Roy (1933) meteorite, Harding County, New Mexico, USAi

Regional Level Types
Roy (1933) meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Harding County	County
New Mexico	State
USA	Country

Ordinary chondrite,veins (L5; S3-5)
Found, 1933; 47.2 kg

During the spring a weathered stone was found and, suspecting precious minerals, it was broken up by an impatient amateur geologist. Barred olivine and radiating pyroxene as well as porphyritic chondrules (up to 2 mm in size) are present within an olivine-rich matrix. The Roy (1933) meteorite is unusual because it contains some shock-induced melt veins [Shock grade, S3-5] with recrystallizations and some exceedingly rare minerals (Majorite, Ringwoodite) that experiments suggest would exist on earth only deep within the earth's mantle [P-max ~18 GPa]. The unaltered olivine (Fa26.1) is typical of the L chondrite group. The meteorite is also quite weathered.

Moderately large masses have been kept at the Natural History Museum in London (~7.2 kg, including a 7108 g specimen), The Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University (6.3 kg), the United States National Museum in Washington (2.6 kg), and the Geological Survey of India (1.1 kg). Several smaller sub-kilogram masses are held elsewhere. The small Harvard specimen examined by Ramdohr (1973) and still held there today [2016] was not listed in the Catalogue of Meteorites (2000).


What's in a name? Another separate meteorite ['Roy (1934)' — a 5.6 kg L6 stone] — was for some time considered to a fragment of the same meteorite.



(cf. The Meteorite Catalogue Database 2004, Natural History Museum, London).

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References