THE VERKHNE DNIEPROVSK IRON METEORITE SPECIMENS IN THE VIENNA COLLECTION AND THE CONFUSION OF VERKHNE DNIEPROVSK WITH AUGUSTINOVKA

It is now a hundred years since a small amount of meteoritic material labelled Verkhne Dnieprovsk was first described. Since then the material has been controversial, due to the corroded character and the very limited amount of material known. Authentic samples, totalling 8 g, have been identified in the Vienna collection, which confirm that Verkhne Dnieprovsk is a unique meteorite, both in its composition, belonging to group II E, and in its heavily shocked and distorted structure. The shock-produced structures include micromelts with a phosphorus gradient, suggesting that the melts originated in situ from mm-sized schreibersite crystals. Unfortunately, no additional information as to location and circumstances of find was discovered at this late date. Further work will probably require field work and interviews on the site and/or studies of Russian archives.