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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 E3 means:

"An enstatite chondrite of petrologic type 3 that has not yet been classified into any group."

The highlighted words are defined as follows:

enstatite chondrite: A major class of chondrites that mostly have sub-solar Mg/Si and refractory/Si ratios, oxygen isotope compositions that plot near the terrestrial fractionation line, and highly reduced mineral assemblages (containing little FeO, Si-bearing metal, and sulfides of elements normally considered lithophile).

type 3: Designates chondrites that are characterized by abundant chondrules, low degrees of aqueous alteration, and unequilibrated mineral assemblages. Many of the low-Ca pyroxene grains are monoclinic and exhibit polysynthetic twinning. The type 3 chondrites may be divided into subtypes ranging from 3.00 (least metamorphosed) to 3.9 (nearly metamorphosed to type 4 levels). If primary igneous glass occurs in the chondrules, it belongs to type 3.


Find all meteorites of type: E3