Grove Mountains 052408 (GRV 052408)        72° 47' 2"S,  75° 16' 18"E

Antarctica

Found: 17 January 2006

Classification: Ureilite

History: The meteorite (0.77 g) was found in a moraine west of the north segment of Gale Escarpment in Grove Mountains by Y. Li. It is a fragment with no fusion crust and weathered heavily to dark brown.

Petrography: (B. Miao, X. Wang, J. Wang, Y. He, W. Liu, B. Wang, GUT) It has a cataclastic porphyritic texture, consisting of coarse-grained olivine and pigeonite (about 30 vol%) embedded in fine-grained carbonaceous matrix (about 70 vol%). The olivine grains have embayed boundaries, and show significantly reduced features with FeO-poor rims (Fa as low as 1.3 mol%). The reduced rims contain abundant tiny inclusions of Ni-poor metal and sulfides. But pigeonite doesn’t have obvious reduced rims with homogeneous composition. Some small graphite patches are found in the interstices. Limonite veins due to terrestrial weathering are common.

Geochemistry: (B. Miao, X. Wang, J. Wang, Y. He, W. Liu, B. Wang, GUT) Olivine (Fa_1.3-23.1, average=Fa_14.7), pigeonite (En_71.3±0.5Wo_10.9±0.2Fs_17.8±0.4).

Classification: Achondrite (ureilite), moderate shocked.

Specimens: All of the sample mass and a polished section are on deposit at PRIC.