The History and State-of-the-Art of the Studies of Native Iron in Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Rocks

A brief review on the history of studying native iron in terrestrial rocks and meteorites is presented. The synthesis and systematization of extensive data on the distribution, composition, and grain size of metal iron particles in sediments, other terrestrial rocks, and meteorites obtained by thermomagnetic analysis with heating to 800 °C combined with microprobe analysis are described. The studies show that iron particles in all the studied sediments typically have extraterrestrial origin. Based on the statistical analysis of the thermomagnetic data, a number of indications (statistical regularities) are proposed testifying to the overwhelmingly extraterrestrial origin of iron particles in sediments. The similarity of the formation conditions of terrestrial and extraterrestrial metal iron particles makes it possible to suggest a petromagnetic scheme for the structure of planets based on the distribution of metal iron in them.