Stony Meteorites bearing Maskelynite

Abstract

ITS discoverer, Gustav Tschermak, assigned the name “Maskelynite” to an isotropic substance with the chemical composition of plagioclase, which occurred in the Shergotty achondritic stony meteorite¹. He first regarded this as a new cubic mineral, but later, finding it also in several chondrites and realizing that it formed pseudomorphs after plagioclase, he reinterpreted maskelynite as remelted or otherwise transformed plagioclase glass². Because its amorphous character was not confirmed and no chemical analyses were made of the chondritic variety, however, Tschermak's reassessment of the nature of maskelynite was not universally accepted by meteorite petrographers.