The classification of Meteorites

Abstract

The first broad grouping of meteorites was into irons and stones according as they consisted mainly of nickeliferous iron or of silicates. These were the two main divisions of the first really serviceable classification as applied by Gustav Rose in 1862-4 to the collection of meteorites in the, University Museum of Berlin. In this classification the division of meteoric irons included as separate groups the pallasites and the mesosiderites, in which nickel-iron "rod silicates are present in about equal amounts; and the meteo~fic stones were for the first time split up into chondrites, or stones containing those curious rounded grains (chondrules) peculiar to meteorites, and non-Chondritic stones, which were divided according to mineralogical composition into the groups of eucrites, howardites, &c., still largely recognized.