Meteorite Times Magazine

Contents

Featured Articles

Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi

Jim's Fragments by Jim Tobin

Micro Visions by John Kashuba

Mitch's Universe by Mitch Noda

MeteoriteWriting by Michael Kelly

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An Interview with ChatGPT about Meteorites and Meteorite Collecting

Martin Horejsi

With AI all the rage these days, and the robot overlords have yet to launch their attack on us humans, I thought I would ask ChatGPT a few basic questions about meteorites to see where we are at. But first, let me share a couple rules I have for engaging AI. My first rule is that I don’t compete with AI. In many ways, AI is vastly "smarter" than we are both individually and collectively so that ship has sailed.

And my second rule is I assume AI is correct. Maybe not correct in the traditional sense, but I give it the benefit of the doubt that from some perspective, from some direction, in some universe or time dimension, it is right. See the first rule if you don’t like this one. Like with regard to Google's AI named Bard providing an "incorrect" answer about the James Webb

AI generated image by OpenArt with prompt: "1960's robot holding a meteorite"

Telescope, I actually believe Bard was correct. The adults in the room focused on the factual timeline of discoveries, while I focused on the question prompt that the answer was for a 9-year old kid. The convolutions needed to make the "real" correct answer correct are so nuanced and sequenced, that the actual answer in question becomes irrelevant at the fourth grade level.

Basically, I treat AI as if I am encountering an intelligent alien life form. I vigorously write notes with my right hand when learning from it, and constantly search for a way to unplug it with my left hand. Since Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, and will always be more powerful tomorrow than it is today, I figure it’s best to get to know it on a personal level so at the moment, I consider AI to be a friend.

These meteorite questions mirror popular questions I am often asked about. While it would be more fun to discuss the difference between mesosiderites and pallasites, I thought about what a meteorite-curious person might ask ChatGPT. Overall, I’m impressed with the responses (which were generated in a few seconds!), and ChatGPT did not seem to “hallucinate” like it has been accused of in some situations. But my curiosity did get the best of me first, so we will start with the mesosiderite-pallasite question just to get things rolling. Enjoy, and feel free to use a screen reader if you have one. Oh, I did cut out a little of the ChatGPT rambling and summarizing at the end of the response, but this is all the good stuff. ChatGPT has a tendency to repeat itself.

Martin: What is the difference between mesosiderites and pallasites?

ChatGPT: Mesosiderites and pallasites are two distinct types of meteorites, and they differ significantly in their composition and characteristics:

Mesosiderites:

Composition: Mesosiderites are a type of stony-iron meteorite, which means they are composed of both silicate minerals (similar to stony meteorites) and metal (similar to iron meteorites). However, mesosiderites are distinctive because their silicate component consists of a complex mixture of various minerals, including pyroxenes, plagioclase feldspar, and olivine.

Appearance: Mesosiderites often have a mottled appearance, with metal-rich areas intermixed with silicate material. The metal can appear as shiny, metallic veins or nodules within the rock.

Formation: The exact origin of mesosiderites is still a subject of scientific investigation, but it is believed that they formed through a complex process involving both silicate-rich and metal-rich materials. Some hypotheses suggest that mesosiderites may be the result of collision and mixing between different types of parent bodies, such as asteroids.

Pallasites:

Composition: Pallasites are a unique type of meteorite that falls under the stony-iron category. They consist of a distinctive combination of olivine crystals (a greenish-yellow mineral) embedded within a metallic matrix of iron and nickel. The olivine crystals in

pallasites can be large and well-formed, making them highly prized by collectors.

Appearance: Pallasites are known for their striking appearance due to the contrasting colors of the olivine crystals and the metal matrix. When cut and polished, they reveal beautiful cross-sections with a crystalline pattern of olivine surrounded by the metallic matrix.

Formation: Pallasites are thought to have formed at the boundary between the core and mantle of a differentiated asteroid or planetary body. These meteorites are considered remnants of early planetary building blocks and provide valuable insights into the processes that occurred during the early solar system's formation.

