Iron meteorite, Octahedrite (IAB-MG, Og)
Found 1884, 3.8 tons.

Alfred Eaton, a mounted policeman, found the initial four pieces from the meteorite shower, on 05 January 1884. The material was found 1.3 kilometres north-west of Pikaring Hill, near the present day town of Quairading, east of Perth.

Named after a nearby police station (outpost).

One piece weighing 11.7kg (Youndegin I) was examined by government geologist Edward Hardman, who identified it as the first ever meteorite recorded from Western Australia. The other three pieces were 10.9kg (Youndegin II), 7.9 kg (Youndegin III), and 2.72kg ((Youndegin IV)).

Two of the pieces ((Youndegin I and IV)) were sent to the British Museum of Natural History, separately in November 1884, and July 1885.

One mass of 173.5 kg (Youndegin V) was sent to the Field Museum in Chicago, USA. Another mass of 927 kg (Younegin VI) was sent to the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.

In return for the exports, the colony sought examples of authenticated metallic ores, to help prospectors in Western Australia identify their finds.

Most of the remaining meteorite material was deposited in the fledgling Western Australian geological museum, which was the precursor of today's Western Australian Museum.

Eighty four specimens were received, still held by the Western Australian Museum, mainly from localities in Europe and to a lesser extent British colonies. It was to be known as the Fletcher Collection, after Lazarus Fletcher, secretary of the Mineralogical Society in London, who sent them.

Over ensuing decades several other large pieces were found within a radius of ~20 km including three fragments which were initially treated as separate meteorites (Mooranoppin, Mount Sterling, Quairading). A much larger 2,626 kg mass was found about 20 years later and eventually acquired by the British Museum of Natural History.

While the meteorite is frequently seriously corroded, some specimens are much more intact than others. These relatively intact specimens make it clear that Youndegin is a typical IAB iron, compositionally dominated by octahedral kamacite. Taenite and plessite occupy less than 5 vol% of the meteorite. Troilite, schreibersite, and graphite appear to be the most important of several accessory phases. Both Cliftonite, a graphite polymorph and the mineral Roaldite, an Fe-Ni nitride, were first discovered in Youndegin.

Youndegin is the 5th most massive member of major IAB subgroup, the 'IAB main group' which includes both Campo del Cielo and Canyon Diablo irons with listed masses of 50 and 30 tons, respectively.

It should be noted that the locality was initially recorded in mindat as being in Quairading Shire, however the coordinates place it in Bruce Rock Shire in 1961, which was created out of the Quairading Shire.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References