IID Iron Meteorites
Description: Structurally, the members of the IID iron meteorite group represent medium to fine octahedrites.
Formation history & Origin: The IID iron meteorites often contain abundant inclusions of schreibersite, and they display high amounts of gallium and germanium - facts that indicate a formation within the core of a larger asteroid.
Members: This small group of iron meteorites comprises just 18 members. Alt Bela, Carbo, or Hraschina are typical IID iron meteorites. A famous member of this group is the so-called "bewitched burgrave" of Elbogen, Bohemia, a witnessed fall from 1400. Not only is Elbogen one of the oldest recorded falls, but it is also the very iron meteorite that, in 1808, Alois von Widmanstätten viewed when he discovered the internal structure hidden within. Interestingly, he did not etch the iron to reveal these structures. Rather, as he heated a slab of the Elbogen iron in the flame of a Bunsen burner, the figures that would be named for him were revealed.