In summary, the key difference between mesosiderites and pallasites lies in their composition and origin. Mesosiderites are stony-iron meteorites with a mixture of silicate minerals and metal, while pallasites are stony-iron meteorites known for their distinctive olivine crystals embedded in a metallic matrix. Both types of meteorites are valuable for scientific study and are prized by collectors for their unique characteristics.

Martin: What is a meteorite?

ChatGPT: A meteorite is a solid fragment of a meteoroid, which is a small celestial object or space rock that enters Earth's atmosphere from outer space. When a meteoroid survives its journey through the Earth's atmosphere and reaches the planet's surface, it is referred to as a meteorite.

The process of a meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere and producing a bright streak of light as it burns up due to the intense heat and pressure is called a meteor. This streak of light is often referred to as a shooting star. Most meteors are relatively small and completely disintegrate during their atmospheric entry, never reaching the Earth's surface. However, if a meteoroid is large enough to withstand the heat and pressure, it can land on Earth as a meteorite.

Meteorites come in various types based on their composition, with the three main categories being stony meteorites (composed primarily of silicate minerals), iron meteorites (composed mainly of iron and nickel), and stony-iron meteorites (a combination of silicate minerals and metal). These meteorites provide valuable insights into the formation and history of our solar system, and they are studied by scientists to learn more about the early stages of celestial body formation. Meteorites can vary in size from small pebbles to large masses, and they can have significant scientific and sometimes even cultural significance.

Martin: What meteorite do you find most interesting?

ChatGPT: As an artificial intelligence language model, I don't have personal interests or preferences. However, I can share information about a meteorite that many scientists find particularly interesting due to its unique characteristics: the Murchison meteorite.

The Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969, is notable for several reasons:

Organic Compounds: Murchison is a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite, and it is rich in organic compounds, including amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. This discovery sparked significant interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial organic molecules contributing to the origins of life on Earth.

Preserved Primitive Materials: The Murchison meteorite is considered one of the most primitive meteorites ever found. It contains materials that have remained largely unaltered since the early solar system formation, providing insights into the conditions and chemistry of that time.

Isotopic Anomalies: Isotopic analyses of Murchison have revealed unusual isotopic ratios for certain elements, such as oxygen and nitrogen. These anomalies suggest a complex history involving multiple sources and processes in the early solar system.

Extensive Study: Murchison has been extensively studied by scientists over the years, contributing to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Martin: Do people collect meteorites?

ChatGPT: Yes, people do collect meteorites, and meteorite collecting is a popular hobby for enthusiasts and scientists alike. Meteorites are fascinating and valuable objects that offer insights into the history and formation of our solar system, making them highly sought after by collectors and researchers. Here are some key points about meteorite collecting:

Enthusiast Collectors: Many individuals are passionate about meteorites and collect them as a hobby. They may purchase meteorites from dealers, attend meteorite shows and auctions, or even go meteorite hunting in areas where meteorites have been known to fall.

Scientific Research: Meteorite collections are not limited to private collectors. Museums, universities, and research institutions maintain extensive meteorite collections for scientific study and education. These collections help scientists conduct research on the origins of our solar system, planetary formation, and the composition of celestial bodies.

Classification: Meteorites are classified based on their composition and characteristics. This classification is crucial for understanding the diversity of meteorites and their origins. Both amateur and professional collectors contribute to this process by submitting newly discovered meteorites for classification.

Protection and Preservation: The collection and sale of meteorites are regulated in some countries to ensure the responsible and ethical acquisition of these valuable specimens. Certain meteorites may have cultural or historical significance and be subject to legal protections.

Trading and Sales: Meteorites are bought, sold, and traded in the collector market. The rarity, type, size, and condition of a meteorite can greatly influence its market value. Some meteorites can be quite expensive due to their uniqueness or historical importance.

Education and Outreach: Meteorite collections, whether in private hands or held by institutions, often serve an educational purpose. Museums and science centers use meteorites to engage the public in the study of astronomy, geology, and the history of our solar system.

