Nonmagmatic meteorite

Nonmagmatic meteorite (also nonmagmatic iron meteorite) is a deprecated term formerly used in meteoritics to describe iron meteorites that were originally thought to have not formed by igneous processes, to differentiate them from the magmatic meteorites, produced by the crystallization of a metal melt. The concept behind this was developed in the 1970s, but it was quickly realized that igneous processes actually play a vital role in the formation of the so-called "nonmagmatic" meteorites. Today, the terms are still sometimes used, but usage is discouraged because of the ambiguous meanings of the terms magmatic and nonmagmatic. The meteorites that were described to be nonmagmatic are now understood to be the product of partial melting and impact events and are grouped with the primitive achondrites and the achondrites.