Nakhla Dog Meteorites, Meteorites for Sale, Meteorite

Mount Dooling
Iron, IC
Found 1909
Western Australia, Australia

Extracted From Meteoritics, Vol. 7, No 4, December 30, 1972

A 1.5 kg iron found in 1960 at Gosnells, near Perth, Western Australia and is structurally unusual, being best described as a heat-altered granular coarse octahedrite. It is chemically and structurally very similar to the Mount Dooling iron, found in 1909 about 400 km away, and has a fracture surface which fits the Mount Dooling mass very closely. The Gosnells fragment was probably transported by human agency, though it is not known when or by
whom.

DETAILS OF THE FIND

An iron meteorite weighing approximately 1500 g was recovered by Mr. Robert Dodd of Perth, Western Australia, in June 1960, from a site close to the blue metal quarry on the Darling Fault Scarp some 19 km S.E. of Perth, lat 32° OS'S.; long 116° 01' E. The country is open bush with grass thickening in winter and burnt off in summer. There isthin forestation in meagre soil over granitic rocks.

Mr. Dodd gave the meteorite to Mr. F. Soklich, a local gemstone dealer. Mr. Soklich donated to
the Western Australian Museum, Perth.

Gosnells fits the fracture surface on the main mass of Mount Dooling remarkably closely. There can be no doubt that they are parts of the same meteorite.

The Mount Dooling meteorite was discovered in 1909 by Mr. A. P. Brophy while prospecting for gold about 5 miles E. of Mount Dooling in the North Yilgam Block, Western Australia, lat 29° 57' S.; long 119° 43' E.). Unfortunately, Mount Dooling cannot be found in maps of the area, nor does it appear in Mines Department records. There is, however, a "Dooling Soak" surrounded by a hillock of stones about a mile across. A point 5 miles E. of this would be a11at 30° 02' S.; long 119° 43' E. There is also a hill named "South East Peak" in the Mount Manning Range, about 3 miles N. of Dooling Soak, and another hill now called "North West Peak" 5 miles further N. A point 5 miles E. of the latter peak coincides with the coordinates given by Simpson. It is probable that "Mount Dooling" refers to one of these peaks or to Dooling Soak.

Dooling Soak is in a comparatively inaccessible area and is visited by very few people, except perhaps aborigines, though the desert tribes rarely moved as far West as the Darling scarp and are not known to have collected iron meteorites. Nevertheless, human transport is the most likely explanation for the separation of the Gosnells fragment from the main mass.