Springwater Meteorite
The Springwater meteorite is a pallasite, stony iron meteorite, found in 1931 near the town of Springwater, located about 100 miles west of Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, Canada.
This meteorite has a matrix of fresh-appearing honey-yellow olivine beset with numerous jagged, irregular, projections of metal. The metal is dark rusty brown color.
Pallasites are an exceedingly rare type of meteorite, only 84 are currently known out of over 40,000 meteorites in world collections. They are typically unassuming in appearance on the exterior. Yet inside they are a striking combination of the chrome-green mineral olivine set in an iron-nickel matrix.
Origins if pallasites are still the subject of great debate. They may have formed deep within an asteroid, a small, moon-like body, and may represent the boundary layer between the core and mantle of such a body.
In 2009 meteorite hunters returned to the original discovery site and recovered over 100 kilograms of new material. Some of these pieces or fragments thereof can be found for sale online.
It has been suggested that the estimated age of this meteorite is 4.5-billion-year-old.
Photo credit: ©Michael Johnson
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 