Orientation relationship of Widmannstatten plates in an iron meteorite measured with high-energy synchrotron radiation

Abstract

The orientation distribution of the Widmannstatten plates was measured in a sample of the Gibeon iron-nickel meteorite. The measurements were made with high-energy synchrotron radiation at beamline BW5 at HASYLAB/DESY in Hamburg using a high-resolution 'moving-detector' technique. The measurements reveal a continuous range of orientations stretching out from both sides of the Nishiyama-Wassermann orientation to the Kurdjumov-Sachs orientations, as well as a minor 'spread-pipe' between the Kurdjumov-Sachs ends of neighbouring non-coplanar orientation variants.