Meteorite Times Magazine

Meteorite Times Magazine Contents Paul Harris

Featured Articles Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish Micro Visions by John Kashuba Norm’s Tektite Teasers by Norm Lehrman 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 The Twodot Chondrite: Montana’s Only Stone Meteorite Martin Horejsi

This is the largest slice of the Twodot meteorite in terms of surf ace area. None can be larger since this slice came f rom the middle of the curved stone. The lightly brecciated and shocklined f ace is only outdone by the obvious orientation.

About two months bef ore the end of last century, an hunter scouting a heard of elk literally crawled up on a meteorite. How did he know it was a meteorite and not one of the other billions of rocks lying around?

Well, he just did. He believed it was f rom space even though the f inder had never seen a meteorite bef ore.

The gracef ul curved leading edge of this slice shows the classic f orm caused by a stable run through our atmosphere.

No, the Twodot stone wasn’t smoking away while it melted the snow, nor was it a sphere f ull of holes like in the comic books. It wasn’t glowing green. And no it didn’t look like a f reshly minted rock delivered recently to this planet. Instead it was just a rusty 47-pound stone with hints of orientation even to the untrained eye. No f resh crust on this weathering grade 3 rock. But there were enough characteristics that the f inder retrieved the stone and kept it saf e f or years bef ore someone in the know got a f irst-hand look.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The brown and browner mottled surf ace contains f ew dramatic chondrules, but there are plenty of them even f or a type 6 when you look closely.

Measuring almost a f oot in width (30cm), the Twodot meteorite is large enough to take usef ul curvature measurements with even crude tools.

Twodot is an H6 chondrite with a shock level of 2. About a third of the stone remained intact as f ar as I know and that would be considered the main mass. Two exceptionally large slices were removed f rom the center of the stone. The one pictured here that is in my collection is the largest surf ace area slice of Twodot, and highlights the cross-sectional orientation very well.

The somewhat porous surf ace of the Twodot meteorite is obvious when eyed close up.

The outer edges of the orientation show mild rollback tucking f resh material under the mushroom dome. The ablated leading surf ace produced a textbook-perf ect shape to distribute the atmospheric f orces of hypersonic travel though earthly air.

As an H chondrite, there is plenty of visible metal sprinkled throughout Twodot. There are also some well def ined chondrules of reasonable size in the picture. Not bad f or a Type 6.

When I was young, I used to go deer hunting in the Twodot area so I am keenly aware of what it’s like wandering the opens spaces under that particular slice of the Big Sky. While my collecting pref erences lean heavily on the older and less abundant witnessed f alls with f urther prejudice f or those with interesting cultural stories. Twodot is a special meteorite to me even though a weathered f ind. And until the Treasure State produces another stony meteorite, it wills remain very special to all of Montana as well.

Until next time‌.

Meteorite Times Magazine The 2016 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show James Tobin

This is the 10.7 gram Sariçiçek howardite that I f ound at the gemshow. It has the most wonderf ul f rothy blowback on the trailing side.

To tell the truth I do not really know how many times I have attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show but it has to be close to 25. I start getting excited about going just about New Year’s and struggle to get through the month of January. This year Paul and I went f or a shorter time and very early. We arrived on Saturday morning the f irst of f icial day of the show. We made the rounds that day visiting and saying hello to everyone we could. I f ound a couple items. I wanted to get a piece of Bingöl the f all f rom September 2, 2015 in Turkey. Which by the time of this writing has been made of f icial with the name Sariçiçek. I did not need to have a big piece just a representative specimen. I f ound a nice broken stone and got it. I expected I would see a bigger and better stone to get as a complete individual. It is always f un f or me to have one that shows the inside f or photography and one that is near perf ect externally. I also f ound a quite nice f ragment of Nkayi an L6 f all f rom March 1, 2009 that I had missed in my witnessed f all collecting. It was very reasonably priced. Both of these were f rom Mike Farmer. As it turned out we would not see Mike again during our stay at the show. I looked around at all the f ine meteorites that were in the dealer’s rooms but no others called my name on the f irst day. I have reached an age and place in my collecting that the meteorite needs to be a little special f or me to buy it.

We spent a long time chatting and catching up with Edwin Thompson. He brought us up on the latest news about his sci-f i book “Earthunder” and the awards it has won in the past f ew months. I was pretty excited f or him. I have begun a new book myself . It will have again a very narrow appeal. But as he and I both said a writer needs to write f or themselves as much or more than f or the readers. In my case it is also about

taking history, f illing in the gaps of a story and writing it down so it is not lost.

Paul and I had not checked into our hotel and we had dinner plans f or the evening so about f our o’clock we headed toward the hotel. We had a f ew dif f iculties this year. The room they gave us did not have some working amenities, and so we had to get another room. We got to it and everything seemed f ine only to f ind out quickly that things did not work in it also. They were able to f ix the second room and we had no more trouble. We had been invited to share a dinner of f rench cuisine with John and Dorothy Kashuba, Anne Black and Paul and Wendy Swartz. However, Paul and Wendy were sadly not able to join us. The meal was wonderf ul f un. I had the Filet au Poivre Vert which was delicious it was served with some thin sliced potatoes that were cooked in a light sauce to just short of crispy. I had a nice garden salad as well and lots of the sliced bread they kept bringing. Paul had the Beef Wellington, and I think John had the same steak I chose. Anne and Dorothy had Chateaubriand Bearnaise Sauce f or 2. I mention this because it was a f ar departure f rom our normal Mexican or comf ort f ood diet that we get at the show. I passed on the Escargots Au Chablis and Pate Maison but they were certainly enjoyed by the others. At desert time I was able to practice my f rench and ordered the “Gâteau au Chocolat et Mocha” the Chocolate Cake which was also delicious. It was great to get to spend some time with these f riends. We usually see them only in passing at the show.

Sunday morning we had an appointment to look at some meteorites and see if we wanted to buy them. As it turned out there were about f ive dif f erent types of meteorites f or us to decide on and it took the greater part of the day f or us to go through them. But we could not beat the company we were with. It was again a group of meteorite f riends that we do not get to spend much time with. Sunday af ternoon we were able to get back to the Hotel Tucson City Center again and do some more visiting and I did a little more shopping f or myself . I saw that ET had some Healdsburgites in his room. I had one tiny one that I was asked to destroy in a f lame test, but have been looking f or a couple f or my collection. So I picked out a pair of very nice ones. Edwin told me about some of the research that has been done on them and how they look more extraterrestrial then once believed. In f act they have been called by the researcher as not of “earthly origin”, so not obsidians. Maybe I don’t have to do that f lame test.

This is a 12 gram specimen of Healdsburgite a natural glass f ound in a small area of central Calif ornia.

During the morning’s meteorite sorting I had f ound in a group of Sariçiçek howardite stones one that I should not pass up. I had not made a f irm decision at the time and needed to f inalize that the f ollowing morning. In our next visit with ET I would show him that spectacular stone. It is the one at the top of the article. We stopped by Global Treasures and checked in with Pieter and Debra. As always we had a great visit with them.

