Measuring the elastic properties of the Gibeon meteorite using laser ultrasound

Abstract

Meteorites provide access to information on the formation and evolution of planetary bodies which is otherwise difficult to study. The unique nature of these samples and their relative scarcity means that non-destructive analysis techniques are needed to study their properties.

This paper uses the laser ultrasound technique spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy to non-destructively determine both the crystal orientation and the single crystal elastic constants ($C_{ij}$) of a sample of the Gibeon meteorite. There are no published values to directly compare the results of this study, as non-destructive measurements of the single crystal elasticity on granular material have not been possible. Therefore, comparisons with theoretical values for man-made iron-nickel alloys are given showing the $C_{ij}$ values are in the expected range. There are studies providing bulk elastic properties of meteorites, and so calculated bulk properties derived from the single crystal elasticity measurements are compared and also agree well.