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The Wiluna Meteorite fall, Western Australia—2 September 1967

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

G. J. H. McCall
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia; Western Australian Museum
P. M. Jeffery
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia; Western Australian Museum

Summary

The fall of a shower of meteorites numbering several hundred fragments at Wiluna, Western Australia, on the night of 2 September 1967, has been investigated. Although the dispersion ellipse had been largely obscured by removal of fragments before a party of scientists were able to make a field investigation, it has, nevertheless, been possible to make a reasonable estimate of the shower distribution pattern. In spite of this removal of fragments, a number of pieces of meteorite were still found in situ. The bulk of the total recovery is in the collections of the Western Australian Museum, and the physical characteristics of these masses and their petrography is described. In all, some 490 individual fusion-crust coated stones and a large number of broken stony fragments are known to have been recovered. The meteorite is an olivine bronzite chondrite remarkably rich in discrete nodules of nickel iron, up to an inch across, commonly aggregated with troilite. A full chemical analysis of this fresh meteoritic material has been supplied by the British Museum (Natural History).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1970

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