Marjalahti meteorite, Viipuri, Ladoga Region, Republic of Karelia, Russiai

Regional Level Types
Marjalahti meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Viipuri	- not defined -
Ladoga Region	Region
Republic of Karelia	Republic
Russia	Country

Pallasite, main group (PMG)
Fall, 1 June 1902; 45 kg

After a bolide accompanied by detonations, a 'stone' was seen to fall and subsequently broken into pieces. The 'stone' was actually a Pallasite, a relatively rare stony-iron meteorite composed of subequal amounts of Fe-Ni metal and Olivine. Marjalahti was only the second of 4 witnessed Pallasite falls and until the 1981 fall of Omolon it was the most massive Pallasite fall. Marjalahti itself was more iron than stone as its 89% metal content is at the high end of the Pallasite range. Other than that Marjalahti is a fairly normal Pallasite. As in many Pallasites, conspicuous Neumann bands in Kamacite are due to strong preterrestrial shock(s). Both olivine composition [Fa12] and metal composition [8% Ni] indicate that it is a 'main group' Pallasite. Minor amounts of troilite, schreibersite, chromite and merrillite are also present. A relatively long cosmic ray exposure age (~180 Ma) is reported in the literature and may be related to recent interest in possible exposure to trans-uranium cosmic rays. (See references)

While Pallasites represent only ~0.3% of all observed falls, they are more durable than many meteorite types and are frequently seen in museums where their olivine crystals now float in a sea of frozen Fe-Ni metal. The main mass is in Helsinki, but about 8 kg have been distributed to various museums.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References