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Campo del Cielo – an Iron Meteorite found in Argentina

  • R. Haubner

    Roland Haubner is Ao.Univ.Prof. at TU-Wien. His fields of activity till now were industrial tungsten production, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) and the low-pressure diamond deposition. He is also involved in materials characterization, ceramics, corrosion and archaeometallurgy.

         and S. Strobl

    Susanne Strobl is working as a scientific officer at the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics (TU-Wien) and is teaching supervisor of metallography. She studied chemistry and her doctoral thesis was about sintered steels.
Published/Copyright: September 11, 2021
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Practical Metallography
From the journal Practical Metallography Volume 58 Issue 9

Abstract

Fragments of the “Campo del Cielo” meteorite were first reported by conquistadores in Argentina in as early as 1576. This meteorite belongs to the group of iron meteorites and is classified as a group IA coarse octahedrite. The use of meteoric iron to make objects of daily use or hunting weapons in prehistoric times is only confirmed by very few finds. Metallographic examinations were performed to assess if it was realistic and in fact feasible to process meteoric iron.

The bulk of the examined “Campo del Cielo” meteorite fragment found in Argentina is kamacite (α-Fe) with approx. 5.3 wt.% of dissolved Ni. Graphite was also detected in addition to various non-metallic phases. Due to high temperatures during processing, graphite can dissolve and a steel microstructure would form as a result.

Kurzfassung

Teile des Meteoriten „Campo del Cielo“ wurden bereits 1576 von Konquistadores in Argentinien beschrieben. Dieser Meteorit gehört zu den Eisenmeteoriten und wird als grober Oktaedrit der Gruppe IA klassifiziert. Die Nutzung von Meteoriteneisen für Gebrauchsgegenstände oder Jagdwaffen in prähistorischer Zeit ist nur durch wenige Fundstücke belegt. Durch die metallographischen Untersuchungen sollte abgeschätzt werden, ob eine Verarbeitung von Meteoriteneisen realistisch durchzuführen war.

Das untersuchte Teilstück des Meteorits „Campo del Cielo“ aus Argentinien enthielt als Hauptmasse Kamacit (α-Fe) mit etwa 5,3 Gew.-% gelöstem Ni. Neben diversen nichtmetallischen Phasen wurde auch Graphit nachgewiesen. Durch hohe Temperaturen bei der Verarbeitung kann sich der Graphit auflösen und es würde ein Stahl entstehen.

Keywords: Meteorite; kamacite; schreibersite; graphite
Schlüsselwörter: Meteorit; Kamacit; Schreibersit; Graphit

About the authors

R. Haubner

Roland Haubner is Ao.Univ.Prof. at TU-Wien. His fields of activity till now were industrial tungsten production, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) and the low-pressure diamond deposition. He is also involved in materials characterization, ceramics, corrosion and archaeometallurgy.

S. Strobl

Susanne Strobl is working as a scientific officer at the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics (TU-Wien) and is teaching supervisor of metallography. She studied chemistry and her doctoral thesis was about sintered steels.

5

5 Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr Nico Neubauer who assisted in the metallographic examinations as part of his bachelor’s thesis and Mr Johannes Zbiral who performed XRF analysis.

5

5 Danksagung

Unser Dank geht an Herrn Nico Neubauer, der im Rahmen seiner Bachelorarbeit bei den metallographischen Untersuchungen mitgeholfen hat. Herrn Johannes Zbiral möchten wir für die RFA Messungen danken.

References / Literatur

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Received: 2021-06-07
Accepted: 2021-07-23
Published Online: 2021-09-11
Published in Print: 2021-09-30

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston, Germany

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents
  2. Editorial
  3. Editorial
  4. Application of the Color Etching Technique for Non-Ferrous Metals
  5. Campo del Cielo – an Iron Meteorite found in Argentina
  6. Failure Analysis
  7. Crack on the Inner Rim Flange of an Aluminum Rim
  8. Porosity in Medical Drills Caused by Fractured Carbides – A Review
  9. Picture of the Month
  10. Picture of the Month
  11. People
  12. Interview with Gundula Jeschke
  13. News
  14. Automatisierte chemische Synthese – Zuverlässige Herstellung und zügiger Erkenntnisgewinn
  15. Meeting Diary
  16. Meeting Diary
https://doi.org/10.1515/pm-2021-0047
Keywords for this article
Meteorite; kamacite; schreibersite; graphite

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents
  2. Editorial
  3. Editorial
  4. Application of the Color Etching Technique for Non-Ferrous Metals
  5. Campo del Cielo – an Iron Meteorite found in Argentina
  6. Failure Analysis
  7. Crack on the Inner Rim Flange of an Aluminum Rim
  8. Porosity in Medical Drills Caused by Fractured Carbides – A Review
  9. Picture of the Month
  10. Picture of the Month
  11. People
  12. Interview with Gundula Jeschke
  13. News
  14. Automatisierte chemische Synthese – Zuverlässige Herstellung und zügiger Erkenntnisgewinn
  15. Meeting Diary
  16. Meeting Diary
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