Mount Dooling Iron Meteorite Slice, IC, 105.76g, Neumann Bands with Dark Inclusion

Etched slice with Neumann bands and a dark inclusion

This 105.76 g slice of Mount Dooling shows bright kamacite plates crossing one another at angles over a field of large, differently oriented metal grains, each catching the light in its own direction. The darker grains are packed with crossing sets of fine straight Neumann bands, and a dark nodular inclusion sits near the center of the slice.

Mount Dooling is an iron meteorite found in 1909 in Western Australia. The Meteoritical Bulletin records it as a find and classifies it as Iron, IC, a group with only 13 approved members.

Structure and features

One face is polished and etched. The etch is crisp across the whole face: long, bright kamacite plates run in several directions, and between them lie large grains of metal that etch to different tones of gray depending on how each crystal is oriented. Buchwald (1975) describes this mixed structure in Mount Dooling as 1 to 2 mm wide kamacite lamellae alongside very coarse, almost equiaxial grains up to about 2 cm across.

The close-up photographs show the Neumann bands clearly. In the darker grains they form dense sets of fine parallel lines, with two or more sets crossing each other in a cross-hatched texture. A few fine dark lines also wander across the etched face; these have not been analyzed.

The dark inclusion near the center is roughly oval, with an irregular margin against the surrounding metal. It runs through the slice and shows on both faces, larger on the polished face and smaller on the reverse. It has not been analyzed. Buchwald records troilite (iron sulfide) nodules in Mount Dooling, so troilite is the most likely identity, but that is not confirmed for this specimen.

The reverse face is a wire saw cut that has also been etched. The same crossing plate pattern shows through on this side, overlaid by the fine parallel lines left by the wire saw. Along part of the outer edge is a thin band of brown terrestrial oxide from the meteorite's long exposure in the ground.

This slice has been professionally stabilized by Brian McDonald of Treasure Coast Meteorite Co., and both faces carry a protective coat of Renaissance Wax.

The display stand and scale cube in the photographs are not included.

Discovery and provenance

According to Buchwald's Handbook of Iron Meteorites (1975), a mass of about 31.5 kg was found in 1909 by A. P. Brophy while he was prospecting for gold about 8 km east of Mount Dooling, near Lake Giles, in the North Yilgarn district of Western Australia. The mass and two small fragments Brophy had broken from it were acquired by the Geological Survey of Western Australia, and the main mass was held in Perth.

The meteorite turned up again in two unexpected places. In 1960 a 1.5 kg iron was found at Gosnells, near Perth, roughly 400 km from the original find site. Analytical and structural work showed it was a fragment of Mount Dooling that had been broken from the mass at some unknown time and carried almost to the coast (Buchwald 1975, reporting De Laeter and colleagues, 1972). Then in 1979 a large iron was found near the Mount Manning Range, not far from the original site, and further study showed that both the Gosnells iron and the Mount Manning mass were fragments of Mount Dooling (De Laeter and Bevan, 1992).

How the Gosnells fragment travelled 400 km is not known. De Laeter and Bevan concluded it was moved by people rather than by natural processes, and suggested it may be one of very few meteorites that could have been carried by Aboriginal people. That is a hypothesis, not an established finding.

The Meteoritical Bulletin lists Gosnells and Lake Giles as synonyms of Mount Dooling and records a total mass of 734 kg, far more than the 31.5 kg mass Buchwald described in 1975. The difference is consistent with the later recoveries described above.

Sources: Buchwald (1975), Handbook of Iron Meteorites, volume 3, pages 849 to 850; De Laeter and Bevan (1992), A history of Western Australian meteoritics, Records of the Western Australian Museum.

Scientific context

The Meteoritical Bulletin classifies Mount Dooling as Iron, IC. Group IC was defined by Scott (1977) from closely matching nickel, gallium and germanium concentrations among a small set of irons, and the group is thought to sample the metallic core of a single parent asteroid. As of October 2026, the Meteoritical Bulletin lists this as 1 of 13 approved meteorites classified as Iron, IC. That count refers to approved database entries, not to individual masses.

IC irons are unusual among iron meteorite groups for the variety of their textures. Some carry clusters of cohenite, an iron carbide; others, including Mount Dooling, show shock-melted structures. Buchwald found that Mount Dooling's troilite nodules had been shock-melted and that parts of its metal had partly recrystallized, both probably during the same shock event in space.

Neumann bands are thin mechanical twins in kamacite, the low-nickel iron phase, produced when a shock wave passes through the metal. After etching they show as sets of fine straight lines crossing the kamacite, and each set follows a different crystal plane, which is why several sets intersect in the darker grains of this slice. For more on the crossing plate structure, see Widmanstatten Pattern Explained.

What the research reports

The Meteoritical Bulletin lists this meteorite as Mount Dooling, classified Iron, IC, found in 1909 in Australia with a recorded mass of 734 kg. The entry notes that Mount Dooling was never published in the Meteoritical Bulletin itself; its IC classification comes from the Natural History Museum Catalogue of Meteorites (2000) and MetBase (2006). Two points in the research differ from the Bulletin entry and are set out below: Buchwald (1975) described Mount Dooling as chemically anomalous before it was placed in group IC, and the Bulletin records no structural class. Findings come from the authors' own samples and methods and are given as the studies state them.