Overall, meteorite collecting is a diverse and dynamic field that combines scientific research,

historical preservation, and a fascination with the wonders of space. Collectors and institutions play a vital role in advancing our understanding of the cosmos by acquiring, preserving, and studying these extraterrestrial artifacts.

Martin: Do you know any meteorite collectors?

ChatGPT: I don't have access to specific information about individuals or their personal interests, including whether I know any meteorite collectors. However, meteorite collectors can be found worldwide, and they come from various backgrounds, including amateur enthusiasts, scientists, and institutions. Some collectors may be well-known within the meteorite community or have their collections featured in museums or research institutions.

If you're interested in connecting with meteorite collectors or learning more about meteorites, you may consider joining online forums, attending meteorite shows and events, or reaching out to meteorite-related organizations and clubs. These avenues can help you connect with individuals who share your interest in meteorites and can provide valuable insights into the field of meteorite collecting.

AI generated image by OpenArt with prompt: "robot reading the meteorite times"

Martin: Are meteorites radioactive?

ChatGPT: Most meteorites are not significantly radioactive. However, there are exceptions. Some meteorites, particularly certain types of stony meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites, can contain trace amounts of radioactive isotopes. These isotopes are typically present in very small quantities and are not a cause for concern in terms of radioactivity hazards.

The radioactive isotopes found in meteorites are usually those that are naturally occurring and have long half-lives, such as isotopes of potassium, uranium, and thorium. The levels of radioactivity in meteorites are generally much lower than what you would find in naturally occurring radioactive minerals on Earth.

In fact, meteorites are often used in scientific research to study the isotopic compositions of elements, including radioactive isotopes, as they can provide important information about the history and age of the solar system. Researchers take precautions when handling radioactive meteorite samples, but the radioactivity levels are typically very low and do not pose a health risk to humans.

It's important to note that not all meteorites contain radioactive materials, and the majority of meteorites are non-radioactive. If you are concerned about the radioactivity of a specific meteorite, it's a good idea to consult with experts or scientific institutions for further information and guidance.

Martin: Where do meteorites come from?

ChatGPT: Meteorites come from various sources within our solar system, primarily from three main types of celestial bodies:

Asteroids: The majority of meteorites are believed to originate from asteroids. Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, primarily located in the asteroid belt, a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Occasionally, collisions or other events on asteroids can eject fragments into space, which may then enter Earth's atmosphere as meteoroids and, if they survive the journey, become meteorites when they land on Earth.

Mars: A small number of meteorites are believed to come from Mars. These are called Martian meteorites or Mars rocks. They are thought to have been blasted off the Martian surface by impacts and eventually found their way to Earth. Martian meteorites are valuable for studying the geology and possible presence of life on Mars.

The Moon: Another source of meteorites is the Moon. These lunar meteorites are thought to have been ejected from the Moon's surface by impacts and then traveled through space to Earth. They provide insights into the geology and history of the Moon.

It's important to note that while most meteorites come from these sources, there can be exceptions. For example, some meteorites may originate from other celestial bodies, and a few may even be from comets. The precise identification of a meteorite's source is often determined through scientific analysis, including the examination of its mineral composition and isotopic

ratios.

Overall, meteorites provide valuable information about the formation and history of our solar system, and studying them helps scientists piece together the story of how celestial bodies came into existence and evolved over billions of years.

Martin: Are meteorites valuable?

ChatGPT: The value of a meteorite can vary widely based on several factors, including its type, rarity, size, condition, and scientific significance. Here are some key points to consider regarding the value of meteorites:

Type of Meteorite: Different types of meteorites have different values. Iron meteorites, which are composed mainly of iron and nickel, can be quite valuable, especially if they are large and well-preserved. Stony meteorites and stony-iron meteorites also vary in value based on their composition and rarity.

Rarity: Some meteorites are rarer than others. For example, certain types of carbonaceous chondrites are considered rare and can be highly valuable due to their primitive nature and the organic compounds they may contain.

Size: Larger meteorites are generally more valuable than smaller ones. A large meteorite with an interesting shape or features may be particularly sought after by collectors.

