EL chondrite
An EL chondrite is an enstatite chondrite with lower total iron than EH chondrites and often more heating.
EL chondrites are enstatite chondrites with low total iron, the L standing for low. Compared with EH chondrites they contain less metal and slightly larger chondrules, and their main magnesium-iron-manganese sulfide is alabandite rather than niningerite.
Many EL chondrites are petrologic type 6, meaning they were strongly heated on their parent body and their chondrules have become hard to see. Hvittis, which fell in Finland in 1901, is a well-known EL6, and Eagle, which fell in Nebraska in 1947, is another. Unequilibrated EL3 examples are rare and highly prized for research.
The EH and EL groups are thought to have come from at least two separate parent bodies, both formed in a region of the disc short of oxygen, possibly near the inner Solar System. The aubrites, which are igneous enstatite rocks, share many features with them and may come from a related body that melted.
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