Lot 25
Lot 25
An End-Piece from a Seymchan Meteorite

DISCOVERED IN RUSSIA, 1967; MODERN CUTTING

    Price Realised USD 60,000
    Estimate
    USD 60,000 - USD 90,000
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    An End-Piece from a Seymchan Meteorite

    DISCOVERED IN RUSSIA, 1967; MODERN CUTTING

    Price Realised USD 60,000
    Price Realised USD 60,000
    Details
    An End-Piece from a Seymchan Meteorite
    Discovered in Russia, 1967; modern cutting
    This specimen reveals both the internal as well as external structures of a Seymchan pallasite. On the cut face, the crystalline pattern of the two nickel-iron alloys are adorned with olivine crystals suspended in the matrix.
    12½ x 8 x 5in. (31 x 70.5 x 13cm.)
    circa 15kg.
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    Lot Essay

    Seymchan is an unusual and remarkable pallasite; large portions of the rock are olivine free. Pallasites formed at the core-mantle boundary of an asteroid that experienced melting: molten metal from the core mixed with olivine crystals settling downwards from the mantle. When the parent body was shattered by a major impact, a small portion of the olivine-free metal core remained attached to the olivine-rich core-mantle boundary layer. In some specimens, the Widmanstätten pattern is bent, a result of shearing of the pallasite mass as it exploded in the atmosphere

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