Condition: The condition of a meteorite is essential. Well-preserved meteorites with minimal weathering or damage are typically more valuable than those in poor condition.

Scientific Significance: Meteorites that are of particular interest to scientists due to their unique characteristics or potential for research may also have higher value, especially when they contribute to our understanding of the solar system's history.

Historical or Cultural Significance: Some meteorites have historical or cultural significance, such as the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which was associated with the impact that created Meteor Crater in Arizona. Such meteorites may have additional value.

Market Demand: Market demand can influence the value of meteorites. Rarity and scientific importance may drive collector interest and affect the market price.

Provenance: The documented history or provenance of a meteorite can also impact its value. Knowing where and when a meteorite was found and its journey to collectors can add to its story and value.

It's essential to note that while some meteorites can be quite valuable, the vast majority of meteorites are not valuable in a monetary sense. Many meteorite enthusiasts and collectors are motivated by their passion for these extraterrestrial objects and their scientific and historical significance rather than their monetary value.

If you are interested in meteorites, it's important to do your research, consult with experts, and be cautious when buying or selling them to ensure fair and ethical transactions.

Martin: How often do meteorites fall?

ChatGPT: Meteorites fall to Earth with some regularity, but the frequency of meteorite falls varies significantly depending on several factors. Here are some key points to consider:

Small Meteoroids: Tiny meteoroids, often referred to as micrometeoroids, constantly enter Earth's atmosphere. These particles are too small to produce visible meteors, and they burn up high in the atmosphere. They fall to Earth in large quantities every day but usually go unnoticed.

Visible Meteors: Larger meteoroids, which are large enough to produce visible meteors or "shooting stars," enter the atmosphere less frequently. On any given night, you might see a few meteors, especially during meteor showers, which occur when Earth passes through the debris left behind by a comet.

Meteorite Falls: Meteorite falls, where meteoroids survive their journey through Earth's atmosphere and reach the surface as meteorites, are relatively rare events. They occur around the world a few times each year. However, most meteorite falls go unnoticed because they often happen in uninhabited areas or over oceans.

Meteorite Finds: In addition to meteorite falls, meteorites can also be found on Earth's surface without a dramatic fall event. These meteorites are known as "finds" and are discovered through various means, including by meteorite hunters or by chance discovery by people in areas where meteorites are more likely to be preserved.

Frequency Variability: The frequency of meteorite falls can vary from year to year and region to region. Some years may see more meteorite falls than others, depending on the concentration of debris in Earth's orbital path and other factors.

It's important to note that while meteorite falls are relatively rare, they are of great scientific interest because they provide fresh samples of extraterrestrial material for study. When a meteorite fall does occur and is recovered, it can provide valuable insights into the composition and nature of celestial bodies and the early solar system.

Martin: What are good websites about meteorites?

ChatGPT: There are several excellent websites dedicated to meteorites and meteoritics, offering a wealth of information for enthusiasts, collectors, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about these extraterrestrial objects. Here are some recommended websites:

The Meteoritical Society (meteoriticalsociety.org): The official website of The Meteoritical Society, an international organization of scientists and enthusiasts interested in meteorites and related topics. It provides resources on meteorite classification, research, and events.

NASA's Meteorite Compendium (curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/index.cfm): This NASA website offers a wealth of information about meteorites, including images, classifications, and educational materials. Meteorite Exchange (meteorite.com): A comprehensive resource for meteorite enthusiasts and collectors, featuring articles, forums, and a marketplace for buying and selling meteorites.

The Planetary Society's Meteorites Page (planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/meteorites.html): The Planetary

Society provides a user-friendly introduction to meteorites, including their history, types, and significance.

Meteorite Market (meteoritemarket.com): While primarily a site for buying and selling meteorites, it also provides valuable information about meteorite types, classifications, and the meteorite market.

International Meteor Organization (imo.net): This site focuses on meteor showers, fireballs, and meteor observations but also offers valuable resources about meteorites and meteorite identification.

The Meteorite Men (meteoritemen.com): The website of Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold, known as "The Meteorite Men." They are meteorite hunters who share their adventures and knowledge about meteorites.