Dinner was again taken care of as we had been invited to go to L’Abner’s by Rubin Garcia and Bob Cucchiara. We had never been there bef ore so this was a new treat. This year’s dinner with Rubin and Bob and Mike Miller also include John Humphries and Jana Becker and others. It was great and the f ood very nice. We told some stories and laughed much. As we were leaving we passed the window of the other dinning room and people were waving at us. There was ET and John Sinclair and Fred Olson and some others so Paul and I went back in to say hello. They were f inished with their dinner so we were not crashing their party. It was nice to say hello to John Sinclair. I rarely get to chat with him. I needed to thank him personally f or the nice piece of Persimmon Creek I had received f rom him. It had been an unexpected bonus gif t in a transaction we had worked on a couple years back. We did not stay long and headed toward the hotel. The wind was getting f ierce and the weather turning very bad. Tumbleweeds and sand were blowing across the road on the way to the hotel. It had been warm but was going to be cold with rain and high winds the next two days.

Monday morning was cold and there was some wind. I was glad I had brought my coat even though it is a nuisance and I never have room f or it in my bag. I usually bring it and never put it on. This year I used it much of two whole days. The low temperature f or Monday was 38º F about 25ºs lower than on Sunday

and it was going to drop another 10ºs by Tuesday. We had a meeting at 1 pm Monday af ternoon and had stops to try and get in bef ore that.

We had not been to see Mike Miller’s room even though we had dinner with him the night bef ore. So we visited him f irst thing Monday morning. As always his room just gleamed and glittered with etched iron and pallasite slices. Blaine Reed is around the corner at the Ramada so it was of f to his room next. I f ound a f ew things there as always. He had two small but nice pieces of Sena a very old f all f rom Spain that is almost never seen. Actually f rom 1773 so that f it my toughening requirements f or purchase. I bought both f ragments. Down and around the end of the building is Said’s room and we looked at his nice NWA material. For about the f ourth time we ran into Al Lang and said another hello to him. He got deep in negotiations about a stone so we moved on to our next hotel. We would see Al a f ew more times during our stay and actually get to chat longer at his booth in the ballroom of Hotel Tucson City Center.

Though they are small it was great to f ind these two f ragments of Sena which f ell November 17, 1773. And though not as important as L’Aigle in changing minds about the origin of meteorites Sena too has historic signif icance.

We try to always go by and see Buddy Eisler and Lisa Marie and Pablo over at the Days Inn each year. So we made a f ast visit to them to say hi. I get my chance to visit my Moroccan meteorite dealer there too and as always I f ound several small stones that were just too nice to not take home.

We needed to be done with all our cruising around by about 11:30 so we could get lunch bef ore our 1 pm

meeting. We were on schedule and headed to the Fossil and Mineral Show where Suzanne Morrison was to say hi to her and see the Wabar Crater impact material she had. I had bought a selection bef ore the show when she had f irst mentioned it online. I got some very nice pieces of most of the dif f erent types of rocks f ound at Wabar. So I was personally not looking f or too much more. But Paul and I thought we might get something to sell through the business. We did buy a nice group of small pieces that represented all the types of glassy impactite. I wanted a bag of the sand f rom the crater which had small bits of iron shale and black glass in it just because it is cool. Suzanne graciously gave me one of the baggies. We got to speak to her mom Norma Morrison f or a while which is always a pleasure. Right on schedule we headed of f f or lunch. We had to eat f ast and get out f ast so we got our only f ast f ood lunch of the trip at Carl’s Jr. Our business meeting lasted about three hours and was very productive and f un. Always great to get some extended time with f riends even if it is mostly business. Was not much time af ter we f inished up to do anything. Once again we had been invited to dinner. So we made our way back to the hotel to just relax a bit af ter going hard all day. Dinner was just up the road a couple miles and we knew it was going to be more f un.

We had actually gotten to spend some time with Geof f Notkin already this trip but we were looking f orward to sharing dinner with him on his birthday. And it was all the f un we could have asked f or. Great new f riends were made, stories told and heard. We sang Happy Birthday to him and he blew out candles and we all had cake and pie it was a great evening. He invited us back to his house and we had some nice relaxed time to visit in his home.

Geof f Notkin is about to blow out the candles on his cake.

Paul and I got in a little late but since we had no plans f or our last day except to let me run around and see what I could f ind to spend money on, it was OK to get in late. We had been so busy doing business that we had actually not been at hotels long enough f or me to look f or much.

We usually go f or a f ive day trip. We were a day less this year. Tuesday was our last day. We had our last breakf ast and headed to the UPS store to ship back the big load of iron meteorites we had gotten.

Our carry around bags were f ull of the f ragile materials we had bought. Af ter the shipping was done it was back to the Hotel Tucson City Center f or the rest of the day until it was time to go to the airport. We headed straight to Edwin Thompson’s room. We knew he was getting some BingÜl stones in FedEx and we could use a f ew more to make a complete catalog page of all sizes. As we approached his room we ran right into him returning with the package in hand. Could not have been better timing. We watched as he began opening the package and unwrapping the stone covered in f oil and tissue. He told us to get in there and start unwrapping too. In a minute we had all the beautif ul little howardites resting on a padded tray.

We f ound several af ter he had picked the ones he wanted. Then we got a nice chance to chat bef ore

heading of f so I could shop some.

Edwin Thompson examining the Sariçiçek howardite stones he had just moments bef ore received f rom Turkey.

I had not spent more then a f ew minutes in Anne Black’s room so I headed there to see if I could f ind anything I needed. I f ound a couple meteorites. She had a very nice piece of Ausson a French f all f rom 1858. She had some of the suevite cubes f rom Nördlingen Ries and I had wanted to get one of those f or a while. My buying day was starting of f good.

In keeping with a trend f or this gemshow of old historic f alls I got this piece of Ausson which f ell in France December 9, 1858.

The impact rocks of the crater area around Nordingen Ries have been used f or building material f or hundreds of years. This is a cube of suevite a rock the is of ten honeycombed with glass and is a breccia of several local rocks that were crushed in the impact.

We slipped next door to visit Aerolite Meteorites. We had already seen all the crew quite a bit. I wanted to get a piece of Old Camp Wash the newest meteorite at the time f rom Arizona. The largest piece had been f ound by a f armer but Beth Carrillo of Aerolite Meteorites had f ound two additional pieces and that added charm to the story f or me. I bought a nice slice with a generous scattering of metal grains. It is an L6 chondrite with some mottled coloring of the ground mass, it is an attractive meteorite.

Old Camp Wash 14.6 gram slice I took of f on my own while Paul went to see if he could f ind some Libyan Desert Glass at the room we go to every year. Af ter a while I caught up with him. He was still sorting through some and I went back of f hunting on my own some more. I did not f ind much just a couple things but had f un looking around. Paul and I met back up about lunch time and saw Greg Hupe, Guy Hupe and Jim Shorten sitting by the f ood tent. We got a hot dog and chips each and sat down to chat with them. They were heading of f the f ollowing morning to do some meteorite hunting.

Tuesday af ternoon we headed over to Pani’s room. It is always nice to see him. We exchange greetings f or mutual f riends we have in Austria. I f ound a slice of a CK6 in his room. I still f ind it interesting that not many years ago we did not even have some of the classif ications we regularly see today.

