Name: Miller Range 090564 This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Abbreviation: MIL 090564 Observed fall: No Year found: 2009 Country: Antarctica [Collected by US Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET)] Mass: 258 g
Macroscopic Description - Tim McCoy and Linda Welzenbach
This egg-shaped iron exhibits a mildly pitted surface with oxidation halos and infrequent elongated indentations reaching 7 mm in length. A flattened surface exhibits a copper color and metallic sheen.
Thin Section Description - Tim McCoy and Linda Welzenbach
The section samples a portion of an interior slice, including the surface of the sample. No fusion crust remains on the meteorite, although phosphides in the thick (~3-4 mm) heat-altered zone often exhibit spherical voids suggestive of micromelting and volatilization. The heat altered zone is dominated by an irregular plessitic structure, while the interior exhibits a more regular plessitic to micro-Widmanstätten pattern with rare platelets of kamacite and abundant rhabdite phosphides. The entire meteorite appears to have formed from a single austenite crystal. A microprobe traverse finds kamacite, zoned taenite with rim compositions up to 30 wt.% Ni, and rare Ni-rich (45 wt.%) phosphides. The bulk composition is approximately 9.9 wt.% Ni, 0.7 wt.% Co and 0.2 wt.% P. The meteorite is a Ni-rich ataxite and chemically and structurally similar to some high-Ni IVA irons.
SI: Department of Mineral Sciences, NHB-119, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, United States; Website (institutional address; updated 16 Jan 2012)
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258 g