Meteoritical Bulletin Database (mbdb.ninetimes.com): This database provides access to the official records of meteorite discoveries and classifications, making it a valuable resource for meteorite researchers.

American Meteor Society (amsmeteors.org): While primarily focused on meteor shower observations, the AMS website offers useful information on meteorites and fireballs, including reports from witnesses.

Meteorite Times Magazine (meteorite-times.com): An online magazine dedicated to meteorites, featuring articles, news, and educational content.

And one more question, well more of a prompt:

Martin: “Martin Horejsi meteorites”

ChatGPT: Martin Horejsi is a well-known and respected figure in the meteorite community. He is an educator, writer, and meteorite enthusiast who has made significant contributions to the field of meteoritics, particularly in the realm of education and outreach. While he may not be widely recognized in the mainstream, he is highly regarded among meteorite collectors, educators, and those interested in the study of meteorites.

Martin Horejsi has written extensively about meteorites and related topics, often focusing on their educational value and the use of meteorites in science classrooms. He has contributed to meteorite-related publications and websites, sharing his knowledge and passion for these extraterrestrial objects. Additionally, he has been involved in organizing meteorite-related events and presentations to help educate people about meteorites and their significance.

If you are interested in learning more about meteorites or connecting with the meteorite community, you may find Martin Horejsi's work and contributions to be valuable resources for enhancing your understanding of these fascinating space rocks.

Well, there you go!

Until next time….

James Tobin

Lunar Meteorites Beauty Revealed

I have cut a great many lunar meteorites in the last couple of decades. Some as large as three kilos and 1.8 kilos to many lunar meteorites weighing hundreds of grams. I have sliced hundreds of lunar stones of just ten or twenty grams. Often on the small stones, I will get two endpieces and one or two slices and that's it. I move to the next stone doing the cutting in big batches of prepared stones ready to put in the holder on my saw. There was never a problem with knowing what I was cutting. That has not been the case with one group of lunar meteorites that have been coming into my lab over the last year or so.

This is a beautiful slice of NWA 11303 Lunar that I cut about fifteen years ago.

This is a face polished on an NWA 11273 individual that I cut in half.

One of my favorite lunars and another beautiful breccia is El Milhas 001 shown next

The Bechar lunars with various numbers have been an issue for me for a while. I was never happy buying them with the heavy terrestrial deposits that coated them. On some of the stones these coatings weighed more than the lunar material they covered. During cutting some of the lunar meteorites would fall apart revealing that they were not a single piece of a lunar meteorite but several small nuggets that had fractured apart and over time welded together by these deposits. Making the pieces appear to be one individual stone. The slices would sometimes end up with veins of the pinkish-orange terrestrial deposit running through them.

Another issue was to sell slices like that to customers. Knowing I was selling slices that were only about 50-75% lunar meteorite with the balance being earthly desert deposits. It just did not seem to be the most ethical and best thing to do. So I would sit with plyers and carefully chip off the hard pink rock from the edges of the slices and separate the areas of lunar meteorite so that was as much as possible what we sold. This was labor-intensive and annoying.

The Bechar lunars are not expensive in comparison with many of the Lunar Meteorites we have had over the years. But still, they are Lunar Meteorites. If twenty-plus years ago you had asked me if there would be the number of lunars we have today I would certainly have said. "We are very lucky to have found the tiny handful and I am grateful to have the material to cut. I would not look to see much more in the future." That was of course not the case. They just keep being found and the material is now even in the minds of some I think being considered as always available and perhaps commonplace. But in reality, it is not common it is still among the rarest of materials found on Earth and we are not seemingly going to be back on the Moon making hand-collected material available to mineral and rock collectors on Earth. At billions of dollars to go to the Moon, I am happy to pay the prices charged by the finders of lunar meteorites. But

still, if I buy a lunar meteorite from a finder I expect that it will be meteorite that I am buying, and not one one-quarter to one-third, or occasionally more, terrestrial desert deposits that I am paying for. And if I choose to still buy the material, I still don't like that my customers should spend money on thick terrestrial coatings and suffer a lack of visibility of the meteorite material.