NWA8500 is an interesting meteorites. It is a CK6 but has some quite visible chondrules and just one or two extremely tiny iron grains. It visually seems to be almost metallic iron f ree but is strongly attracted to a magnet.

We moved down the side of the hotel back to ET’s room to hang out with him again. We had stayed so busy this trip that we had gotten back to his room f ar less than most years. This was to be our last visit with him so we stayed quite a while. Larry Sloan was in an out during our stops to Edwin’s room. What a great pleasure to see him every year. Can not ever have enough little irons f rom Franconia so I got a f ew of them f rom Larry. But f inally it came time to go to the last stop of our 2016 gem show trip.

We had been in Pieter and Debra’s room a couple times during the show and told them what we were interested in. But this last stop was to f inish up actually picking out the meteorites and I got some work done on a project I am doing with them. We were talking and having f un, time was f lying by. Paul was practically tugging on my sleeve as the time came f or us to head to the car rental return and the airport.

This was in every way a very dif f erent and exciting visit to the Gemshow. We did not get to attend the IMCA dinner which was two days af ter we went home and we missed seeing some f riends who came in f or the so called “big” weekend. But we saw a surprising number of our f riends in the f our days and had a great time doing a considerable amount of business.

Just a couple days af ter returning home I got a text message f rom Moritz Karl that he had a f riend selling a piece of Misshof . I had been bugging Moritz f or three of f our years at the show to remember me if he ever came across any. Misshof was the last of the meteorites f rom Latvia that I needed. So I told him I was f or sure interested and to let his f riend know. This happened early in the morning bef ore I had looked at the “met list” posts. When I did I saw a post f rom Peter Marmet that he was selling some historic f alls and had a thought that it might be him selling the slice. It was Peter selling it and it came wonderf ully saf ely packed with several f ormer collection cards. My wanting to get all the Latvian meteorites is a long story f or another time but until a new one f alls I have all f our of them. Latvia would seem to be an easy country to complete with only f our meteorites but it has actually taken me a long time. Getting Misshof was the real end of the gem show f or me. Moritz and I joked that I would now have to f ind another stone to bug him about. And as he said I have a whole year to f igure a new one out.

Misshof Fell April 10, 1890 Courland, Latvia H5 Chondrite, Total Known Weight 5.8 kgs I am already looking f orward to next year which again holds the promise of being very dif f erent f rom any gem show trip we have ever gone on bef ore. Lif e just keeps on changing f or us.

Meteorite Times Magazine Is it a Tektite or a Pseudo-tektite?

Robert Verish

Is it a Tektite or a Pseudo-tektite?

Now there is a quick test to tell the difference.

As they say in Hollywood, “Let’s cut to the chase.” So, I will admit right now, this “quick test” will require a hand-held XRF analyzer. At least, that was the device that I was lucky enough to get access and to run my tests. Now this may not sound like a simple task, but devices like the Thermo Niton XRF (x-ray f luorescence ) hand-held spectrometer that I used, are getting more common (and newer models are coming out) and are becoming available f or testing your specimen (at a nominal f ee ranging f rom $5 to $35).

And while we’re getting right to the point, I should also admit that the only metal element that I f ocused on was Ti (titanium). So, there is no complex analysis of the myriad elements listed in the results. And while what I am about to share with you may be common knowledge to tektite researchers, I had to personally recognize this one f act by testing many specimens of obsidian and tektites. Given the numerous discussions about how to distinguish tektites f rom obsidian, and whether certain natural-glasses, such as “Healdsburgites” and “Saf f ordites”, are actually pseudo-tektites, it appears to me that, if a simple and def initive diagnostic test actually exist, it should be shared with collectors.

These specimens, as well as many other examples of tektites and pseudo-tektites and impact-glass, were lent to me by our f riend and f ellow tektite-expert, Norm Lehrman. Unf ortunately, they weren’t received in time to be included in this article. They will soon be tested, and their results will be in a f uture article.

In the same way that meteor-wrongs got me to spend too much time researching and writing about “f errosilicon” and “slag” (to the point that people were contacting me because they thought I was a “slagexpert”), the last thing that I wanted to do was to risk being thought of as a “pseudo-tektite-expert”! But, too many people were contacting me and telling me that their glass pebble must be a tektite, because it passed the “f lame-test” by not turning into a f rosty-white, mass of f oamy glass (see Jim Tobin’s 2011 M-T article). Yet, when Jim Tobin tested these same specimens, every one of them would turn white: a negative test-result f or being a tektite. Apparently, these people weren’t using a hot enough f lame. With so many f alse-positive test-results, I decided that it was time to f ind a more def initive test f or distinguishing tektites f rom obsidian.

This specimen, as well as others, was lent to me by a collector f rom Palm Springs, af ter hearing that I needed some “Healdsburgite tektites” f or XRF testing. His specimens were self -collected, back when he was living in Sonoma County, CA. Unf ortunately, his specimens did not pass Jim Tobin’s f lame test.

So, here it is: when properly analyzed, the results f or actual tektites should have Ti values that range above 0.2 %, and the results f or obsidian specimens will have Ti values that never go above 0.2%.

So f ar, with all of the specimens that I have tested this has been the case. (Testing of additional specimens continues).

When I graphed the test results of all the obsidian and tektite specimens that I analyzed, the ratio of Ti (to whatever other element you chose) always produced two f ields that never overlapped. This is why I call the Ti values obtained by XRF testing to be diagnostic and def initive f or determining if a specimen is obsidian and not a tektite.

A rough-hewn but broken blade of black obsidian.

Just one of many samples that represented a wide variety of “obsidian” localities. But none of the obsidian samples have yet to go above 0.2% f or Ti.

Just one of many tektite specimens that represented a wide variety of tektite localities. But none of the tektites that were tested have yet to go below 0.2% f or Ti.

Another one of many tektite specimens tested that was identif ied as an “Indochinaite”. So f ar, none of the tektites that were tested have yet to go below 0.2% f or Ti. Here is another admission. I am just at the beginning of this study. I may soon discover that everything I am working on has already been done and is published. I may be only “re-inventing the wheel” with this dif f erence in Ti% between obsidian and tektites. But so f ar, I haven’t come across anything. But there is a lot of related literature. For example, in these very same Meteorite-Times, I went back to 2002 to f ind an article titled, “A NEW METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEKTITES AND OTHER NATURAL (VOLCANIC) GLASSES“, by Stephen E. Pierce, to f ind this very same subject being discussed. The author was trying to promote a technique he called “Spectrophotometric signatures” over the other analytical methods of that time. Back then, it was more costly to do “chemical analysis”, and to do measurements just f or Ti would never have been considered a cost-ef f ective diagnostic test.

Unf ortunately, he turned-thumbs-down on the chemical method, because the results would be ambiguous since “the tektite and obsidian oxides overlap”. But that isn’t true f or all oxides. And TiO2 (titanium oxide)

since “the tektite and obsidian oxides overlap”. But that isn’t true f or all oxides. And TiO2 (titanium oxide) is one of them that does not “overlap”. So, that is why I’m making the point that the ease of access to the current XRF technology has lowered the cost of this kind of analysis and has made this a viable diagnostic tool.

