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Pallasite – PAL (transitional)
Magadan District, Siberia, Russia
125 x 44 x 3 mm (5 x 1.75 x 0.1 in.)
56.8 grams
While Seymchan is classified as a pallasite, unlike the vast majority of other pallasitic meteorites, the dispersion of olivine crystals in Seymchan is extremely heterogeneous. Some specimens of Seymchan are olivine rich and some are olivine poor; some specimens have no olivine whatsoever. The spearpoint now offered is an example of the latter.
The meteorite from which this spearpoint was fabricated originated from the iron-nickel core of an asteroid that once existed between Mars and Jupiter. For this sample to have been liberated from the surrounding mantle and crust, its parent body shattered following a collision with another asteroid. This spearpoint specimen originates from a meteorite that was part of a massive meteorite shower that occurred in the far northeastern Magadan District of Siberia, the locality of Stalin’s infamous gulags, more than 2000 kilometers from the Sikhote Alin event.
An extremely robust Widmanstätten pattern is in evidence. This latticework is indicative of a slow cooling rate that provided sufficient time — millions of years — for the molecules of the two most dominant metallic alloys to form the intricate intergrowth now seen. This pattern is diagnostic in the identification of an iron meteorite and meteorites from different parent bodies exhibit different patterns. Seymchan meteorites, which are unusually oxidation-resistant, are renowned for their resplendent crystalline patterns, and this spearpoint, fashioned by an expert artisan, spotlights this attribute. From the core of an asteroid that once existed between Mars and Jupiter, this is a superbly hewn spearpoint.
