Eastern Mineral Resources Team
Chondrites are stony meteorites containing chondrules (spheroidal granules of olivine and/or enstatite or bronzite) embedded in a fine-grained matrix of pyroxene, olivine, and nickel-iron with or without glass. They constitute more than 80% of meteorite falls. (AGI Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd ed., 1984)
Alexander, C. M. O'D. , Grossman, J. N., Ebel, D. S., Ciesla, F. J. , 2008, The Formation Conditions of Chondrules and Chondrites, in Science, 20 June 2008, Vol. 320. no. 5883, pp. 1617 - 1619.<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/320/5883/1617>.USGS research seeks to characterize events that changed the composition of meteoritic chondrules after they solidified. Research is concentrated in three areas:
The magnitude and causes of these processes have wide implications for many
aspects of chondrule and chondrite research, as well as interpretations drawn
about the early solar system. Understanding the formation processes of
chondrite meteorites and the chondrules within them adds to our knowledge
of the environment in the solar nebula and on early asteroidal bodies. The
results of this understanding will allow us to identify and study any material
that may survive from the earliest epochs of the high-temperature processing
(chondrule formation) in the solar system.
Announcements of new meteorites are published by the Meteoritical Society, an international organization devoted to the study of extraterrestrial material. The Society oversees the naming of newly found or fallen meteorites and announces them in The Meteoritical Bulletin, which is published in the Society's journal, Meteoritics and Planetary Science. The Editor of The Meteoritical Bulletin is J. N. Grossman, U.S. Geological Survey.
For information about how to get new meteorites named and announced, and for access to archives of past announcements, see the home page of The Meteoritical Bulletin
This work is funded by NASA's Cosmochemistry Program, through a grant to Jeffrey Grossman. Go to http://www.higp.hawaii.edu/ccp/ to learn about this program.
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