TABLE D [reproduced here, f rom Stephen E. Pierce, 2002] MAJOR ELEMENT COMPOSITION OF TEKTITES AND OBSIDIAN (percent) OXIDES MICRO ASIA USA EUROPE AFRICA OBSIDIAN SiO2 64.15 73.06 76.37 80.07 71.05 76.78 TiO2 0.88 0.68 0.76 0.80 0.70 0.08 Al2O3 14.15 12.23 13.78 10.56 14.60 12.09 MgO 2.41 2.04 0.63 1.46 3.29 0.1 CaO 2.89 3.38 0.65 1.87 1.67 0.57 Na2O 1.63 1.27 1.54 0.51 1.71 3.79 K 2O 3.09 2.20 2.08 2.95 1.53 4.93 Fe2O3 8.37 0.60 0.19 0.15 0.18 5.60 FeO * 4.14 3.81 2.29 5.51 2.61 P2O5 0.72 NA 0.19 0.15 0.18 NA MnO NA NA 0.04 0.11 0.08 NA H 2O NA NA NA NA NA 0.2 MICRO=Microtektites, N.A. strewn f ield, (Varekamp, 1982):Asia=Australites, (McCall, 1973) USA=North America, Europe=Moldavites, Af rica=Ivory Coast, (King, 1976): Obsidian=Obsidian Yellowstone Park, (Hatch et al, 1972). *All iron reported as Fe2O3 :NA=No data available At this point you may be asking, “What about impact-glass”?

When it comes to the various “impact-glasses”, most of them are problematic with regards to f inding a common diagnostic chemical analysis. Their lack of a common composition is part of the problem. As you may suspect, the composition of an impact glass would have to be dependent upon the type of target (terrestrial) rock that is being impacted. (Why this is less of a f actor f or tektites, I can’t remember.) But suf f ice to say, as long as the target rock isn’t obsidian, the odds are that the TiO2 % will have values above 0.2% – – – yet this is another example of why Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) is so enigmatic. For starters, the average percentage of titanium in LDG is low, and f actoring in that there are various compositions f or the many LDG stones that have been recovered, some of the stones tested have dipped below 0.2% in TiO2%.

There are many more reasons why I’ve kept “impact glass” out of this discussion. Because this is a class that needs a lot more work. And I will do my part by continuing to test “impact glass” (as well as, other natural glass), and by recording and reporting those results.

Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) composition-wise, is neither obsidian, nor is it a tektite. LDG stones are an enigma. More work needs to be done on these and other “impact-glass”. I am looking f orward to testing all of my LDG stones, and other glass samples lent to me.

I will end this (Part 1) article with a selection of images of specimens that will have their test-results presented in a f uture (Part 2) Bob’s Findings article.

Gallery of Various Natural Glasses:

The image on the top is the “obsidian” specimen in ref lected light. The image on the bottom is the same “obsidian” specimen but in transmitted light. The color of transmitted light through obsidian ranges f rom clear to grey to lavendar to pinkish-violet. Until I encountered this specimen, I have never seen this color of transmitted light, through obsidian. IN THE PAST, this color would have been supporting evidence that the natural glass is f rom a tektite.

This “obsidian” specimen came f rom the same area of Nevada as the above/previous piece. Although there is such a rock as “green obsidian”, it is never green in TRANSMITTED light! Although there is such a rock as “rainbow obsidian”, it is ALWAYS GRAY in TRANSMITTED light! To see the rainbow-, or the gold-, or the silver-sheen in obsidian the source-light has to be behind the observer! Until I encountered this specimen, I have never seen this color of transmitted light, through obsidian. IN THE PAST, this color would have been supporting evidence that the natural glass is f rom a tektite.

This specimen, as well as many other tektites and pseudo-tektites and impact-glass, were lent to me by our f riend and f ellow tektite-expert, Norm Lehrman, of the “Tektite Source“. Unf ortunately, they weren’t received in time to be included in this article. They will soon be tested, and their results will be in a f uture article. This particular specimen is highly-collectible because it has a beautif ul pinkish-violet color in transmitted light.

Post Script: In the f uture, additional pseudo-tektite images will appear HERE. Acknowledgements. I would like to thank the editors, Paul Harris and Jim Tobin (of Meteorite Exchange) f or access to their vast tektite and impactite collection. Jim Tobin f or cutting and torching my samples.

Jayson Coate f or loaning his Healdsburg obsidian specimens. Troy Bell (of both the Houston and the

Whiteside Museums of Natural History) f or the loan of Bediasite specimens f rom their collection. And to Norm Lehrman (of the Tektite Source) f or his expertise and his technical insights on f uture tests that may be applicable to studying these intriguing glassy rocks. Although Norm and Troy’s specimens were loaned too late to be included in this article, the results of my testing of their samples will be acknowledged in a f uture article.

References: Tobin, Jim, 2011, Tektite Testing Revisited, Meteorite-Times.

Pierce, Stephen E., 2002, A NEW METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEKTITES AND OTHER NATURAL (VOLCANIC) GLASSES, an article in “From the Lab”, in MeteoriteTimes.

Hatch, F.H. et al, 1975, Petrology of the Igneous Rocks, Thomas Murby & Co. King, E., 1976, Space Geology an Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. McCall, G.J., 1973, Meteorite and their Origins, Wren Publishing PTY LTD Varekamp, J., Thomas, E., 1982, Chalcophile elements in Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary sediments: Terrestrial or extraterrestrial?, in GSA Special Paper 190, Geological Society of America.

The Thermo Scientific – Portable XRF website: XRF is a non-destructive analytical technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials.

XRF analyzers determine the chemistry of a sample by measuring the f luorescent (or secondary) x-ray emitted f rom a sample when it is excited by a primary x-ray source. Each of the elements present in a sample produces a set of characteristic f luorescent x-rays (“a f ingerprint”) that is unique f or that specif ic element, which is why XRF spectroscopy is an excellent technology f or qualitative and quantitative analysis of material composition.

The X-ray Fluorescence Process 1. A solid or a liquid sample is irradiated with high energy x-rays f rom a controlled x-ray tube.

2. When an atom in the sample is struck with an x-ray of suf f icient energy (greater than the atom’s K or L shell binding energy), an electron f rom one of the atom’s inner orbital shells is dislodged.

3. The atom regains stability, f illing the vacancy lef t in the inner orbital shell with an electron f rom one of the atom’s higher energy orbital shells.

4. The electron drops to the lower energy state by releasing a f luorescent x-ray. The energy of this xray is equal to the specif ic dif f erence in energy between two quantum states of the electron. The measurement of this energy is the basis of XRF analysis.

Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) EDXRF is the technology commonly used in portable analyzers. EDXRF is designed to analyze groups of elements simultaneously in order to rapidly determine those elements present in the sample and their relative concentrations—in other words, the elemental chemistry of the sample.

Interpretation of XRF Spectra Most atoms have several electron orbitals (K shell, L shell, M shell, f or example). When x-ray energy causes electrons to transf er in and out of these shell levels, XRF peaks with varying intensities are created and will be present in the spectrum, a graphical representation of x-ray intensity peaks as a f unction of energy peaks. The peak energy identif ies the element, and the peak height/intensity is generally indicative of its concentration.