With all that said here was my response. I thought every time I worked with them about cleaning a batch of Bechar 003 stones. Cleaning meteorites is just part of what I normally do. I have wirebrushed Sikhote Alin and Canyon Diablo and other irons for decades and I have written about gentle cleaning methods used on chondrites and achondrites before. I am a well-practiced meteorite cleaner with many tools in my arsenal to get weathering and deposits off and recover the fusion crust concealed beneath. But I had never had to do anything much more than a scrub with a toothbrush and alcohol on lunars before.

Some Lunars before the Bechars also had the orange coating but it was never as bad in my experience. This is an example of a whole individual meteorite of NWA 11273 that also has some terrestrial coating. However, the bigger mass shown earlier of NWA 11273 did not have the coating at all.

I gave the problem of removing the thick hard pink rock encrusting the Bechar stone much thought over months and tried several methods to remove at least the thinnest areas of the coating so that some of the lunar meteorite would be visible to the collector buying it. Some of the stones are so completely covered in the coating that I could not even be sure it was a lunar meteorite that I was working on until I cut into it and saw the breccia.

This was a rather large stone which during the cleaning process was proved to be several very small chunks of meteorite only a fraction of the weight of the original mass.

I know at this point that some readers are salivating to know what I did to remove the coating without altering the meteorite in any way. But telling that is not going to be part of this article. I am old now; even though my kids keep trying to tell me that 72 is the new 52. I am getting older.

When I was young and eager and thrilled a bit more with sharing, I told all my secrets and shared my many inventions and methods from my meteorite and lapidary work as well as my inventions for astrophotography. There was invariably someone out there who would several months later try and market the idea or claim it was their thought. So as a grumpier old man, I don't share that stuff anymore. My apologies to the vast majority of kind and generous individuals in this meteorite community that I love. But the very few stinkers have burned me too many times. I was actually at a Tuscon gem show years ago and saw one of my inventions being shown to people in a dealer room with other novel inventions and tools. I overheard manufacturing and marketing discussions on how to mass produce my item with no credit or mention of me. One time I might have wished to not be the fly on the wall in the room.

So you get to see the results and know where to get beautiful cleaned Bechar 003 lunar meteorites. In a short time, others will investigate the problem if they have a similar feeling about selling hard-to-see meteorites covered with earthly rock. But for now, here are the before and after images of a batch of Bechar 003 stones. The cleaned and other specimens of Bechar 003 lunar meteorites are available from Paul and me at our Meteorite Exchange catalog.

This is part of a batch of Bechar Lunar meteorites before being cleaned. I had tried to wire brush off the coating with no luck.

After cleaning the stones shown above and a few more. The nice lunar breccia shows on almost all the stones. I decided to forgo slicing them until the collectors of the world had the opportunity to buy the complete stones. Several have the remains of fusion crust that can now be seen. Two of those stones are shown in the next image.

There are patches on these two stones and perhaps on others in the batch that look like remaining fusion crust. The rounded corners and appearance of being individual stones have also been revealed through the cleaning.

This was a very satisfying project even if it took a huge amount of time to complete. I am very happy to offer these stones now knowing that in almost every case the buyer is getting just lunar meteorite material. Several pieces had to have a bit of the coating remain unfortunately but it was a tremendous improvement on those also. I am always amazed when I clean nasty dirty, weathered, or rusty meteorites the treasure that is concealed under all the ugliness.

Gladstone (stone)

John Kashuba

The Meteoritical Bulletin Database tells us that Gladstone (stone) is 57.3 kg of H4 found in New Mexico in 1936. A little digging unearthed more information. (There is a Gladstone (iron) found in Australia in 1915).

