Meteorite classification for building the Chinese Antarctic Meteorite Depository—Introduction of the classification of 500 Grove Mountains meteorites

Abstract

Meteorites provide an important window into the origins and evolution of the solar system. Since the first four meteorites were recovered in Grove Mountains, Antarctica, in 1998, a further total of 12665 meteorites have been collected over seven polar seasons in the Grove Mountains. All of these meteorites are owned and managed by the Chinese Antarctic Meteorite Depository (CAMD) at the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC). In recent years, another 500 Antarctic meteorites have been classified and characterized based on mineralogy and petrology. In this work we examine four samples that have been identified as terrestrial, and a further 496 samples that have been confirmed as meteorites. These meteorites are further divided into different types:488 ordinary chondrites, one eucrite, one ureilite, one CM2 carbonaceous chondrite, one EH4 enstatite chondrite, one mesosiderite and three iron meteorites. The classification of meteorites not only provides an abundance of fundamental scientific data, but is also significant for introducing meteorites and related scientific knowledge to the public, particularly via the website of Chinese Resource-sharing Platform of Polar Samples for scientific research and education. Citation: Xia Z P, Zhang J, Miao B K, et al. Meteorite classification for building the Chinese Antarctic Meteorite Depository–Introduction of the classification of 500 Grove Mountains meteorites. Adv Polar Sci, 2016, 27: 56-63, doi: 10.13679/j.advps.2016.1.00056