Buchwald (1975): structure, shock and an earlier chemical view

Vagn F. Buchwald's Handbook of Iron Meteorites (University of California Press, 1975, volume 3, pages 849 to 850) is linked directly from the Bulletin entry. Buchwald classified Mount Dooling as a coarse octahedrite (Og) with 1 to 2 mm wide lamellae and 1 to 2 cm equiaxial grains, and reported 6.22% nickel, 0.46% cobalt, 0.27% phosphorus, 56 ppm gallium, 239 ppm germanium and 1.2 ppm iridium. He recorded troilite with daubreelite, a chromium sulfide, and tiny plates of the chromium nitride carlsbergite.

He gave particular attention to the shock history. "A shock event created a profusion of Neumann bands through the whole mass." He also described a second, finer generation of Neumann bands inside recrystallized grains, which he suggested may have formed during the meteorite's violent deceleration in the atmosphere. Buchwald wrote that the original classification as a medium octahedrite should be abandoned. At the time he considered the chemistry anomalous, slightly related to both groups I and IIB; the IC grouping that the Bulletin now records came later.

Tornabene et al. (2023): genetics and crystallization of group IC

H. A. Tornabene, R. D. Ash, R. J. Walker and K. R. Bermingham published Genetics, age, and crystallization history of group IC iron meteorites (Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, volume 340, pages 108 to 119, 2023). They analyzed 11 of the 13 IC irons, including a Mount Dooling sample from the Smithsonian collection, and noted that Mount Dooling is among the IC irons with "shock melted structures that are distinct from all other IC irons".

From molybdenum and tungsten isotopes in six other IC irons, the authors concluded that the group formed on one parent body in the non-carbonaceous region of the early Solar System, with metal separating from silicate about 1.0 plus or minus 0.4 million years after the first solids formed. Mount Dooling was not among the six measured for tungsten. In their crystallization models, Mount Dooling falls in a high-rhenium subgroup and can be explained as an equilibrium solid under their preferred model, which assumes a sulfur-rich core. Its rhenium-osmium data plot slightly off the group's 4.56 billion year reference line, which the authors attribute to minor gain or loss of rhenium or osmium. They concluded that simple fractional crystallization alone cannot explain the whole group, and that later processes, possibly impacts, mixed solid and liquid metal within the first 100 million years.

Why this listing calls Mount Dooling a coarse octahedrite

The Meteoritical Bulletin Database records iron meteorites by chemical group only, so its entry for Mount Dooling reads Iron, IC, with no structural class. The structural class used here comes from Buchwald (1975), cited above, which the Bulletin entry links directly. Scott (1977), Composition, mineralogy and origin of group IC iron meteorites (Earth and Planetary Science Letters), is the study that defined the group and is cited here as summarized by Tornabene et al. (2023).

Frequently asked questions

Is this meteorite authenticated?
Mount Dooling is classified in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database as Iron, IC, and the entry is linked at the end of this listing. Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. is IMCA member #3323. This specimen includes a certificate of authenticity documenting its weight, classification, and provenance.

Is Mount Dooling a fall or a find?
A find. The Meteoritical Bulletin records it as found in 1909, with no observed fall.

What is the dark inclusion?
It has not been analyzed. Buchwald (1975) records troilite nodules in Mount Dooling, so troilite, an iron sulfide, is the most likely identity, but it is not confirmed for this specimen. The inclusion passes through the slice and is visible on both faces.

What are Neumann bands?
Neumann bands are shock deformation features in kamacite. When a shock wave passes through the metal, the crystal lattice twins along specific planes, and after etching these twins show as fine parallel lines within individual kamacite crystals. Buchwald describes them as abundant throughout the Mount Dooling mass.

How are the two faces finished?
One face is polished and etched. The other is a wire saw cut that has been etched without polishing, so the etched pattern shows through the fine lines of the saw cut.

Does this specimen have a serial number?
Yes. It is registered as TC-00050, and its permanent record, with photographs and weight, is at Specimen Record TC-00050.

What is included with this specimen?
The 105.76 g slice as photographed and a certificate of authenticity. Display stands and scale cubes shown in the photographs are not included.

Has this iron been stabilized?
Yes. This slice was professionally stabilized by Brian McDonald of Treasure Coast Meteorite Co. before listing, as every iron meteorite we sell now is, to help guard against the rust that can develop in iron meteorites over time. Both faces were then coated with Renaissance Wax.

How should I store an etched iron meteorite?
Keep it in a low-humidity environment. Etched surfaces react to moisture more readily than natural surfaces, so a silica gel pack in the storage container helps prevent oxidation. Because this specimen has been professionally stabilized and coated with Renaissance Wax, no oil is needed. Handle it with gloves or clean, dry hands.

Collector significance

This 105.76 g slice comes from one of the 13 approved meteorites in group IC, a meteorite whose shock history Buchwald described in detail. Both faces are etched, the Neumann bands are visible in the darker grains without magnification, and the dark inclusion runs through the slice. Its history includes a fragment that turned up 400 km from the find site and a later large mass found near the Mount Manning Range.

For more iron meteorites, see our full Iron Meteorites collection.

Meteoritical Bulletin entry: Mount Dooling | Classification: Iron, IC | Find, Australia, 1909 | Treasure Coast Meteorite Co., IMCA #3323