Lang and Keil wrote the guidebook Meteorites of Northeastern New Mexico in 1976 in which they noted:

Having had some success in northeastern New Mexico, Nininger sent one of the helpers to Gladstone (Nininger and Nininger, 1950):

"In 1936 we undertook to prove the hypothesis that meteorites have fallen on all areas of the earth recently enough to be yet recognizable. We sent Mr. and Mrs. Alex Richards to Gladstone, New Mexico, with instructions to stay three weeks exhibiting specimens and providing information as to their importance and how to distinguish meteorites from other rocks. We had no information or hint of any kind that meteorites were present in that area. The first two weeks brought nothing to light, but during the third week six stones were recovered aggregating 183 pounds and representing three distinct falls, namely, Gladstone, Farley and Ute Creek, all within six miles of the Gladstone post office."

Three of these stones were named after Gladstone.

Gladstone was classified as an H6 chondrite by Van Schmus and Wood (1967) and as an H4 by Levi-Donati and Jarosewich (1974).

Later Gladstone was assigned a shock value of 3 and its brecciated texture recognized. It was found to be gas rich and hence regolith - the surface soil of an asteroid exposed to the sun and space.

Slice of Gladstone 27 cm long displaying both fine and coarse metal. Photo courtesy of Michael Farmer.

The same slice showing light brown clasts in a dark grey matrix. Photo courtesy of Michael Farmer.

Closer, a 10 cm wide view. Photo courtesy of Michael Farmer.

Thin section made from a different slice of the same stone made by Arizona State University (ASU) viewed in transmitted light. Sample is 42 mm long and brecciation is apparent at this scale too.

Dark and light lithologies in plane polarized light and incident light. Metal appears silver-blue. Field of view is 5.2 mm wide.

Same view in cross-polarized light (XPL).

Light and dark lithologies in plane polarized light and incident light. Metal appears silver-blue. Field of view is 5.2 mm wide.

Another ASU thin section viewed in transmitted light. Sample length at top is 35 mm. The dark inclusion is impact melt rock (IMR) similar to that found in NWA 869 L3-6, another regolith breccia.

The fine grain IMR in XPL. Clast is 8.5 mm top to bottom.

Detail of lower left IMR clast. FOV=3 mm.

Detail of upper right IMR clast. FOV=3 mm.

J. Lawrence Smith

Mitch Noda

Dr. John Lawrence Smith (17 December 1818 – 12 October 1883) was an American medical doctor, chemist and mineralogist. Smith also studied civil engineering and geology, which led to his first job as a civil engineer. He did not like it, so he studied medicine. After graduating with a medical degree, he went to study in Europe. Smith was in Paris when the famous arsenic poisoning case of Madame LaFarge was prosecuted. He turned his attention to what is now modern forensic science. He did research poisoning dogs, burying them and digging them up at various intervals of time and detecting the poison in them. J. Lawrence Smith wrote an article, “On the means of detecting arsenic in the animal body and counter-reacting its effects.”

In 1844, he lectured at the Charleston Medical College. In 1864, he assisted in establishing the Medical and Surgical Journal of South Carolina. He favored chemical analysis more than medicine. In 1850, Smith invented the inverted microscope (light source at the top of the microscope). He examined various problems in agricultural chemistry, such as, the composition of soils. In 1852, Smith married Sarah Guthrie, whose father was the Treasury Secretary for the United States. Afterwards, J. Lawrence Smith became a professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. In 1854, Smith took over the chair and professor of medical chemistry and toxicology at the University of Louisville, replacing Benjamin Silliman Jr. who moved to Yale to take the position vacated by his father. Benjamin Silliman Senior founded The American Journal of Science – the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the United States. Silliman Sr. is tied to the Weston meteorite, but that is a story for another time. J. Lawrence Smith was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and President of the American Association for the Advancement in Science in 1872.

A 15 gram Pultusk with a J. Lawrence Smith number 70 painted on it. The numbering is distinct in that two colors of paint, white and red, are used. Check out the dark fusion crust on this specimen that was probably picked up right after the fall. The J. Lawrence Smith catalog lists Pultusk with a corresponding number 70.

My original J. Lawrence Smith catalog from January 1, 1876. It is an exceedingly rare catalog.

