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A-58070 Harris, Roger E. 16 March 1966 Grant Meteorite - New Mexico "The U.S. National Museum has acquired through the Roebling Fund two iron meteorites from New Mexico - the Grant MeteDrite and the Santa Fe MeteD~ite~ . "The Grant Meteorite was first brought to the antention of the United States National Museum in January, 1929, by Mr. Harold E. Elliott of Fort Sumner, New Mexico. 'Mr. Elliott acted as agent for the owners Mr. Charles E. Herring and a Mexican whose name was not given. Neither the date of fall nor that of discovery is known, but the specimen was found apparently only a short time before it was offered for sale. Mr. Herring advises that the meteorite was unearthed in the Zuni Mountains about 45 miles south of Grants, Valencia County, New Mexico for which place it is named. According to his description, the meteorite was embedded about two feet under the top soil, two feet being the approximate thickness of the soil at this point. -The meteorite is a rather symmetrically shaped conical mass of iron weighing 1060 pounds. It is 21 7/8 inches from the lowest point on its naturally shaped base to the apex, and the base measures 29 3/8 inches in one direction and 227/8 inches on a right-angle cross-line. The iron is only slightly altered, and in many places the bright metal shows through the thin film of rust. The surfaceis smoothly rounded, but near the base on one side is an area about 17 inches long and 5 inches in its widest part, which has a ragged surface, appearing to be a recent break. WA great many circular cavities appear on the surface and these are rather uni~ form, most of them being between one and two inches in diameter. The bottoms of these crater-like holes are gently rounded and sevaral are between one-half and three-fourths of an inch deep. The apex is roughly flattened out into a triangular surface th1s being in all probability the Brustse1te. ~The polished face after etching shows a moderately fine octahedral structure. The kamac1te,bands are slightly swollen in the center, constricting toward the ends. The angular area between intersecting kamacite bands (plessite) have boulders which are concave toward the kamacite. Between the kamaeite and the pless1te t~ a th1n but persistent rim of taenite. In a number of the plessite areas the~e are th1n parallel bands of taen1te of uniform th1ckness, the appar~ ently enlarged pointed sides being due to the coalescence of two of the taen1te bands. "Two circular masses of troilite are shown on the polished face, the larger having a maximum diameter of 2.3 c~nt1meters. Immediately surrounding the troilite, the octahedral structure has to come extent been modified, and the plessite nearest to the troilite shows a concave curvature, which 1ft almost every case, conforms to the troilite shape. The rim of kamacite surrounding the troilite varie§ between one and two millimeters in width.- Reference: "Two Meteorites from New Mexico: The Grant Meteorite and the Santa Fe Meteorite. Popular Astronomy. November, 1934, pp. 511-512. IHF Research Editor