* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Krasnojarsk meteorite

Blobrana · L

The Siberian iron was discovered in 1749 when Yakov Medvedev. a blacksmith and prospector, guided a mining engineer from the provincial government at Krasnojarsk to a site near the top of Mt. Bolshoi Emir to show him bands of magnetite in the schistose bedrock. The magnetite proved to be too sparse for mining, but as the two rounded a high ridge they came upon an isolated mass of metal about 70 cm across. A careful search yielded no additional fragments of metal, so the engineer dismissed the mass as having no value.
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Blobrana · L

The Krasnojarsk pallasite from Yeniseisk, Russia is one of the most famous meteorites in the world. A mass of material of about 700 kg was discovered in 1749 on the side of Mount Bolshoi Imir, about 235 km south of Krasnojarsk. A local man, Yakov Medvedev, out hunting, found an outcrop of iron ore beside a huge rock. Johan Mettich, a German engineer, examined the site and found the strange metallic lump 300 m from the outcrop, lying on the ground with no sign of an impact crater.
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Blobrana · L

Krasnojarsk was the first pallasite meteorite ever found and studied and lead to the creation of the Pallasite group named after Pallas. It was also the first meteorite ever etched with acid (by G. Thomson) and therefore was the first one to show to human eyes the Widmanstätten pattern.
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