The Wedderburn Meteorite revisited

Abstract

The Wedderburn meteorite from Victoria is a small nickel-rich iron belonging to the rare sLH subgroup of the IAB complex. Donated to the Mines Department in 1950, it came to public attention in 1953 when the initial description was published by Dr Austin Edwards in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. Since then, pieces of the meteorite have been distributed to major institutions in Europe and North America, where leading researchers have investigated the meteorite’s unusual chemistry, mineralogy and microtexture in great detail. The recent approval of a new iron carbide mineral named edscottite, with the formula Fe₅C₂, in Wedderburn has prompted this review of the meteorite’s history, from its discovery to its current classification status.