THE SARDIS METEORITE—HENDERSON AND COOKE 143 
unknown amount of material has been removed by weathering. No 
features were found resembling either flight markings or the original 
crust of the meteorite. 
In color and appearance the Sardis meteorite resembles a mass of 
limonite, but on closer examination a series of connecting fractures 
can be seen crossing the surface in a pattern resembling that made by 
the shrinkage cracks in sun-dried mud. Many of these fractures are 
as much as 2 inches deep, and on the sides of these can be seen traces 
of an octahedral structure. 
The main mass of the Sardis meteorite weighs 1,740 pounds. As it 
is too heavy to be placed on the Museum’s bandsaw, it will not be 
sectioned. It would be interesting to learn to what depth the unfrac- 
tured meteorite has been altered. 
When we removed the weathered soil from the place where this 
meteorite originally lay 20 pounds of small fragments were found. 
Some of these resembled a brown sandstone with hydrous iron oxide, 
limonite, acting as a cementing medium for the sand grains. After 
these pieces were cut and polished some of the larger areas of limonite 
were noted to have an octahedral structure, that is, it is meteoritic iron 
completely altered to a hydrous brown oxide. 
The brown iron oxide, which served as a cementing medium for the 
sand grains, was found to contain considerable nickel. This indicates 
that the meteorite had been in part dissolved and carried away by 
groundwater. Also, some of the sand grains of the matrix are ce- 
mented to the fractured surfaces of the meteorite fragments, giving 
it the appearance of sandstone. The nickel apparently is partly re- 
tained in the iron oxide after precipitation, just as nickel and iron 
are precipitated together in the laboratory. 
The polished surfaces of some of the pieces containing metallic iron 
show that the Sardis meteorite belongs to the coarse octahedrite group. 
Very little taenite and only one inclusion of troilite are present. A 
few very small inclusions of schreibersite were noticed. The alteration 
seems to have been most active along the boundaries between the 
kamacite areas. 
The chemical composition of the Sardis meteorite is indicated by 
the following analysis (E. P. Henderson, analyst). 
[5 See SAR Sere Cede eee S 92. 08 
th Men Ak Cott ys ee de eed aoe 6. 69 
ye ck 2 eh eg LS eee 0. 47 
| ET A SA EN SS eae oe 0. 24 
eet ean eta Und een UL D trace 
99. 48 
Topographic relations —We did not visit the site until February 
1941, which was several weeks after the meteorite had been received in 
