Chinga Meteorite
Find / Fall: Find – 1913
Location: Respublika Tyva, Russia
Classification: Iron, ungrouped (Ataxite)
Total Known Weight: 209.4 kg
Iron meteorite types result from the amount of nickel they contain. On the high end of nickel content are the Ataxite group of iron meteorites. These have so much nickel that they no longer will show a Widmanstatten figure when etched. But, that does not mean they are not fascinating meteorites and far more rare then the octahedrites that have the pattern. Chinga as an Ataxite lives up to everything which one would want from such a special class of meteorite. Having a high nickel content it is easy to keep and when polished makes a perfect example of what meteorite metal is like when not treated the way ancients would have seen this metal before smelting from ore made iron no longer the gift metal from the heavens.