Ferro-silicon – as well as, Ferro-chrome-manganese – – one of many varieties of Ferro-alloys – – Manmade Material – – “Slag”!

Silicides, in Fulgurites and Ferrosilicon — Unusual Compounds Formed under Reducing Conditions in Nature and Industry

My previous articles can be f ound *HERE* For more inf ormation, please contact me by email: Bolide*chaser

Meteorite Times Magazine Metal in DaG 1040 CV3 John Kashuba

Dar al Gani 1040 is f rom central Libya, f ound on a long limestone plateau at about 2,000 f eet elevation.

We’ve looked at DaG 1040 bef ore and noted its f riable matrix, varied chondrules and prominent metal.

Here we’ll concentrate on the metal.

All photos, except the f irst two, are of thin sections in incident light.

Slice is about 55mm wide. Bright spots are metal. Some chondrules are armored. Note the dark inclusion at the top right.

The dark inclusion has less metal.

Light and dark inclusions have less metal than the regular lithology. Metal resides largely within chondrules.

The light and dark inclusions have f ew intact chondrules. Weathering of the metal causes the brown staining.

Metal blebs appear to occur randomly in some chondrules.

Of ten metal coats the outside of chondrules, “armoring� them.

This cross section of a barred olivine chondrule is well armored on its lef t side with f ine bits of metal.

The thick rim of this chondrule contains relatively coarse particles of metal.

A thick rim with f inely disseminated metal.

Each of these chondrules appear to contain partial rings of metal in addition to the outermost armoring.

A compound armored chondrule – both the large chondrule and the smaller one, attached at 10 o’clock, are rimmed in metal.

Meteorite Times Magazine A monument to Billitonites!

Norm Lehrman

Streets radiate f rom a f ocal roundabout at the city center of Belitung Island’s largest metropolis, Tanjung Pandan. Within this roundabout is a f ormal garden in the shape of a f lower, and at its center is a pool ringed with jetting f ountains. Rising f rom the pool are six massive tiled columns supporting a hexagonal platf orm slab some 40 or 50 f eet above the ground surf ace. Strings of lights drape in radiating garlands f rom the platf orm to the ground.

Upon the platf orm sits a black egg-shaped sculpture covered in pits and deep latitudinal u-shaped grooves. It is the size of a small truck, like a thirty-f oot long blimp.

I am quite conf ident that it is the biggest tektite monument on earth!

The monument glorif ies one of the most curious natural wonders of Belitung Island, the “batu satam”, which loosely translates as “bile of the sand”. I suppose that the dark, glistening lumps of glass reminded them of gall-bladders.

These strange (and revered!) stones were f ound by tin miners exploiting alluvial cassiterite ores to a depth of 30 f eet or more below the present ground surf ace. Jet black and as glossy as wet enamel paint, these stones are commonly encircled by deep U-shaped grooves and pits. The grooves sometimes duplicate f lowing Arabic script, and when such scripts match those of cultural signif icance, the stones are deemed particularly magical.

We know the batu satam as “Billitonites”. They share their characteristic bright gloss and deep ornamentation with Malaysianites, Javanites, and Borneo tektites. Philippine bikolites come close, but are not quite so bright. They are held to be part of the approximately 800,000 year Australasian impact event that seems to spray f rom a point in the area of the Bay of Tonkin. It is believed by most researchers (and they are f ew), that the deep etching and gloss is due to highly acidic soils that prevail in this region, some 1500 to 1700 miles down splash f rom the suspected area of ground zero. (The gloss reminds me of acidpolished Mexican Onyx).

Billitonites rarely reach the collector’s market. At best, they were always quite rare and there has long been a good demand f or the chance f inds amongst Belitung’s jewelers, who f aceted, cabbed, or simply set the rough stones in gold, mostly f or the tourist market. It is probable that this was the f ate of the majority of all Billitonites ever recovered. Now, due to the serious environmental degradation brought about by the tin mines (a great many of which were illegal and completely unregulated), the mining which yielded the occasional Billitonite is grinding to a f orced halt.

We have been attending the big Tucson rock & gem show f or some 17 years, and in that time we have f ound one (1) Billitonite f or sale. It was f rom an old European collection. We bought it, and it remains one of the signif icant rarities of our collection.

BUT—- (and here we f inally arrive at the f ocus of this Tektite Teaser), this year our f riend Jiri Simek, arrived at Tucson having just recently returned f rom a several week visit to Belitung, and he had Billitonites! And monsters, walnut to golf -ball sized! They are brilliantly glossy, deeply ornamented, and absolutely f ree of recent damage. He got them f rom retired miners. These were their private “keepers”— the really, really special ones they intended to keep f orever. But with the mines closed and their jobs f inished, their precious batu satam stones were a way to f ind f ood f or their f amilies.

We bought all we dared when we f ound them early in the show, then returned on our last day and spent most of our remaining money buying more.

The pictures scattered through this article are representatives of this amazing lot. Enjoy!

(This article desperately needs a photo of the tektite monument, but, alas! I can’t inf ringe on copyright protection. Just do a google images search on “ Batu Satam monument”. This place is now of f icially on our bucket list—).

Meteorite Times Magazine More Than Meteorites In Meteorite Collections James Tobin

It would come as no surprise to any long time reader that I love everything about Meteor Crater. I love the history of the investigations and I love all the varied rocks f rom the site. Over the years I have gathered a f ew things that while not meteoritic themselves are f rom the crater. For me this ephemera makes f or much of the f un of collecting. I have this kind of stuf f f or many meteorites; but not to the extent that I do f or Meteor Crater.

I was very pleasantly surprised by an email a f ew months ago f rom a f riend that knows of my obsession with Meteor Crater. She told me that she had an old canvas rock sample bag with writing on it that was f illed at the crater. She said it had some residue of rock and silica powder still in it. She asked was I interested in having it. I said Yes, I would love it! A f ew days later the bag arrived in the mail and with it two baggies containing the rocks and powder. The bag had writing on it which told the story of its use.

The bag was used to hold specimens of coesite bearing sandstone f rom the main shaf t dump site in the center of Meteor Crater. A little harder to read is the place that the specimens are being sent to. It reads: Part of Shipment To Max Plank Institute

of Goettingen From Dump of Main Shaf t, Barringer Crater That is not the proper German spelling of the city name but likely what would have been used here in the US. And the use of the name Barringer Crater though not that unusual is mainly restricted to the geological and meteoritical communities. The general public universally uses Meteor Crater. I do not know much beyond these details. I don’t f or instance have an exact date that the bag was f illed. But I can f igure out a rough range. The writing is done with broad tip markers a portion is red and a portion in black. So the bag was f illed af ter the invention of the f elt tip marker pen. The f irst commercially viable f elt tip pen was the “Magic Marker” in 1953 f ollowed by the “Sharpie” in 1964. Coesite was discovered originally at the crater in 1960. It seems likely the bag is f rom the burst of research on the crater in the late 1960s through the 1970s.

