THE EDMONTON, KENTUCKY, METEORITE 



By E. p. HENDERSON 

 Associate Curator, Division of Mineralogy and Petrology 



AND 



S. H. PERRY 



Associate in Mineralogy 

 U. S. National Museum 



(With Four Plates) 



The meteorite here described was presented to the United States 

 National Museum by S. H. Perry, who obtained it in 1945 from H. R. 

 Harper, of Beaumont, Ky. It had been plowed up in 1942 on the 

 farm of Samp Johnson, 4 or 5 miles east of Edmonton, IMetcalfe 

 County, Ky,, and is the twentieth meteorite found in that State. 



The mass as received weighed 10,200 grams and was intact except 

 for a small bit that had been removed from one end with a blowtorch, 

 the local heating having left no visible effects on the microstructure 

 of the first slice removed from that end. Its form was elongated and 

 very irregular, the greatest length being about 24 cm. 



This is obviously an old fall, as nothing remains of the original 

 surface and there is considerable accumulation of brown iron oxide 

 on most of the surface of the mass. Several irregularly shaped 

 depressions occur on the surface of this iron, all of which appear to 

 have been modified by weathering. 



Microstructure. — Four slices were removed from the end of the 

 mass, and etching revealed it as a finest octahedrite of great regularity 

 and beauty, the width of the bands being very uniform at from 0.5 to 

 0.8 mm. Like the Carlton, Tex., iron^ which it resembles, the Edmon- 

 ton meteorite contains numerous large, irregular, elongated lamellae 

 of kamacite from i-| to 2 mm. wide and up to 2 cm. long; these are 

 unconformable with the octahedral pattern although roughly oriented 

 in approximately parallel directions. 



Although the analysis shows no sulfur and only traces of phos- 

 phorus (the sample analyzed being free from inclusions), a few 

 irregular inclusions of troilite surrounded by swathing kamacite may 

 be seen in plate i, figure i, as well as a few small schreibersite bodies. 

 In one place a thin zone of schreibersite lies within the swathing 

 kamacite surrounding a troilite inclusion. 



The kamacite bands are bordered by tenuous lamellae of taenite. 



1 Howell, E. E., Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 40, p. 223, 1890; Proc. Rochester 

 Acad. Sci., vol. i, pp. 87-89, 1890. In both references the Carlton iron is called 

 Hamilton County. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 107, NO. 13 



