Telluric iron
Rare terrestrial metallic iron found in Greenland.
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Telluric iron is native iron found in terrestrial deposits, primarily in Greenland.[1] Both types resist weathering but can decompose quickly in dry museum air, with type 2 being more prone to this damage.[2]
Key facts and history
The only known major deposits of telluric iron exist in and near Disko Bay, Greenland, aside from a small depleted deposit in Kassel, Germany.[1] Gustav Nauckhoff led an 1871 expedition to Greenland, collected three large samples using dynamite, and brought them to Europe.[3] These samples are now in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, including a 25-ton block in Stockholm and a 6.6-ton block in Copenhagen.[3] During 1870, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld came upon sizable iron boulders close to Disko Bay; because they had nickel and Widmanstätten patterns, he thought they were meteorites.[1]
In 1879, J. Lawrence Smith, a meteorite expert, and then Joh Lorenzen in 1882, both verified Steenstrup's conclusions.[4] Only the Inuit ever put telluric iron to practical use, employing type 2 grains to create knives and ulus.[1]
What the research sources say
Buchwald's 1985 work "Meteoritic Iron, Telluric Iron and Wrought Iron in Greenland" describes type 2 grains as 1–5 millimeters in diameter, usually separated by basalt but sometimes sintered into larger aggregates.[1] Lorenzen's 1884 chemical examination of Greenland telluric iron provides the basis for the two-type classification based on carbon content.[2] Cohenite, ilmenite, pearlite, and troilite are present in small quantities within the larger type 2 pieces.[1]
References
- Wikipedia, "Telluric iron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Buchwald, "Iron and steel in ancient times", Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters), 2005, p. 35–37; Buchwald, "Meteoritic Iron, Telluric Iron and Wrought Iron in Greenland", Kommissionen for videnskabelige Undersogelser i Gronland, 1985, p. 19–23 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Telluric iron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lorenzen, "A Chemical Examination of Greenland Telluric Iron", The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society, July 1884, p. 14–38 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Telluric iron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Steenstrup, "On the Existence of Nickel-Iron with Widmannstätten's Figures in the Basalt of North Greenland", The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society, July 1884, p. 1–13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Telluric iron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Buchwald, "Iron and steel in ancient times", Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters), 2005, p. 35–37; Buchwald, "Meteoritic Iron, Telluric Iron and Wrought Iron in Greenland", Kommissionen for videnskabelige Undersogelser i Gronland, 1985, p. 19–23; Steenstrup, "On the Existence of Nickel-Iron with Widmannstätten's Figures in the Basalt of North Greenland", The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of the Mineralogical Society, July 1884, p. 1–13 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Telluric iron (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Telluric iron (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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