DISCOVERY OF THE ALLAN HILLS A76006, ANTARCTICA, STONY METEORITE

Name: ALLAN HILLS A76006

Place of find: West of Allan Nunatak on the edge of the Polar plateau, Victoria Land, Antarctica.

76°38'59"S., 159°14'42"E.

Date of find: January 20, 1977.

Class and type: Stone. Olivine-bronzite chondrite (H6). Olivine Fa18.3.

Number of individual

specimens: 1

Total weight: 1137 g

Circumstances of find: Found during a helicopter search over an area of bare ice in the 1976-1977 season of the U.S.-Japan Joint Antarctic Expedition.

Source: K. Yanai, 1978. First meteorites found in Victoria Land, Antarctica, December 1976 and January 1977. Mem. Nat. Inst. Polar Res., Special Issue No. 8, 51-69.

Note: Also known as Allan Nunatak No. 6 and as Allan Hills No. 6. Allan Hills A76006 is the name approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society.

See also: W.A. Cassidy, E. Olsen and K. Yanai, 1977. Antarctica: a deep-freeze storehouse for meteorites. Science 198, 727-731, where the coordinates of the find site are given as 76°38'47"S., 159°22'57"E., and E. Olsen et al., 1978. Eleven new meteorites from Antarctica, 1976-1977. Meteoritics 13, 209-225.

Sample No.: ALHA76006

Location: Allan Hills

Field No.:

Weight (gms): 271.0

Meteorite Type: H6 Chondrite

Physical Description:

The stone has a remnant fusion crust that is black and <.5 mm thick. The fusion crust is patchy on the T surface and is more solid on the W surface. A reddish-brown surface underlies the fusion crust on the S and E surfaces. The fusion crust has many small fractures. The interior of the stone is iron oxide stained, however, gray clasts, some of which are circular in cross section are distinguish-able under the binocular microscope. Dimensions: 6.0 x 4.0 x 4.2 cm.

Petrographic Description:

This is same sample as Allan Hills #6, described in Olsen, et al., 1978.