Le Teilleul meteorite, Le Teilleul, Avranches, Manche, Normandy, Francei

Regional Level Types
Le Teilleul meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Le Teilleul	Commune
Avranches	Arrondissement
Manche	Department
Normandy	Region
France	Country

Howardite
Fell 14 Jul 1845; 780 g

After detonations a single stone was found. Le Teilleul was the fourth fall of 16 witnessed falls of the past two centuries which are now classified as Howardites. The Howardites are brecciated mixtures of basaltic pyroxene-plagioclase intergrowths of Eucritic materials and Orthopyroxene-rich 'Diogenitic' materials. They usually contain a number of additional minor silicates, opaques, and - sometimes - exotic components from ancient impacts. They often contain very tiny and poorly characterized phases as well as varying amounts of glass and devitrified crystallites. A number of them have been partially reequilibrated — at least in small regions — but as a general rule retain noticeable compositional and textural diversity in both pyroxenes and plagioclase. Le Teilleul's most common pyroxene is orthopyroxene (hypersthene composition) with augite exsolution lamellae, but minor pigeonite is also found. Plagioclase is variable in composition but is almost entirely bytownite in composition. Also present in Le Teilleul is Ni-poor Iron, an oddity shared with several Howardites. Almost all meteoritic iron is Fe-Ni metal, but the presence of Ni-poor iron in Howardites and related Eucrites and Diogenites suggests that important reducing events were present during the early epochs of crystallization and/or during important ancient impacts.

Current consensus in the planetary science community is that almost all material in Howardites, Eucrites, and Diogenites (HED meteorites) were formed by igneous differentiation on the asteroid 4 Vesta, partially mingled together and then ejected by usually multiple impact events. Once launched from Vesta, they suffered additional fragmenting events before chance and gravitational perturbations brought a few fragments to the planet earth. However, all HED meteorites are almost certainly not derived from the same parent bodies (anomalies in isotopic and chemical ratios are crucial here). Le Teilleul, then, may very well be a stone from Vesta, but definitive determination of an original parent body for specific meteorites is still a work in progress.

[Cf. Meteoritics and Planetary Science (November 1913) for a recent survey of the Vesta Parent Body discussion.]

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References