ALTERATION OF THE WIDMANSTÄTTEN STRUCTURE OF METEORITES BY HEATING *

Short‐timed, elevated‐temperature heat‐treatments performed on a small Barringer Crater iron indicate that taenite lamellae will survive such treatments with little apparent alteration. The writer states his belief that diffusion during prolonged heating, such as might occur in the case of a meteorite's closely approaching the Sun, would eventually erase an original octahedral taenite pattern. He suggests that meteorites may exist that are octahedritic in chemical composition but that do not exhibit the Widmanstätten structure on a macroscopic scale.