Orientation relationship of Widmannstätten plates in an iron meteorite measured with high-energy synchrotron radiation

Abstract

The orientation distribution of the Widmannstätten plates was measured in a sample of the Gibeon iron–nickel meteorite. The measurements were made with high-energy synchrotron radiation at beamline BW5 at HASYLAB/DESY in Hamburg using a high-resolution `moving-detector' technique. The measurements reveal a continuous range of orientations stretching out from both sides of the Nishiyama–Wassermann orientation to the Kurdjumov–Sachs orientations, as well as a minor `spread-pipe' between the Kurdjumov–Sachs ends of neighbouring non-coplanar orientation variants.