Oued Bourdim 001        32°0’21.1"N, 3°14’15.6" W

Eastern, Morocco

Find: 2007

Classification: Pallasite (Eagle Station group)

History: (H. Chennaoui Aoudjehane, FSAC): In November, 2007, Brahim Oubadi from Bouanane, Morocco, was searching for meteorites on the Oued Bourdim wadi. He found many small pieces of a heavy rock (for its size) that looked different from the surrounding materials. Over the next few years, Mr. Oubadi found approximately 400 g. He sold the stones to a meteorite dealer in Boudnib, and they were subsequently sold at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show where they were nicknamed "Boudnib".

Physical characteristics: Many small stones totaling 393 g. The largest are 48.9 g and 68.9 g, whereas the majority are <10 g. Exterior of the stones is dark colored and the olivines are sand blasted with a waxy luster. Fusion crust largely absent, though there are a few remaining patches on the metal. Medium to low weathering.

Petrography: (L. Garvie, ASU). A 3 × 2 cm sawn surface of the 48.9 g stone shows 30 areal% metal. Olivine grains highly fractured, rounded and <1 cm across. Swathing kamacite to 1 mm thick and discontinuous. There are a few areas of swathing schreibersite to 0.5 mm thick. Ropey schreibersite also present within the swathing kamacite. Troilite rare, occurring as spheres to 1 mm in the olivine. The bulk of the metal has a martensite decomposition structure (Novotny et al., 1982), composed of Widmanstätten alpha platelets (typically <100 μm long) in fine plessite matrix; schreibersite 10 to 50 μm is common. The platelets are surrounded by taenite rims. Two chromite grains present. Excluding the 48.9 g stone, six additional stones were sectioned, polished, and etched - all showed metal with the martensite decomposition structure. Terrestrial Fe oxides locally replacing swathing kamacite and troilite.

Geochemistry: (J. Wasson, UCLA): Metal composition by INAA (mean of two analyses) Ni 170.3 mg/g; Co 9.1 mg/g, Ga 8.1 μg/g, As 12.8 μg/g, Ir 5.98 μg/g, W 0.36 μg/g, Pt 17 μg/g, and Au 1.34 μg/g. (L. Garvie, ASU): EMPA of eight separate olivine grains give Fa_21.2±0.2, FeO/MnO=99.9±9.0. (K. Ziegler, UNM): Analyses of 5 acid-washed olivine subsamples by laser fluorination dual inlet mass spectrometry gave, respectively, δ¹⁷O -6.02, -5.98, -5.82, -6.04, -6.48; δ¹⁸O -2.17, -2.19, -1.85, -2.15, -2.98; Δ¹⁷O -4.88, -4.83, -4.85, -4.91, -4.91 per mil (reference TFL slope = 0.528, values are linearized).

Classification: Pallasite of the Eagle Station chemical group.

Specimens: ASU 116.7 g, Ruben Garcia 158.8 g, and Bob Cuchiara 68.9 g.