Chondrite from Chelmugi

A sample found by geologists in 2002 in a forest near the village of Chelmuzhi (Medvezhyegorsky district of the Republic of Karelia) was examined. Unlike regional rocks, the sample had high hardness and strength, electrical conductivity, and weak magnetic properties. During its detailed study, Widmanstätten structure, chondrules, and iron-chromium-nickel alloy of matrix consisting mainly of taenite and cohenite, the grains of metals, their oxides, refractory perovskite, periclase, rutile, pyrochlore, corundum, and Ca, Al, and C inclusions were discovered. High contents of carbon and low content or complete absence of oxygen were recorded in some components of the sample. The hypotheses of the meteoritic and mantle origin of the sample are discussed.