[meteorite-list] Fusion crusts on iron meteorites

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Mike wrote:

Crust is crust, soft, hard, it doesnt matter. It is a crust of
material caused to be on the surface of the object by fusion.


BUCHWALD V.F. (1975) Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Volume 1, pp. 49-50:

While the fusion crusts on stone meteorites are usually the product of simple melting,
the crusts on iron meteorites are complex, displaying mixed melts of fully and partially
oxidized metal. The fusion crusts are the adhering remnants of ablated material from
the last part of the trajectory left on the surface when the velocity decreased below
about 3 km/sec., and ablation ceased ... The fusion crusts are, in principle, composed
of an exterior, fully oxidized, rapidly solidified nonmetallic melt, and an interior only
slightly oxidized melt.

Regards,

Bernd