Handbook of Iron Meteorites

The Handbook of Iron Meteorites was originally published by the University of California Press in 1975 for the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University. It has been digitized at the University of Hawai‘i as it is still an extraordinarily valuable resource and is no longer in print. The copyright of this book, which was originally held by the University of California Press, is now owned by the Center for Meteorite Studies.

This is a monumental book in three volumes containing 1426 pages, 2124 figures, eight appendices and a supplement. Volume 1 provides a general introduction to meteorites, fireballs, and impact craters and to the mineralogy, composition, and properties of iron meteorites. It also contains appendices of information about iron meteorites.

Volumes 2 and 3 contain descriptions of about 600 iron meteorites—nearly all those that were known and accessible in 1975. These descriptions include information about the structure, mineralogy, and composition of each iron meteorite, its discovery and subsequent history, as well as a list of museum holdings. A guide for users can be found on page 245 at the beginning of Volume 2. At the end of Volume 3 on pages 1376-1418 there is a supplement containing information about eleven meteorites that were studied after 1973 plus additional notes and photographs for a few other iron meteorites.

The files are best displayed using Adobe Acrobat. High and low resolution pdfs are available plus pdf portfolios for each volume, which are readily searchable, and an index. The high-resolution files, which are labeled HI, are very large. If you are mainly interested in the text, not the figures, use the low-resolution files labeled LO. To print either type you will need to print them as images (see the advanced print options in the Print dialog box).

The original prints for the figures were preserved by Vagn Buchwald and these have been scanned by the Natural History Museum of Denmark. They can be accessed by figure number.

Our thanks to Meenakshi Wadhwa, the Director of the Center for Meteorite Studies for giving permission for the preparation of this electronic edition, to the University of Hawaii for hosting the website, Jeff Grossman and the NASA Cosmochemistry program for funding the project and providing links from the Meteoritical Bulletin Database to the electronic edition, John Wasson for helping to launch this project, and to Vagn Buchwald for making it all possible.

Ed Scott, University of Hawai‘i
February, 2014.