New York

Find location unknown

Purchased: May 2007

Classification: Iron, IIIAB

History: Meteorite was purchased by Labenne from Mark Grubb, who reported that his grandfather purchased the meteorite in about 1965 from the captain of a fishing vessel in New York. The Cape York IIIAB irons have a wide range in compositions (e.g., Ir ranges from 3.0 to 5.7 mg/g) and the composition of this meteorite, with the exception of slightly low As, falls near the high-Ir end of the range. It is possible that this is a Cape York iron, possibly purchased from an Inuit by the ship captain.

Physical characteristics: The mass has the average dimension of 90 × 110 × 80 mm. In the past a large piece was removed and the cut surface polished and etched; a thick patina of rust has developed on this surface.

Petrography: Small section (10 × 12 mm) examined; bandwidth not well defined, 0.90±2 mm. Meteorite weathered on exterior; Widmanstätten pattern is visible in a region 3 mm thick. Plessite mottled, distorted and recrystallized. One small 0.7 × 3.3 mm FeS grain has a metal band crossing it; band has thin FeS stripes oriented parallel to its long axis. No schreibersite was recognized. Meteorite experienced preterrestrial shock followed by annealing and recrystallization.

Geochemistry: Composition: 4.99 mg/g Co, 76.6 mg/g Ni, 18.4 μg/g Ga, <50 μg/g Ge, 3.73 μg/g As, 5.29 μg/g Ir, and 0.594 μg/g Au. Based on the composition and structure, the iron belongs to group IIIAB. The only close relative may be Toubil River. However, only the 20% low As content is inconsistent with it being part of the Cape York compositional trend described by Esbensen et al. (1982); it may be a slightly deviant member of the Cape York shower.