The Aletai iron meteorite forms an impact field more than 430 km long and consists mainly of iron with kamacite, taenite, plessite and schreibersite. The Aletai is officially classified as a IIIE iron meteorite. Read more.
Great meteorite masses
Large iron meteorite masses have been found in the northern region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. They were originally named "Armanty", "Xinjiang (b)" and "Xinjiang 008", but chemical and petrographic analyses showed that they all corresponded to the former Armanty (IIIE) iron meteorite. To avoid confusion, all meteorites in the region, including future finds, are now officially known by the name "Aletai", after the name of the local province.
Gigantic impact field
In total, the meteorites found have a mass of more than 74 tonnes, divided into five major masses. The largest, named "Armanty", weighs 28 tonnes. No impact crater was found nearby, meaning that these meteorites were probably found close to their original crash site. This also means that the impact site is more than 430 km long, which no other meteorite on Earth has managed to reach. This indicates an unusual impact angle of the asteroid.
Study of the iron meteorite
Petrographic and mineralogical studies show that the Aletai meteorite consists mainly of iron, with kamacite, taenite, plessite and schreibersite, supplemented by small amounts of troilite, haxonite and daubréelite. The meteorite is officially classified as a IIIE iron meteorite and shows a Widmanstätten pattern with a bandwidth of about 1 to 1.4 mm. The cooling rate is estimated to be about 10°C per million years.
