Iron, IIIF, octahedrite
Found during Fall of 1888
37° 58' N., 90° 19' W.
A single spheroidal mass of 244 kg was found by Mr. Z. Murphy, a surveyor, ~1 mile west of the hamlet of Punjaub, which is near present-day Lawrenceton, Missouri. The St. Genevieve mass was bought by Ward several years later. The long terrestrial age has removed several mm from the surface, and terrestrial oxides are evident.
Group characteristics of the IIIF irons include very low-Co, high-Cr, and low-P contents. Other meteorites constituting group IIIF include Moonby, Clark County, Nelson County, and Oakley. In their paper ‘Chemical classication of iron meteorites–VIII’, Wasson and Scott (1975) determined that Oakley was the fifth member of a common grouping, which was thereby established as group IIIF. The specimen of St. Genevieve shown above is a 55.4 g etched partial slice exhibiting a fine to medium Thomson (Widmanstätten) structure. The photo below shows the entire mass as photographed by Ward.
