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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 EL7 means:

"An enstatite chondrite of the EL group that is petrologic type 7."

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).

EL group: The low-iron (EL) chemical group of enstatite chondrites, distinguished by moderately large chondrules (0.6 mm), abundant metal (~10 vol%) that is Si-bearing (~1 wt%), and an extremely reduced mineral assemblage containing ferroan alabandite ((Fe,Mn)S).

type 7: Designates chondrites which have been metamorphosed to nearly the point of melting. Minerals are equilibrated and chondrules are indistinct or absent. This term is not used consistently or widely accepted in the literature.


Find all meteorites of type: EL7