DISCOVERY OF METEORITIC AND METEORIC DUST IN SOIL FROM THE PLACE OF THE TUNGUSKA METEORITE FALL.

In the summer of 1957, while studying simples of soil brought by L.A. Kulik's expeditions in the years 1929-1930 from the place of the Tunguska Meteorite (U.S.S.R.) fall, A. A. Yavnel', of the Committee on Meteorites, U.S.S.R.. Academy of Sciences, discovered particles of meteoritic and meteoric dust.

The particles of the meteoritic dust are small laminae with sharp corners, chips or pieces measuring a fraction of a millimeter or more, and are the result of the crushing of the meteorite during its fall (explosion). Spectrographic and microchemical analyses showed iron with 7 to 10 per cent nickle content and approximately 0.7 per cent cobalt. The composition and presence of some dust particles clearly shaped as little columns prompt the suppostition that the Tunguska meteorite is of the iron, oetahedrite class.

The particles of dust are regular black globules (probably magnetite) 0.03 to 0.06 mm in diameter. So far only nine globeles have been discovered and since there are very few of them, analyses have not been made. The globules are the result of melting of meteoritic matter during passage through the earth's atmosphere, and were part of the smoke-train of fire-ball that settled on the earth's surface and became mixed with the soil.

The study of the samples of the soil is being continued.