MGUK 02
MGUK 02 (LL4)
Classification led by Cesca Willcocks
This meteorite belongs to Gemma Thomas...
This meteorite will possibly receive an official name of '***' - to be confirmed by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society.
The type specimen (**g) will be on deposit at the University of Plymouth, along with a single, polished block.
***
Ordinary Chondrites
Unlike OSM 012, MGUK 02 belongs to the ordinary chondrite family - stony meteorites that are the most abundant in the global meteorite collection. There are three main types of ordinary chondrite - H, L and LL - which we can decipher between using metal content and mineral compositions.
H ordinary chondrites contain the highest amount of metal (15-19% abundance), L ordinary chondrites have less metal (4-10% abundance) and LL ordinary chondrites have the least (0.3-3% abundance). At first glance, we found that MGUK 02 had a very low amount of metal. Using X-ray element maps of our whole sample, we were able to quantify this further, and found that MGUK 02 falls into the LL group of ordinary chondrites.
BSE image of MGUK 02, where the brightest areas are areas of high density (such as metals) and darkest areas are low density minerals (such as olivine or plagioclase)
EDS combined element map showing compositional and textural variation across the sample. Pieces of the broken chondrules are outlined in white, with arrows showing how they fit together. Key: red = Mg, green = Fe, blue = Ca
A gentle nudge
We collected X-ray element maps of MGUK 02 using Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) which allowed us to identify where each element was the most abundant across the sample. By allocating a colour to each element and combining these maps together, it became easier to pick out different textural and compositional features that are present across the meteorite.
Through these combined layered images, we found two chondrules that have been broken up into smaller chunks, and we were able to match these pieces together based on their composition and textures. These broken chondrules indicate this rock has experienced some brecciation, but a lack of additional rock types across MGUK 02 suggests this brecciation is not as extensive as what we saw in OSM 011a.
We were also able to pick out chondrule types such as porphyritic olivine (PO), porphyritic olivine pyroxene (POP) and barred olivine chondrules (BO) in this meteorite!
Meteorite Owner
Gemma Thomas
Meteorite Girl UK
Gemma is a meteorite collector and dealer based in SW England, UK, and a registered member of the GMA.
You can find out more about Gemma's collection, Meteorite Girl UK, on her shop web page.