Meteorite Times Magazine Contents Paul Harris
Featured Articles Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish Micro Visions by John Kashuba Norm’s Tektite Teasers by Norm Lehrman Mr. Monning’s Collection by Anne Black IMCA Insights by The IMCA Team Meteorite of the Month by Editor Tektite of the Month by Editor
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Meteorite Times Magazine A Meteorite Field Trip To the Field Museum Martin Horejsi
It has been many years since I last visited the Windy City so I jumped at the chance this spring when a conf erence presented just such an opportunity. While Chicago is not much more windy that New York City, and even less windy than Boston, it certainly didn’t disappoint, especially along the long waterf ront walk f rom downtown to the Field Museum. Meteorites with Field Museum documentation are highly coveted by collectors including myself . One f avorite Field Museum piece in my collection is Fukutomi, Japan. Another is Paragould, Arkansas. The Field Museum began lif e back in 1893 with a generous one million dollar donation by Marshall Field, a local prominent businessman. In that time, and many greats in the f ield of meteoritics passed through the Field Museum doors, most notably Oliver C. Farrington. The f ollowing photographs depict the large displays of meteorite, but f all short in sharing the real magic of the gallery. Enjoy the images, but don’t let them substitute f or a in-person visit to the museum.
The Stannern Eucrite. Beautif ul f lowing crust makes this stone an exceptional of a basaltic achondrite. However, unlike the complete stone my personal specimen, this one has a large cut f ace.
The Laf ayette, Indiana Nakhlite. Found in 1931, this martian rock contains minerals f ormed, according to it’s sign, “f rom exposure to liquid water near the surf ace of Mars.”
The cut f ace of Stannern does highlight the contrasting interior common to calcium-rich achondrites, but also is one less complete stone of Stannern on this planet.
This half -individual of the enstatite chondrite named Indarch f ell in 1891, just two years bef ore the museum it now calls home was f ounded.
A classic and large individual of Murchison, the CM2 that stunk up the down it landed in
A large Canyon Diablo iron f or public inspection.
It’s always disappointing when something is missing f rom the display. However, meteorites have a tough time here on earth and even the best curated pieces require a little personal attentional once in a while.
It wouldn’t be a visit to the Field Museum without stopping by f or a talk with Sue, their resident Tyrannosaurus rex. I remember the story of Sue’s out-of -ground troubles well having visited the Black Hills Institute during the dispute. And then again teaching about Sue through a well-f unded promotional campaign sponsored by McDonalds. Until next time….
Meteorite Times Magazine “I Just Know It Is A Meteorite� James Tobin
For once I have used the springtime f or Spring Cleaning. Over the last couple years I have been doing project af ter project non stop in the garage and it was really getting out of control. I had reduced my available work space down to the corner of one work table. So af ter two weeks of work and dozens of old busted cardboard boxes thrown out and replace with new boxes the garage is clean and vacuumed and ready to go f or meteorite work and astrophotography tech prototyping.
Paul and I usually get in our f irst big astrophotography trip in May but this year not until June. Bef ore that trip I build all the electronic accessories and experiment on improvements to my telescope rigs. But about two days a week is still spent working on meteorites. I have a lot space f or that again. I even have the scales out of the tiny corner I could barely get to. They are out where I can actually use them. I weigh all the meteorites bef ore I cut them just in case they turn out to be something that we decide to send of f f or classif ication. The total known weight is of course one of the questions that must be answered when the meteorite is submitted to the Nomenclature Committee to get its of f icial name or designation. I am not going to f ind any Martian or Lunar meteorites in the boxes of unclassif ied material but it is surprising at how of ten I f ind something very interesting f rom the chondrite f amily. I am so happy that I have a good working knowledge of what real meteorites look like. But even so I f ind a f ew stones that I am sure are meteorites but can not put into a group. So f ar they are a small pile of individual low weight stones. They all have something that identif ies them as meteorites but they are weird.
NWA 8384 was a pleasant surprise when I cut it open. I had longed to bring a type 3 chondrite to the world f or years. Af ter a couple other tries came back as stage 4 NWA 8384 let me check of f that goal. Its an LL3 and a beautif ul meteorite we now have in our catalog f or sale.
