The Auckland meteorite: revealing its composition and novel features

At 9:30 am on 12 June 2004, a 1.3kg rock crashed through the roof and into an Ellerslie family's living room, missing the owners and their grandchild, who had been playing on the couch only minutes before. Dr Faure will describe the journey of sample access, classification and a novel feature of the meteorite called “Auckland”.

About the speaker

Dr Kevin Faure obtained his PhD degree in geochemistry at the University of Cape Town.  He has worked as an exploration and mining geologist in South Africa, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Japan and has been at GNS Science for the last 25 years.  He has had a wide range of roles at GNS Science, including 10 years as an Executive Manager, responsible for research of New Zealand’s geological resources. He is now a Senior Researcher, Team Leader of the Petrology and Geochemistry Team and the Lead Scientist for the Stable Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory, based in Gracefield, Lower Hutt. His research spans the fields of crustal and mantle evolution, hydrothermal mineral deposits, fluid-rock interaction, gas hydrates and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of sedimentary formations.