Beeler

LL6
standby for beeler photo
Found 1924
38° 32′ N., 100° 13′ W. This brecciated meteorite was plowed up in Ness County, Kansas and has undergone considerable terrestrial weathering. The 21-pound Kansada stone of 1894 might be another mass of this meteorite. Beeler has been shocked to stage S4 and contains shock veins and melt pockets. The total known weight is 8.64 kg.

In a study of the thermal history of the LL6 Saint-Séverin, Min et al. (2013) determined the closure temperatures for pristine phosphate grains. The results of this study, along with Pb–Pb and Ar–Ar data, led them to conclude that this LL-group meteorite cooled at a slower rate (2.6°C/m.y.) compared to meteorites from the H chondrite parent body (~200 km-diameter) during their late cooling phase, possibly reflecting a comparably larger size for the LL parent body. However, a similar cooling history study conducted on H-group chondrites by Ganguly et al. (2013) led them to the conclusion that the H-chondrite parent body likely experienced a collisional disruption and re-accretion rather than a consistently slow cooling like that associated with an ‘onion-shell’ model.

Studies of the orbits of two other LL6 ordinary chondrites, Bensour and Kilabo, conducted by Alexeev et al. (2009), suggest that these meteorites cross the orbit of the ~7 km-diameter asteroid 3628 Božněmcová, located in the inner asteroid belt (~2.2 AU) which is associated with two efficient resonances. The above specimen is a 9.1 g partial slice.


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