NWA 8008 is one of my submissions f or classif ication that I thought was a type 3 and came back as a petrologic type 4 instead. But it is still a great looking chondrule rich meteorite. So with all that said I guess it is time f or my current irritation. My social media activity has been trimmed down to working on what Paul and I do ourselves along with Facebook and Google+. I have dropped out of sight on all the rest. It just takes too much time to look at that mass of stuf f two or more times a day. So when my time looking at meteorite related social media is wasted with one non meteorite af ter another, and wild claim af ter wild claim of how wonderf ul a total f ake stone is, I sometimes f eel like cutting my f riends list to just a f ew people and withdrawing f rom all the groups that are not regulated against such posts. I don’t have the time or desire to become one of the meteorite sherif f s. But I appreciate the individuals that attempt to point out the f akes being sold and promoted. Especially those who of f er some insight and knowledge as they do their policing. There have always been f alse meteorites around. Sometimes it was just a lack of knowledge by the seller. It used to be the seller’s belief in a story they had been told about how grandpa f ound the stone over the hill af ter seeing a bright meteor. But more of ten now the stones are pure attempts to cheat buyers who also don’t know what meteorites are really like. I have not mentioned it in a long while. But a couple years ago I wrote a book f or the business to sell on meteorite identif ication entitled “Meteorites – How To Recognize Visitors From Space”. It is an ebook. We were interested is giving hunters and collectors who were learning a tool with simple tests and lots of pictures that could be used to identif y real meteorites. The world of meteorites never ceases to provide a wild variety of views into the human psyche. There seems to be more individuals all the time that have no knowledge of real meteorites, but have f ound a new never bef ore seen type. It is of course always priceless and made of something exotic. But these stones almost never have any characteristics of real meteorites. They never have f usion crusts and the thumbprints are just breaks on the surf ace. They are usually porous just f ull of bubbles, and they never have anything simple to identif y like a chondrule or two. They are of ten made of something that science has never seen bef ore. And here is the part that really gets me interested as an observer of human activities. The f inders of these phenomenal rocks even af ter several labs have told them they are slag or basalt or rusted mill balls or something else earthly will reject those determinations and maintain their belief that they have f ound the secret to the universe. Of ten clutching upon the notion there is a conspiracy to keep the inf ormation away f rom the public. They go on a crusade to f ind someone that will say they are meteorites. They generally move f rom meteorite labs to commercial material testing f acilities that have never seen a meteorite. They f ind places with tools not designed f or meteorites which are used in testing their rocks. Producing of course glorious results in rare elements, noble metals, new minerals and precious gemstones. What are the results f or us in the meteorite world that are interested in real meteorites? Well one of the results is less laboratories that will work on our genuine meteorites. Part of the process is to accept stones and sort the real meteorites f rom the non meteorites. It is a thankless job too; with thousands of regular earth rocks f or every meteorite that is sent in. The sorting is important work and the individuals doing it know what meteorites look like. It is the arguments that come af ter the sorting f rom a f ew individuals which have been told they had slag or basalt or magnetite. The debates become discouraging to classif iers. I have seen several individuals and a f ew f acilities stop taking specimens. Repeatedly the workers at the labs still accepting samples have told me they don’t have time or energy to argue with people they are basically doing a f avor f or.
NWA 7347 is maybe my f avorite meteorite. It looked like slag a little and a meteorite more. Worried about it f or a couple days and then solved the question with the f irst test. Just a small spot ground of f was all it took. But I did not know it would be as cool as it is until I cut it open. We don’t send a lot of specimens of f to be classif ied. But when I do want to send one of f I f ind myself approaching scientists with sort of a hat-in-hand already apologetic attitude. I send a message to see if they are willing to classif y one along with an image showing the type stone it is. I know that they are busy and have had a f ew irate people since my last request. It causes me to f eel like I only want to send the meteorites that are super special f or classif ication. This means that many other nice meteorites will never become classif ied. I have this f eeling whether justif ied or not that I don’t want to use up what I f eel are limited opportunities f or lab time. I realize that some of this may be only real between my ears; that the reality is that I could actually get many more classif ied if I just sent them in. Especially now that some labs are happier to do classif ications since they get paid a f ee. So I got this little pile of weird meteorites in the garage. I guess f or the time being they will sit right where they are. But sometime I will get invited to an activity where someone I know f rom a lab will be in attendance. It is pretty out of character f or me but I might just put a f ew of those stones into my pocket and take them with me f or show and tell. Every time I start a cut on a new stone I have a passing thought “maybe this will be something really cool and interesting.” Funny thing is that I like meteorites so much that no matter what the stone looks like af ter it is cut, it always seem to be really interesting. And they continue to be f ascinating even without having gold and silver or kryptonite in them. So it is actually of f to the garage to do some cutting as I f inish typing this. Then maybe tonight it will be time f or me to watch “Enemy f rom Space” a classic old sci-f i movie about meteorites that are f illed with death f or mankind. And meteorites don’t ever get any stranger than that.
