iron, native

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iron, native Native occurrences of the metal, Fe, may be of terrestrial or meteoritic origin; sp. gr. 7.5; hardness 4.5; grey; massive or granular; malleable; if meteoric may be alloyed with nickel and consists of small fragments that have fallen from the outer atmosphere; terrestrial iron is fairly rare but occurs in igneous rocks in Greenland and in carbonaceous sedimentary deposits.

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