Micrometeorites, South Pole

Taylor et al. (2000) primarily described the cosmic spherules in the South-Pole suite of particles because the unmelted MMs were difficult to distinguish from the terrestrial particles. The ice from which the extraterrestrial particles of the South-Pole suite were recovered was deposited during a period of about 400 years between AD 1100 and 1500. The diameters of these cosmic spherules range from 50 to 1,000 pm and the grain-size distribution is assumed to be unbiased because all the particles that fell on the snow surface were preserved in the ice without appreciable losses by chemical weathering or attack by bacteria. 

Barred oUvrne 41 Lath-shaped oUvine emd small magnetite in interstitial glass 

Glass 17 Mafic glass, highly spherical, some have sctiUoped edges 

Cryptocrys- taUme 12 No visible crystals but crystalhne in poleuized hght 

Porphyritic oUvrue 11 Equidimensioneil olivine crystals and magnetite in interstitieil glass 

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Taylor S, Lever JH, Harvey RP, Govoni J (1997) Collecting micrometeorites from the South Pole water well. CREL Rept. 97-1. US Army Cold-Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire, England... 

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