Farmington meteorite, Washington County, Kansas, USAi

Regional Level Types
Farmington meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Washington County	County
Kansas	State
USA	Country

Ordinary chondrite, black (L5,br)
Fall, 25 June 1890; 89.4 kg, 2 stones

Just after noon a double trail of smoke was seen and detonations were hear over a radius of ~150 km in both Kansas and Nebraska. With a loud burst an 85.3 kg stone soon struck very close to a very frightened farmer working beneath a wagon. The stone created a crater more than a meter deep. A second smaller stone (4 kg), apparently associated with the smaller smoke trail, was recovered later. Underneath a 1 mm thick fusion crust the meteorite contains numerous chondrules, mineral fragments, and prominent veins. The stone is now classified as an ordinary chondrite of the L5 class with 21.22 wt% total iron as well as relatively well-equilibrated olivine (Fa23) and orthopyroxene (Fs21). In addition to the two dominant silicates, minor amounts of albitic plagioclase, troilite, and Fe-Ni metal are present. Accessory chromite and merrillite are also present. However, most intriguing are a number of features which are associated with preterrestrial shock. The meteorite is a 'black' chondrite with much of the matrix darkened by dispersed microscopic grains (metal and, apparently, some magnetite). Small vugs also contain some intriguing shock-mobilized constituents. Chromite has unusual textures as it is found both as found as chromite aggregates and in chromite-plagioclase assemblages. Odd textures within both opaque oxides and silicates have been the focus of much attention. An unusually short cosmic ray exposure age of < 25 ka has also been reported.

Farmington is the fifth most massive of the 80 witnessed falls of L5 meteorites listed by the Meteoritical Bulletin Database (as of early 2016). The L group of ordinary chondrites (ordinary chondrites relatively high in total iron) account for ~40% of all fully classified meteorite falls. About a quarter of the larger stone was broken off and distributed locally before it was was acquired by Henry Ward who distributed it on a national and international scale. By 2000 the largest masses were held at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History (>20 kg), the National Museum in Budapest (>10 kg), and the American Museum of Natural History in New York (6 kg).

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References