This space graphite somehow demonstrates unexpected magnetic properties. From the Nature paper “Canyon Diablo is classified as a silicate-bearing IAB iron . The origin of this group is puzzling, but it may have involved catastrophic mixing of the molten iron core of an asteroid in a collision with a chondritic body in the first few million years of the Solar System” and the conclusion: “The implications of ferromagnetic carbon, whatever its origin, are likely to be wide- reaching—this material could be a zero-gap, high-temperature, ferromagnetic semiconductor. With this new sighting of strongly ferromagnetic meteoritic carbon, we look forward to rapid developments in the area of carbon-based magnetism.”
It was the monumental force of the asteroid’s impact — traveling at approximately 10 miles-per-second — that resulted in its nickel-iron matrix being melted and injected with an immense burst of pressure into the graphite, fully penetrating the cracks and fissures. Exquisitely ornamental, this is an extraordinary artifact of a cataclysmic collision frozen in time, recently estimated to have happened 4 billion years ago (Meteoritics, April 2020). Canyon Diablo meteorites are renowned for containing these graphite nodules, oblong inclusions of graphite scattered throughout the metallic matrix.
The well-preserved Meteor Crater in Arizona formed in a fraction of a second 50,000 years ago as 175 million tons of limestone and bedrock were uplifted, forming the mile-wide crater rim in the formerly flat terrain. The meteorite was only 150 ft. wide but created a 40-megaton blast, destroying 99.999% of the half-million ton mass and creating a spectacular crater. The Canyon Diablo remains were discovered in 1918, and led to mining attempts to find the missing iron mass for the booming railway industry.
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