Seymchan meteorite pendant Iron meteorite - 9 g

Seymchan Meteorite Pendant

Seymchan is a pallasite meteorite found in the dried bed of the Hekandue River, a left tributary of the Jasachnaya River in the Magadan District, Russia, near the settlement of Seymchan, in June 1967.

The main mass of 272.3 kilograms (600 lb) was discovered during a survey conducted in June 1967 by geologist FA Mednikov. The mass was a triangular, thumb-impressed meteorite that lay among the rocks in the stream bed. A second specimen of 51 kilograms was found with a mine detector 20 m from the first in October 1967 by IH Markov. The main mass was entrusted to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

During a new expedition in 2004, Dmitri Kachalin recovered about 50 kilograms of new material. Remarkably, about 20% of the new specimens contained olivine crystals, revealing the siliceous nature of the meteorite. The pallasitic structure had not yet been discovered in studies of small sections of the original mass, consisting only of metal.

Seymchan belongs to the main group of pallasites, but it is regarded as anomalous due to its high iridium content. Before the discovery of its pallasitic structure, it had been classified as the coarse, anomalous octahedrite IIE. Seymchan is considered a stable, rust-resistant pallasite.