There was just 5 grams of f ine white silica f lour in the baggie. I moved it to a small glass vial. There were just 11 small pieces of the metamorphosed sandstone. But it came f rom the main shaf t dump site which is very cool. That location is behind f encing now. I have a f ew samples I was allowed to gather of similar material. But they came f rom the dump next to Shaf t #2 across the playa area f rom the more f amous main shaf t where the boiler and steam engine remain. Shaf t #2 is the only one of the original shaf ts that has not been f illed with anything and is still available f or research. Having a f ew bits of rock and rock f lour f rom the Main Shaf t was a nice addition to my collection.

The powder is just what you would expect to see f rom the crater. It is so f ine that it coats the inside of the glass vial with a dust layer. I will put it under the microscope someday to check how shattered the individual quartz grains are.

The 11 stones are all quiet small. But they are clearly showing the characteristics of the moderately metamorphosed sandstone. It was struck by the cosmic hammer blow and squeezed. This variety of rock f rom the crater has a sort of layering but not like any ordinary sedimentary rock. The layers if you want to call them that have been described as having a platy appearance. The layers are short sections that overlap with others that are also short in length. None of the pieces f rom the canvas bag have any signs of real melting as the more highly shocked sandstone f rom Meteor Crater does. Since the coesite is created without extremely high temperatures samples put in this bag were intended to be f ree of the vesicular glassy variety of rock. It would have been great to get a f ew more pieces of the vesicular material because I have very little of it. But I am so happy with having received these.

As I said I do have a small amount of the more highly altered sandstone. It is characterized by vesicles and sometimes has glass lining the bubbles. I have presented images of vesicles with threads of glass bridging them bef ore. But here is an image of a typical piece of this material that Barringer called Variety B of the altered sandstone.

Meteor Crater has very little truly melted material. The closest material is the impactites. There just are no objects like the stringy, teardrop and rope-like glass bits f ound at Zhamanshin, Henbury, Wabar or many other craters. Instead the impactites f rom Meteor Crater are small chunks of poorly f used, bubbly dull luster rock that look like small volcanic bomb. There is nothing really shiny or glassy about them. The impactites were really the only material that was not recognized by the f irst investigators. They are f ound at a f ew locations around the crater and out onto the plains. Unlike shiny black irghizite type crater glass these are easily hidden among the rest of the crater rubble. They are various shades of tans, grays and browns, there are subtile dif f erences between f ind locations. Below is an image of an impactite where the melted dark brown material is encasing a chunk of lighter material which looks to be shocked sandstone.

Years ago I took one of my larger impactites f rom Meteor Crater and cut it in half . I selected this one based not just on its larger size but that it was one with greater magnetic attraction to a magnet. Impactites regardless of the crater they come f rom f ascinate me. Especially the ones that contain melted metal f rom the asteroid. The metal blebs do not show up in the f irst image below. It was shot to show the structure and the bubbly nature of the rock. Note the inclusions of native rock that are incorporated into the blob of melted rock. The second image shows the nice scattering of shiny metal. Impactites do give us a glimpse at how really hot and awf ul an asteroid impact site would be f or any living thing nearby. Liquid rock would be f lying around and attaching itself to other bits of rock and anything else in the area.

The lack of truly glassy material at Meteor Crater has been a question to answer. The event was f ar larger than Wabar or Henbury or others where really shiny true glass f ormed. What caused it to not f orm at Meteor Crater. The thick layer of sandstone certainly provided plenty of source material f or glass. The thick layer of Coconino sandstone may also have been the reason that the glass did not f orm. It was also the aquif er hundreds of f eet thick that caused the crater to immediately become a lake af ter the impact.

Did the tremendous amount of water in the rock prevent the f ormation of the high temperature f ine glass objects?

At Meteor Crater it was not just the melted rock that made it a terrible place to be. The vast majority of the asteroid was vaporized and when the metal vapor cooled it turned into tiny droplets of nickel iron. These tiny bit of metal were seen in soil samples very early in the investigations of the crater. Their true signif icance as representing the greatest part of the asteroid was not recognized until f ar later by H. H.

Nininger. Called “ nickel iron spheroids” there are still af ter 50,000 years countless numbers of them in the soil around the crater. They are all tiny but even with tiny things there is a range of size. The image below is of a group of what could be called large size spheroids. The very small ones weigh 2-3 milligrams. And the larger ones in the image weigh around 5 milligrams. They do get much smaller in size and weight.

These were spheroids that were collected by Dr. Nininger during his years of living and working near the crater. He sampled the soil everywhere around the crater and came up with some numbers f or the amount of meteorite material they represent in the entire region. To me this would be a math nightmare; to calculate the density at the large number of sample sites and then work out the average density of the tiny particles over the whole region and get a number in tons of original mass. So many assumptions would have to be tested by f ield work and specimen collection. Just f iguring out how deep to dig the samples and do it the same every time was a challenge. When you read what Dr. Nininger wrote about the project it was a very dif f icult task. There are several dif f erent meteoritic materials in the soil samples. Little bits of iron shale that has weathered of f of larger iron masses and broken down to tiny grains were in the samples. Also there were tiny bit of what he named “sluglets” believing them to be tiny meteorite f ragments or splinters that had weathered to this tiny size. They were distinct f rom the spheroids and oxide bits. All of these magnetic products had to be cleaned, then seperated f rom each other so they could be weighed, nickel tested and ultimately analysed f or their total chemical makeup. All this ef f ort makes my Nininger spheroids pretty special little things. I am glad I got a f ew thousand of them years ago.

There was a time in the distant past when the crater could be hiked around and hiked down into. But that was nearly half a century ago. Paul and I had the great honor to spend a day in the crater f loor and to hike around it a couple times a f ew years ago. I got to see all the locations that I have written about in several books. The f loor of Meteor Crater is an amazing place. It is silent in a way we never experience in normal lif e. And the f eel of the soil as you walk on it is unique. The crater was a lake f or thousands of years af ter the impact. The crater f loor we see today is the top surf ace of about 90 f eet of lake deposits. When the crater was a lake there were f resh water mollusks living in it. They have lef t their shells behind. These shells can be seen as one walks about. The rock layers of the crater also have shells f rom much longer ago when the whole region was under water. Those f ossils can be seen in the rocks when hiking on the

slopes. But the tiny f resh water animal shells are very cute. An image of a couple is presented below.

They say that nothing is done until the paperwork is f inished and that is true with meteorite collecting. We get specimen cards and COAs and we print out inf ormation f rom the Meteoritical Society Database.

Sometime meteorites have a very historic past or there was research or other work done. So there are papers and reports and newspaper articles about them. These become part of what is collected along with the meteorites themselves. Over the years I have collected a great many of the articles, pamphlets and books on Meteor Crater. Some are not too special and are f iled in alphabetic order by author name. But a f ew stand out. My original copy of Barringer’s 1909 paper with Standard Iron Company stamped on the cover and pencil notes in the margins is special. And the original “Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences� f rom 1905 with the Barringer and the Tilghman reports on the crater is very special. This was the f irst release of inf ormation to the scientif ic community. All the debate begins with their papers. I love that I have the originals. But that set of books is but a part of the materials that surround my Canyon Diablo meteorites, all these other things add so much to my knowledge and enjoyment of the actual chunks of space iron.

