Oglat Sidi Ali        33°31’45"N, 02°37’01" W

Eastern, Morocco

Find: 2013 Apr

Classification: Iron meteorite (ungrouped)

History: At least 30 pieces, ranging from 3 to 10s of grams, with a total mass of 240 g, were recovered by Hassane Nachit, IZU, in Apr 2013.

Physical characteristics: External surface is moderately oxidized. The cut surface displays no trace of staining.

Petrography: (V. Moggi Cecchi, G. Pratesi, S. Caporali, Uni-Fi) A cut and polished section displays 3 prominent lamellae directions, intersecting at 60° angles. The meteorite is a very fine octahedrite, with an average bandwidth of 0.2±0.1 mm. On a much finer scale, the lamellae are composed of multiple tiny kamacite spindles roughly parallel to each other and ranging in width from 30 to 80 μm, separated by thin, Ni-rich taenitic spindles both forming a plessitic octahedrite arrangement.

Geochemistry: (C. Herd and G. Chen, UAb) Ni=140.7, Co=11.7 (both mg/g); Cu=249, Ga=79.1, As=9.99, W=5.79, Ir=2.5, Pt=43.9, Pd=8.79, Ru=53.22, Re=0.28 (all μg/g). Data were obtained by ICP-MS using North Chile as a calibration standard.

Classification: Ungrouped, plessitic octahedrite. The texture shows characteristics similar to those of other plessitic octahedrites, but the high Ni, Ga, Ru, Pd and Pt, as well as the relatively low Ir contents are outside the limits for the IIC group.

Specimens: Several pieces, with total mass 195 g, are on deposit at IZU; 3 pieces, 30 g in total, are on deposit at MSN-FI; 11 g and a polished sample weighing 3.5 g are on deposit at MSP.