Beardsley meteorite, Rawlins County, Kansas, USAi

Regional Level Types
Beardsley meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Rawlins County	County
Kansas	State
USA	Country

Ordinary chondrite (H5; S3)
Fell, 15 October 1929, 23:30 hr; 16 kg

Just before midnite, a dazzling light was seen and thunderous booms were heard as a fireball travelled from ESE to WNW and disappeared at a high altitude. At this time Mrs. Ray Gaines leaned out of her open window and hear the distinct falls of two stones following a whizzing sound. In the next few days she and her family recovered two stones at distances of ~20 and 200 m with the larger stone ~4 kg in mass. In the late summer of 1931 H. H. Nininger secured an additional set of 6 small masses which had been picked up at the time or were recovered during the 1931 plowing season — including a 9.285 kg mass struck by a plow. The stones laying on the ground possessed nearly intact black fusion crusts with occasional brown oxidation stains. In time 60 stones were recovered, ranging in mass from 70 g up to 9.285 kg. Olivine (Fa20) and low Ca-pyroxene ('bronzite') compositions plus total iron contents (26.64 wt%) are characteristic of the H-chondrite geochemical group. Mineralogically, the meteorite consists primarily of dominant olivine and low-Ca pyroxene along with minor amounts of Fe-Ni metal (kamacite and taenite), troilite and, presumably, minor amounts of feldspathic material. Accessory chromite, copper and other minor opaques have been reported. Some of the stones recovered well after the fall, of course, were mildly weathered ('limonite').

A Pb,Th:He age of 3.45 Ga and a moderately short cosmic-ray exposure age of 4.2 Ma are reported. A novel search for remnants of Cs-135>Ba-135 decay suggests that the Beardsley parent body underwent aqueous alteration ~10 Ma after primeval CIA formation in the very early solar system.

The H (relatively high in total iron) chondrites are the second largest group of ordinary chondrite falls and represent over 35% of well-classified, witnessed falls. Beardsley is one of 170 meteorite falls currently classified exactly as 'H5' chondrites (June 2017).

As with many stones recovered in part or as a whole by Harvey H. Nininger, the largest portions of the Beardsley meteorite are now at the Arizona State University Center for Meteorite Studies (3568 g in 2016).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References