Pallasite

Pallasites belong to the group of stone -iron meteorites. It is believed that they form in differentiated asteroids in the boundary layer between the nickel-iron core and the silicate mantle.

Pallasites consist of olivine crystals embedded in a matrix of nickel - iron. They were named after the German scholar Peter Simon Pallas, who had the first " pallasite " found on his travels in Siberia near Krasnoyarsk.

The Pallasites be divided into three groups based on their different chemical composition:

• Pallasites the main group; known representative is the 1749 found in Siberia " Pallas- iron ". This important, now known under the name " Krasnoyarsk " meteorite was first investigated by Peter Simon Pallas in the years 1772 to 1777 and published in the pioneering work of Ernst Chladni FF 1794. Other large and impressive Pallasite discoveries were, inter alia, 1807 in Belarus ( " Brahin " ) and 1951 in Argentina ( " Esquel " ) made ​​.
• Eagle Station group
• Pyroxene pallasite

Each of these groups has been formed in a separate parent body.

In April 2008, the 1000 kg main mass of the Fukang pallasite was offered by Bonhams in New York ( found in China in 2000). The estimate was 2 million U.S. dollars, but the meteorite was not sold.

Pallasite applies in addition to the above significance, however, as a synonym for in meteorites (also stone -iron meteorites ) occurring native iron.