years earlier.
features
The Willamette meteorite is classified as a Class IIIAB iron meteorite , a Middle Octahedrite (Om).
Whitefield found 91.46% iron, 8.30% nickel. Dawson, however, 91.66% iron, 7.88% nickel, 0.21% cobalt, 0.09% phosphorus. The density is 7.7 g / cm³.
With the size of a small car - the length is 3 m, the width 2.16 m, the height 1.26 m - the Willamette is the largest meteorite that has been found in the USA and was considered the third largest in the world at the time of its discovery , today the sixth largest. It has a weight of 15.5 t. It was calculated that up to 6 t of the meteorite had been eroded by weather influences over the past 13,000 years. That would result in an original weight of 21 t. Scientists suspect that it originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and was part of the iron core of a planet that collided with another celestial body billions of years ago.
The conical shape and the heavily perforated surface with cavities up to 50 cm deep are characteristic of its appearance . The large cavities on the flat side of the meteorite were not formed in space, but only on earth by the effects of the weather. They were created by the chemical reaction of rainwater with the iron sulphides of the rock, resulting in a weak sulfuric acid . The etching of this acid, an extremely slow process, decomposed the metal and created the cavities that can be seen today. John Wasson, UCLA's iron meteorite expert , wrote about the unusual bubbles at the edge of an enclosure: “This bubble formation is fascinating. We can't remember ever seeing such angular iron sulfide segments in a rock melt. "
Location
The meteorite was discovered by Ellis Hughes in 1902, at the eastern end of the Tualatin Valley, about 3 km northwest of West Linn, Oregon. The location is listed in the meteorite catalog with the following data: 45 ° 22'N, 122 ° 35'W.
Investigations indicate, however, that it did not fall there, but in what is now Canada . Glacier ice , which shaped the North American landscape around 15,000 years ago, transported the meteorite to what is now the Willamette Valley . Its tip was buried about 1 m in the ground, the opposite side was almost parallel to the surface of the earth. The surrounding soil was enriched with nickel.
Ownership
To the disappointment of the finder, the possession of the meteorite was initially awarded to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company , on whose land it was found. It has been on public display since 1905. In 1906 it was bought by Mrs. William Dodge for US $ 20,600 and donated to the American Museum of Natural History , where it has been on display since June 7, 1906. At the time, the purchase price was the highest that has ever been paid for a single object in the museum.
The Clackamas Indians, who inhabited the Willamette Valley area before the first European settlers came, gave the stone the name Tomanowos . They attributed divine and healing powers to him and saw him as a connection between heaven, earth and water. Spiritual traditions based on this have endured to this day. In 1990 the Native American Association went to court to assert their claims to the meteorite. In 2000, the museum and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon signed an agreement. It stipulates that the meteorite should remain in the museum for scientific purposes, but that the trunk should be given access for religious, historical and cultural purposes. Should the museum no longer exhibit the Willamette meteorite in the long term, it will belong to the Grand Ronde Community.
In 1998 the museum exchanged the crown piece of the meteorite for a piece of Martian rock from a private collector. A profitable business for the new owner from New York: Without further ado, he cut a thin slice from the piece of meteorite. The disc, which weighed only 100 grams, was sold for around 13,000 euros. Their buyers in turn offered mini-pieces of the meteorite for sale. Descendants of the Clackamas Indians protested against astro-commerce.
Web links
- The Willamette meteorite as picture of the day , accessed on November 8, 2017
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d database query in the International Society for Meteorities and Planetary Science from May 25, 2012 lpi.usra.edu (English)
- ^ A b He [r] mann J. Klein (Ed.): Yearbook of Astronomy and Geophysics , XVI. Vintage, 1905
- ↑ nytimes.com (English) accessed May 26, 2012
- ↑ a b c d Literally translated from: Richard N. Pugh, John E. Allen: Origin of the Willamette Meteorite . Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX 1986. bibcode : 1986LPICo.600E.208P (English)
- ↑ a b c d Gerald Joseph Home McCall, AJ Bowden, Richard John Howarth (Eds.): The History of Meteoritics and Key Meteorite Collections . Geological Society, 2006, p. 273 (English)
- ↑ a b The Willamette Meteorite. American Museum of Natural History, Rose Center for Earth and Space, accessed October 19, 2019 (American English).
- ^ A b c Richard N. Pugh, John E. Allen: Origin of the Willamette Meteorite . Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX 1986. bibcode : 1986LPICo.600E.208P (English)
- ↑ a b nytimes.com (English) accessed May 26, 2012
- ↑ science.discovery.com (English) accessed May 26, 2012
- ^ An Opportunity to Acquire a Prominent Portion of a Centerpiece Exhibit at a World-Renowned Museum. John Wasson, archived from the original on April 22, 2009 ; Retrieved October 19, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ a b American Museum of Natural History, Willamette Agreement, amnh.org (English) accessed May 26, 2012
- ↑ nytimes.com (English) May 30, 2012
- ↑ Abridged from: Hard currency from heaven . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 2002 ( online ).