header
  MetSoc Home            Publications            Contacts  

Recommended classifications

Recommended classes in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database are assigned by the database editor. In most cases, this is based on the most recent classification that appears in either the Catalogue of Meteorites, MetBase, the US Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter, the Japanese Meteorite Newsletter, or the Meteoritical Bulletin. However, in a few cases it reflects differences of opinion about the proper way to classify the meteorite. The nomenclature used may also be modified by the editor to conform to an internally consistent classification scheme

The recommended classification Brachinite means:

"A primitive achondrite belonging to the brachinite group."

The highlighted words are defined as follows:

primitive achondrite: A meteorite that has lost its chondritic texture due to heating and partial melting, but still has nearly chondritic composition.

brachinite: Brachinites, named after Brachina, a meteorite found in Australia in 1974, are olivine-rich achondrites that are relatively close to chondrites in many compositional properties, and so are frequently considered to be primitive achondrites. Their true origin is still an open question and not all brachinites may share the same origin.


Find all meteorites of type: Brachinite