L Chondrite meteorites: A compilation and preliminary analyses

A compilation of those meteorites currently recognized as being L chondrites, exclusive of the numerous Antarctica finds, was made and is known as the L Chondrite Register. Data for these 576 meteorites was collected from a variety of sources, primarily the British Museum's Catalogue of Meteorites and the Appendix to the Catalogue of Meteorites. Also used was the Revised Cambridge Chondrite Compendium, which provided a convenient listing of L chondrites; other sources include Chinese Meteorites, Meteorites, by Wasson (1974), and the Meteoritical Bulletin of Meteoritics. This last source provided data for most recent falls and was referenced through March of 1982. All such data were recorded on a computer data file with a HP 2647A terminal, so that information could easily be retrieved and manipulated. For each meteorite, the petrographic class, location of find, fall date and hour, mass, mole per cent fayalite, weight per cent Fe, SiO2/MgO ratio, shock class, metal class, 4He abundance, UTh-H3 gas retention age, K-Ar gas retention age, and 21Ne cosmic ray exposure age, was recorded when known.