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Meteorite Times Magazine Crystalline Lunar Spherules John Kashuba
It’s a harsh place, the surf ace of the moon. NWA 8010 is a lunar regolith breccia meteorite that bears witness to this. Melt veins are f ormed by large impacts. The veins in NWA 8010 did not cool instantly into glass. They had time to nucleate along wall rock and crystallize into f eathery tuf ts of very f ine laths that grew to meet in the center of the veins. Apollo 14 and 16 returned with crystalline lunar spherules similar to those in NWA 8010. Researchers believe a large impact was necessary to f orm not only melt droplets but also a cloud of dust and gas that insulated the molten material f rom the cold of space and allowed time f or crystals to f orm. Long f light time is inf erred by the time needed f or solidif ication and, in the case of Apollo 14, the composition of the spherules dif f ers f rom the rock in which they are f ound. All these photos were taken f rom the single thin section shown last.
A one millimeter thick melt vein runs between the lef t and right edges of this 4.5 mm wide view. Fine crystalline laths grew in bundles f rom the edges of the melt inwardly toward the center of the vein. Crosspolarized light. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Large chondrule-like spherule. Apparent length is 0.9 mm (900 Îźm). XPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
A pair of lunar crystalline spherules. Diameters are 200 Îźm and 65 Îźm. Plane polarized light. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia). Plane polarized light. Plane polarized light.
Two lunar crystalline spherules. The smaller is 240 μm in diameter. The larger has two lithologies. The core is 170 μm in diameter and the overall spherule has an length of 370 μm. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Partial lunar crystalline spherule 90 Îźm in diameter. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Lunar crystalline spherule 80 Îźm in diameter. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Dark lunar crystalline spherule 60 Îźm in diameter. What is the small red spherule? A glassy impact droplet? Red volcanic f ire f ountain glass? PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Sample thin section, 15 mm wide. Transmitted white light. NWA 8010 Lunar (f eldspathic breccia).
Norm’s Tektite Teasers: Moldavite Rain! by Norm Lehrman (www.TektiteSource.com)
There are all sorts of collections, but a collection of like objects offers the simple pleasure of side-by-side comparison and contrast. It offers training in the range of variations on a theme, and it begs you to select your favorites. Collections are meant to be felt. We have been running low on Moldavite teardrops and for several years they have been high on our shopping list. Last year we bought what we found offered, but it was only two or three. This year we scored this stunning assortment. When I find one of these, I rarely ask the price. The decision is already made. I have been struggling to get them pictured, described, and posted to the website, but they exhibit separation anxiety whenever I approach. To really be appreciated, they need to be viewed as a collection. So, here they are, perhaps for the last time all together. I get emotional just writing that. I don’t know what percentage of all Moldavites are teardrops. They are not by any means rare, but I would guess that they may be something like one in five hundred. A grouping like this represents a very select population drawn from thousands of Moldavites painstakingly collected one by one. I would imagine it is a real thrill to pull a nice teardrop from the sand!
Conventional wisdom, oft repeated, holds that teardrops are the end product of dumbbells that were spinning like propellers until they stretched and parted in the middle. I don’t question that that sometimes happened, particularly with Indochinites, but I’ve never been fully satisfied with that explanation as the whole story. Moldavite teardrops have something to say on this subject. If these all began as parted dumbbells, there should’ve been quite a lot of dumbbells. But good Moldavite dumbbells are extremely rare. Only 3 or 4 have passed through our business, and there is only one in that group that was truly a classic dumbbell form. The others qualified, but only because there isn’t much competition in that particular collection. I see no reason at all that teardrops cannot be a primary form, a blob of glass squirting out of the impact with an aerodynamic form dictated by forward flight, its tail streaming out behind, no spinning motion required. As a scientist, I can’t escape that sort of analysis. But as an artist, poet, and romantic lover of beauty, my mind lingers on the picture of a monster meteorite impact that melted the face of the earth and showered a rainstorm of glorious green glass on the Czech Republic. It happened about 15 million years ago and lasted only a few minutes. This is a collection of Moldavite raindrops from that storm. Just how cool can it get? Words fail me. Just look at the picture and try to imagine. Moldavite rain!
Meteorite Times Magazine Millbillillie Meteorite Slice Paul Harris
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Millbillillie 1.8 gram part slice Eucrite-mmict contributed by Paul Swartz, IMCA 5204 Submit Pictures to Meteorite Pictures of the Day
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Once a few decades ago this opening was a framed window in the wall of H. H. Nininger's Home and Museum building. From this window he must have many times pondered the mysteries of Meteor Crater seen in the distance. Photo by Š 2010 James Tobin