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The meteoric stones of El Nakhla El Baharia (Egypt)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

G. T. Prior
G. T. Prior*
Affiliation:
British Museum
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Extract

According to the accounts which have been published by members of the Egyptian Geological Survey, a number of meteoric stones fell to earth on June 28, 1911, at about 9 in the morning, in the hamlets to the west and north of the village of El Nakhla El Baharia (31° 19′ N., 30° 21′ E.) in the district of Abu Hommos, about twenty-four miles east of Alexandria, Egypt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 16 , Issue 76 , December 1912 , pp. 274 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1912

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Footnotes

1

Communicated by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.

References

Page 274 note 2 Hume, W. F., ‘The first meteorite record in Egypt.’ Cairo Scientific Journal, 1911, vol. v, no. 59, pp. 212–215 Google Scholar. Ball, J., ‘The meteorite of El Nakhla El Baharia.’ Survey Department (Egypt), 1912, Paper no. 25, pp. 1–20 Google Scholar, with three plates.

Descriptions of the meteorite have also been published by Meunier, S., Compt. Rend. Aead. Sci. Paris, 1911, vol. cliii, pp. 524, 785Google Scholar ; and by Berwerth, F., Min. Petr. Mitt. (Tschermak), 1912, vol. xxxi, p. 107 Google Scholar.

Page 274 note 3 The hamlets near which stones were seen to fall are Ezbet Abdalla Zeid, Ezbet Abdol Malek, Ezbet el Askar, and Ezbet Saber Mahdi.

Page 275 note 1 See J. Ball, loc. cit., p. 4.

Page 275 note 2 The descriptions hitherto published of the meteorite contain varying statements of its mineral composition. In one, three-quarters of the stone is considered to consist of augite and the rest of hypersthene ; in another, over 80 per cent of the stone is regarded as hypersthene. That there is no reason, however, to doubt the general uniformity in character of the different stones of the fall is clear from the descriptions themselves, and from the chemical analyses which have been made of the stones (see p. 279).

Page 276 note 1 F. Berwerth, loc. cit., p. 110.

Page 277 note 1 As determined on 1.0610 gram of the portion of the meteorite insoluble in hydrochloric acid (see p. 280).

Page 277 note 2 The Ensisheim meteoric stone, according to an analysis of the soluble portion by F. Crook (Inaug.-Disa, Göttingen, 1868, p. 22), is supposed to have 50 per cent. of olivine containing as much as 53 per cent of FeO. In an uncovered slide of this stone in the Museum Collection the olivine, however, presents no unusual character, is quite colourless, and has refractions not higher than that of methylene iodide.

Page 278 note 1 Brush, G. J., Amer. Journ. Sci., 1869, vol. xlviii, p. 17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

Page 278 note 2 Gooch, F. A., Amer. Journ. Sci., 1885, vol. xxx, p. 58 Google Scholar.

Page 278 note 3 The whole of the iron is here reckoned as FeO : in the result of the bulkanalysis (p. 279) showed that the amount of F2O3 in the meteorite is small.

Page 278 note 4 The excess of 1 per cent. in the analysis is probably mainly due to excess of magnesia. Tile chemical composition of the olivine is better represented by the analysis of the soluble part of the meteorite which was made on a larger amount of material (see p. 280).

Page 278 note 5 Calculated from the specific gravity of tile grains (3.842) and that of the portion of tile meteorite insoluble in hydrochloric acid (3.415).

Page 279 note 1 J. Ball, loc. cit., p. 8.

Page 279 note 2 Meunier, S., Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris, 1911, vol. cliii, p. 786 Google Scholar.

Page 279 note 3 In I as determined on 1.0065 gram of the coarsely powdered stone.

Page 280 note 1 Fletcher, L., Mineralogical Magazine, 1894, vol. x, p. 288 Google Scholar.

Page 280 note 2 All the iron is estimated as ferrous oxide.