Fukang Pallasite

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Fukang Pallasite

The Fukang Pallasite meteorite was found in the mountains near Fukang, China in the year 2000. Pallasites are a type of stony-iron meteorite with olivine.

The first time pallasites were seen is in 1772. The German Naturalist Peter Simon Pallas was shown a huge lump of strange looking metal which had been found in Siberia, near Krasnoyarsk. It was soon discovered that the metal lump was a meteorite. This type of meteorites are now called Pallasites. The Fukang pallasite contains large, gem quality olivine, or peridot, in a nickel-iron matrix.

Pallasite meteorites are one of the most rare iron meteorites in the world. Two other well known pallasites are from Argentina (Esquel) and Chile (Imilac). The combination of nickel iron and transparent olivine or peridot gems sets these meteorites in a class of their own. Pallasites account for only about one percent of all known meteorites.