Hainholz meteorite, Minden, Minden-Lübbecke, Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germanyi

Regional Level Types
Hainholz meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Minden	Town
Minden-Lübbecke	District
Detmold	Administrative District
North Rhine-Westphalia	State
Germany	Country

Stony-iron, Mesosiderite-A4
Find, 1856; 16.5 kg

A moderately rusted mass was found which broke into many pieces when hammered. Silicates, especially olivine, are sometimes prominent, but the matrix is fine-grained with flecks of troilite (3 wt%). A network of somewhat rusted Fe-Ni metal is also found. Volume-wise silicates predominate, but Fe-Ni metal accounts for nearly half of the Hainholz mass. While a few large olivine crystals (up to nearly 5 cm in length) are prominent, Hainholz has been classified as a 'Mesosiderite-A4' as the fine-grained matrix contains a significant amount of plagioclase along with the usual olivine and pyroxenes. Twinned plagioclase and glass reveal a shock-melted matrix characteristic of petrologic type 4 mesosiderites. Minor amounts of clinopyroxene and tridymite accompany the major silicates. Among the opaques, chromite, ilmenite, and rutile have been reported as well as very small amounts of phosphates. In some instances the Fe-Ni metal has apparently been difficult to decipher, but scattered reports of Widmanstätten patterns and kamacite and taenite appear in the literature.

Hainholz was only the second mesosiderite to be recovered of the over 200 now listed at the 'Meteoritical Bulletin Database' and is one of only 4 meteorites currently classified as a 'Mesosiderite-A4' [2015]. It is — along with the pallasite Marburg — one only two German meteoritic masses which have traditionally been classified as 'Stony-irons'. By 2000 approximately 12 kg of the meteorite still remained in various institutions with slightly over half (6.5 kg) at Universität Tübingen.

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References