Meteorite Times Magazine February 2016 issue of SPACE ROCKS MAGAZINE Paul Harris

Af ter much thought I have decided to publish a new quarterly magazine about hunting, collecting, and the science of rocks f rom outer space. I will not be accepting yearly subscription payments, only payments as each individual issue is published and ready to mail out to the subscribers.

If you have any questions please send me a private message or contact me using the email listed below.

Your support is what will make this magazine a success f or us all in the meteorite community.

Regards, Michael Johnson Editor-in-Chief , Space Rocks Magazine

February 2016 issue of SPACE ROCKS MAGAZINE Click Magazine To Purchase

Please submit your article with photos to: spacerocksmagazine@gmail.com

Meteorite Times Magazine Sariçiçek Howardite Meteorite 132.75 grams Paul Harris

Our Meteorite of the Month is kindly provided by Tucson Meteorites who hosts The Meteorite Picture of the Day.

Contributed by Pierre-Marie Pelé, IMCA 3360 Observed f all 2 September 2015, Bingol, Saricicek village, Turkey. Pronounced Sari-Chi-chek, meaning ‘yellow f lower’.

Submit Pictures to Meteorite Pictures of the Day

Meteorite Times Magazine Zhamanshin Exploration Paul Harris

by Roman Davidov (revisited f rom the June 2003 issue of Meteorite Times) Zhamanshin. This word translated f rom Kazakh language like “bad soil” or “land without anything growing on it”.

Firstly, peculiarity of this place noticed in 1936 by V.Vahrameev and later in 1941 by A.Yanshin. This two scientists noticed the presence of Paleozoic rocks among the f ield of cainosoic rocks. Twenty years ago B.Pilya f ound some strange glasses here and P.V.Florensky began to study them. With a point of view of meteoritical hypothesis this region was recognized in 1966 year. Structural anomaly of place and uncommon composition of glasses and slags among which the pure leshatellerite was f ound, glass droplets which composition was analogous to tektites let to tell about explosive derivation of structure. But in all ref erence books and catalogues Zhamanshin stayed like “isometric local elevation” and glasses like “the products of cainosoic volcanism”. Finally in 1975 explosive derivation of structure was f inally proved.

Dif f erent slags and glasses was classif ied like impactites which named zhamanshinites and glass drops identif ied with tektites. Thus f or the f irst time in the world, tektites were f ound in the meteorite crater.

Kazachstan met us with good shiny weather. Autumn only began to come to this country.

1976 year. Expedition of prof essor Florensky. “Working horse” of expedition- biplane “An-2” Expeditioners used this plane to made aerial photographs, to brought water, products, equipment, spare parts f or the cars and f or the boring plant.

I traveled there with my f riend Serge. I invite him to make me company because to be alone in this place is very dangerous. I remember one story about a woman who spent a winter in this place having only a small piece of meat. When their car was broken the driver went to the nearest village f or help and disappeared.

When she understood that no one helps, she cut this small piece of meat on 365 very thin slices. Then she dug a pit in which she slept in cold winter nights. She ate one slice of meat in a day and drunk water f rom a car radiator and collect a snow, so receiving a water. She was living there during hundred days until the people don’t f ind her.

The only goal of this expedition is to collect rocks f or my own collection and f or the museum of our committee. At f irst we planed to stay in Kazachstan during one or two weeks, but the circumstances were stronger then us. That’s why our trip to Kazachstan was much longer than we planned. I was in the f irm belief that we have all inf ormation about the location of this crater. Although I never been in this places yet, I have a good detailed map and not worse detailed explanation of my f riend (he was there in 1978 year in the expedition of Prof . Florensky),

1976 year. Expedition camp in the crater. everything f ound to be useless – the map was not so detailed as we desired and explanation of my f riend was wrong. May be the memory played a bad joke with him.

Place we decided to be a crater was a valley with a hills around it. For the southwest this ring of hills have a hole. This valley probably was there like a result of erosion processes. All f acts told us that this place has no common with meteorite crater. Af ter a short conversation we decided to move towards opposite side of the valley. Twilight caught us on the half of the way

Here are the south side of the crater. At a f irst sight nothing talks that this is a crater’s bank.

Next day the weather began to go bad. The clouds appeared on it and cold wind became blowing. From the other side also there was no sings of a crater. I noticed a hill more higher then others. The f orm of it was very similar to the hill which we seeing on the photos of a crater. I told about it to Serge. We decided to go to this hill. We are going more than an hour, talk on dif f erent topics. Suddenly I noticed a small chips consists of dif f erent f ragments with sharp edges. I show it to my f riend.

The north-west side of the crater. Tektites and artif acts made of them are not f requent on these hills- ruins of crater’s bank, destroyed by time.

“Oh! It is very interesting!” he exclaimed. “Without doubt it is paleolyth workshops”…

But it was only a small part of historical artif acts of which this strange places can of f er to the travelers as I understood later.

Here the hill at last. We are climbing into it’s mount. I rich mount f irst look around and f eel only disappointment. “It seems to me that there is no crater” – Serge said. Mist was thickening. We cowered with my raincoat and study our map. Something was wrong with all our calculations. I told to my f riend that we must go to the village which is situated in 30 kilometers f rom crater ask f or a guide which knows this places well. “Yes You’re right we can’t f ind the crater alone without anybody’s help”. Wind and rain became stronger. Clay began gluing to our boots. Soon it becomes a real problem our boots became heavier with 3 kilograms. That’s why walking is very hard f or us. In spite of raincoats our clothes became wet. We are trying to walk f aster in order to reach the road bef ore darkness. When we came to the road it was dark almost. “Road” it was only name. Rain convert it into a wash with numerous ruts f rom big and small wheels.

I’m quick to add that traf f ic was not so animated. We are waiting f or the car during thirty minutes but there were too much people in it. The next car appeared exemplary af ter an hour. It was a huge truck. We understood that it is our last chance to go out of here bef ore darkness. The perspective to spend a night under torrential rain even having such a good tent that we have seems not so attractive. For our happiness a driver was a good man. Af ter cold windy steppe warm cabin looks like a real heaven! Only one thing was not so good – the truck went to the opposite side we need. But our state was so that it was no matter f or

us. Car began to moving. But the clay was so liquid, that it seems that we riding along melting butter. With every kilometer the road became worse and worse and we couldn’t driving at last. Another truck outstripped us and tried to drag us out f rom the pit.

We took the shovels and moved the liquid clay out f rom the ruts… Af ter f ive hours of f itting with the weather and terrible road we decide to turn back. The drivers told us that that in f if teen kilometers f rom the place there is small house in which we can intend f or a good supper and a warm bed. We spent more than two hours to turn back the truck and reach the cross-road where the house is situated.

The house is called “chaihana” this word translated like a “place in which you can go to drink a cup of tea”.

This chaihanas is situated near the road and beginning single centers of human civilization in these places.

May be because of it people living there so happy to see a new man…

Another day we f ound a car going to the village. The village was partially destroyed by a tornado which is not rare in spring months there. People were busy to repair their houses.

