Pairing of meteorites found in Victoria Land, Antarctica

• Main Author: Edward R.D. Scott
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Meteoritics, Department of Geology, University of New Mexico 1984
• Subjects: Allan Hills; Victoria Land; Yamato; Antarc*; Antarctica; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=1720; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00001720/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=1720&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

A review of published suggestions for pairing Victoria Land meteorites suggests that the difficulty of correctly identifying specimens from the same fall has been greatly underestimated. In 24 cases where types 4-6 ordinary chondrites have been paired by petrologists and subsequently analyzed for noble gases or cosmogenic nuclides, the later studies argue against pairing in half of the cases. For other meteorites, similar studies confirm pairing in all 19 cases, but disagreements between petrologists suggest that several polymict eucrites, mesosiderites and CM2 chondrites may have been mispaired. The distribution of discovery sites and sample sizes of 33 paired L3 chondrites resembles that of a strewn field from a large meteorite shower, but strong winds produced this distribution, separating specimens according to size by distances of up to 6km. Aeolian transport may also have spread 29 paired Yamato diogenites over a 20×7km area. My estimate of the number of meteorites represented by the 299 numbered specimens found at Allan Hills in 1977-78 is between 50 and 150. A list of 303 Victoria Land specimens that have been paired is included together with rough estimates of the confidence levels of pairing.