Brian Mason
The Smithsonian curator who classified thousands of Antarctic meteorites and spotted that the first lunar meteorite looked like Apollo highland rock.
Key facts
- Born
- 1917
- Died
- 2009
- Nationality
- New Zealand-born American
- Field
- Geochemist and curator
Brian Harold Mason was born in New Zealand and studied geology there and in Sweden. He moved to the United States, worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and in 1965 joined the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where he became curator of meteorites.
Mason wrote one of the first modern textbooks on meteorites, published in 1962, and his book on the principles of geochemistry was used by students for decades. He studied the mineral compositions of chondrites closely and helped to show how the ordinary chondrites fall into distinct groups.
When meteorites began to pour in from Antarctica in the late 1970s, Mason took on the huge task of describing and classifying them. Over the years he examined thousands of Antarctic specimens so that scientists everywhere could request samples. In 1982 he looked at a small stone from the Allan Hills and noticed that it closely resembled lunar highland rock from the Apollo missions. His observation led to the confirmation that ALH A81005 came from the Moon.
Mason worked at the Smithsonian into his eighties. The mineral brianite, a phosphate found in iron meteorites, and an asteroid are named after him.
On the timeline
- 18 January 1982The first meteorite recognised from the Moon
See more
The Allan Hills 81005 meteorite