This village was Russian f ortress in the past. Russian government ordered to build this f ortress to control nomadic tribes in these places. Even now you can see the ruins of it walls. During the Soviet period the most occupation of the villagers is sheep-breeding but nowadays most part of Population hasn’t any job. They are working in their own gardens to have f ood to live. Some people are going to hunt in steppe.

Villagers met us cordially and helped us to f ind a guide and a car. The guide an old man told us that he knows place similar with what we are looking f or but he was not sure it is exactly what we are looking f or.

We haven’t another variants and agreed to ride with him. Tomorrow morning we settled down the car and lived f or searching the crater in f orth time. This time we made a mistake costs a week to us… The car went away, disappeared in a dusty cloud. We let the driver and the guide instead of their advice to study the place caref ully. Climbing to the next hill we thought that it is the crater bank. Looking around take away all our hopes. Having no ideas we went to the northwest.

“Listen!” my f riend said. “Look at the ground. You see this shells?” Actually, the ground under our boots, and all around us, was covered by the dif f erent shells. They look very old. It’s a well-known f act that f or a long time crater f illed in by water. For Maybe two or three thousands of years water washed out the southwest crater bank. Maybe thousands tons of lake deposits were taking away by water. This theory looks rational and we were going to the nearest elevation over there probably the crater is situated. We never f ound the crater there. Instead of that we discovered the plateau with the ruins of ancient altar and f undaments of some strange buildings Maybe thousands years old.

Need to notice that we had conf idence, which became stronger with every our f ailure, that we never go out of here until the crater not f ounded. Steppe in this period of time painted with yellow and golden colors of withered grasses. Sometimes we f ound white bones of dif f erent animals. The ground f illed by holes.

But more creatures living there like big spiders, scorpions and snakes were sleeping in this period. One time we f ound a skull of saigak-the steppe goat with greened f rom time f errule arrow tip inside.

We have no ideas like moving back to the village. For our happiness the weather was good and shiny and we have a good stock of f ood and water. Af ter a week of walking we reach the village. During three days of search we f ound an old hunter who told that he knows one expedition which took place in 1978 year.

We asked him about details which we interested in. Judging by his story the real chance to f ind the crater appeared to us…

“Here we come!” told the driver; “There was no road f urther”. I jumped f rom the car, looking in the twilight.

It is a crater or not? I have no conf idence yet. An old hunter told us that we bewared of wolf s. Yes it is the one thing of which is really dangerous f or travelers in that places. Autumn and winter months is a period of hunger f or this animals. It connected with the migrations of a master f ood source f or wolf s-the herds of saigaks. In this period, cases of man eating is very of ten.

But our strong argument is that we have guns and we are good hunters. I took my f ield glass to study the place in details. With no doubts it is the crater. Finally af ter more than two weeks of search we f ound exactly what we need!

“Red Rock” – outbreak of paleosoic rocks. It’s f laky structure whimsically crumped by the great power of explosion.

We spent in Zhamanshin ten days collecting dif f erent rocks and tektites. Some times we saw a small packs of wolf s but they run away hearing the sound of shot. May be every man, being in such places noticed some kind of strange f eelings happened with him.

I don’t want to looks strange but it seems to me that I f elt like some kind of anxiety. Sometimes I f elt as if the ground steel ringing like a bell, like echo of that disaster, happened in prehistoric times. More than that I’m quick to add that my physical condition was changed. May be the reason of it the magnetic anomaly May be anything else… I don’t know. The habits of animals also very strange and couldn’t be explained sometimes. Every time I recall the story one of my good f riends which happened with him in 1975 in Zhamanshin. That time he was a young physicist taking part in the expedition of prof . Florensky. “That day we have meeting of the scientif ic committee of expedition. We are sitting in the improvisated lectorium on the open air, hearing a report of one of our members. Suddenly in the hole near at hand of my chair a gopher appeared, looking on us than come up to me, sitting nearby and looking at the lecturer. It was wonderf ul, but he wasn’t af raid of loud voices, laughing and moving of people and was f ully indif f erent to such attention to his person. Gopher “with great attention” hearing all the lecture and when the lecturer said, that he f inished, and wrote down the last f ormula on the slate, this “genius” move away in his hole. It was so unusual and f unny that we are all laughing”…

Meteorite crater Zhamanshin is very interesting in the point of view of archaeology. It’s a well-known f act that f or a long time there was a lake in the crater. Probably this circumstance attracts ancient people to this place. In the crater bank you can f ind the places of ancient people stands with tools and amulets, made f rom impact glasses and tektites. It is possible that ancient people considered this place populated with spirits, come to there spent their rituals. Also it is very interesting to f ind f ossils and imprints of ancient animals and plants over 200 000 000 years old. This rocks was thrown out f rom the depth more than one kilometer.

In the evening of tenth day we packed our bags. We need to come out the road to the nearest town with the railway station. Even our bags weighting sixty or seventy kilograms it was not so heavy f or us. During a month of constant walking we had a good muscular training. We decide to go at night because the weather began to go bad again and we need to come out the road bef ore f oul weather. That night was a f ull moon.

We saw everything like in a day. But the moonlight transf ormed place so much that we are not recognized it. And sometimes it seemed to us that it is another planet. We walking to the direction, showed in the map…

“Hyps roses” – the crystals of hyps. Big and small pieces they are everywhere! Adds some mystics to this places, especially at night, when moonlight ref lects on it’s sides and it seems like some stars f alls to the ground.

On the second day we saw a yourta (nomad’s conical hut). This dwelling, coming f rom ancient times, is very practical and comf ortable to live in these conditions. This basis is a f ramework made f rom poles in a special manner. This f ramework covered dry skins of animals and f elt. Even when the most part of people living in villages or in a big cities some people don’t want to change the traditional way of lif e, during a centuries existed on this land. The f amily living in yourta consists of f ive people: master, his wif e and tree children. They invite us be their guests. Master told us that they never live in civilization. They are real nomads. Sometimes they have meeting with another f amilies or small communities of the same people.

Celebrating their national holidays, marriages, e.t.c. For us – spending our lif etime in urban society lif estyle of this people was very unusual and interesting: like a time travelers, we appeared in the past. The single reminding of modern civilization is radio, but it was without batteries. Their children – three boys are 7,10 and 12 years old. I asked their f ather how they are going to school. He told me that when the school year started, he send them to boarding school in Actubinsk city.

In summer time they have another school: their parents teaches them knowledge and wisdom of their f oref athers.

The master was a good singer. It was beautif ul and interesting hearing f olklore songs. “The voice f rom a past”-my f riend joked. Then we eat simple but very taste dish cooked f rom mutton. Their housekeeping consists with a f lock of sheep, six camels, two dogs and two horses. These people lives in harmony with nature, like their ancestors lived. When we were told that we needed to go to the road, master told that we went to the wrong direction. “You need f ive days back to the road. But don’t worry I will taking away you there!”

Next morning we loaded our heavy luggage to the camels and leaved f or the road… Well, our long trip comes up to the end. We thanked master to the help, and waiting f or the car. Af ter a f ew days we will back home. But f or a long time I will remember this wonderf ul and severe land….

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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