My J. Lawrence Smith catalog listing Pultusk with corresponding number 70 which matches my specimen. The 15 gram Pultusk specimen was acquired from my friend, Dr. Arnaud Mignan.

My J. Lawrence Smith catalog has an addenda at the end of it with handwritten notes. Who wrote those beautiful handwritten notes on the addenda? Were they locations of meteorites or something else?

J. Lawrence Smith began collecting meteorites in the 1850s. He had a respectable collection. During the American civil war, but since he lived in Louisville, Kentucky a vulnerable place for this precious meteorite collection, he sold or gave away most of it.

In 1866, after the civil war, J. Lawrence Smith started to travel to Europe to collect, study and write about “aerolites” (meteorites). He published various papers on the subject including “On the peculiar concretions in meteoric iron” which was published in the American Journal of Sciences in 1883.

A 4.1 gram Meso Madaras with J. Lawrence Smith number 69 and 32.2 gram Braunau with corresponding number 129 photo courtesy from my friend Frank Cressy. The Meso Madaras is listed in the J. Lawrence Smith catalog with corresponding number 69, but unfortunately the Braunau is not listed. These specimens are from the superlative Frank Cressy meteorite collection.

This 32.2 gram Braunau cube with number 129 stamped into it from Frank Cressy’s outstanding collection – photo courtesy Frank Cressy.

J. Lawrence Smith set out to obtain specimens from as many different falls as possible. At the time of his death, his collection was one of the largest private collections in the world, containing about 250 falls and had a total weight of approximately 2,500 pounds (1,134 kg). In October 1883, Harvard University purchased J. Lawrence Smith’s collection for $8,000 which anchored their meteorite collection. At the time, it gave Harvard the third largest meteorite collection in the world. Today, the Harvard collection has about 600 distinct meteorites and approximately 1,500 specimens ranging from less than 0.1 gram to 180 kg.

My friend Dr. Arnaud Mignan writes, Ensisheim cut fragment of 1 gram formerly from the Friedrich Wöhler (1800 – 1882) and J. Lawrence Smith (1818 – 1883) collections. It is accompanied by a Wöhler label and carries a small piece of paint, typical of Smith inventory numbers. It is interesting to note that in a letter to Benjamin Silliman dated 22 Feb. 1861, Wöhler wrote: “I can send you fragments (honestly not very big ones) from the meteorites, of which I have [undecipherable]. From: Ensisheim (fallen Nov. 7 1492), from [. . . .]” [Source: Johns Hopkins Libraries]. Since all the Smith collection was donated to Harvard University, this specimen had to be deaccessioned from that institution. This was confirmed by collector Bill Kroth, who obtained it from Harvard in 2002 with another specimen of 3.6 grams (unknown

private collection). Only the other specimen had a paper tag from Harvard. It remains unclear if both specimens fit into each other.

The one gram Ensisheim is listed in the J. Lawrence Smith catalog with a corresponding number of 127. Wow, this one checks all the boxes. It is from the historic Ensisheim 1492 meteorite fall with a possible connection to Benjamin Silliman and was part of the J. Lawrence Smith collection and deaccessioned from the Harvard collection. Not to mention that it was part of Friedrich Wöhler’s collection. Wöhler was a professor at the University of Göttingen, and a pioneering researcher in organic chemistry. The Scientific American supplement for 1882 noted, “for two or three of his researches he deserves the highest honor a scientific man can obtain, but the sum of his work is overwhelming. Had he never lived, the aspect of chemistry would be very different from that it is now.” A 1982 German postage stamp honoring Friedrich Wöhler on

the 100th anniversary of his death in 1882 was issued by the German government.

J. Lawrence Smith loved meteorites so much that his wife, Sarah Julia Smith, took the $8,000 proceeds from Harvard to establish research in the field of meteoritics by having the National Academy of Sciences award the J. Lawrence Smith medal to a worthy recipient. The J. Lawrence Smith medal is awarded every three years for research in meteoritics. It has been presented since 1888. The medal was originally solid gold, but not today, however, the modern gold medal comes with a cash prize of $50,000. The most recent recipient of the J. Lawrence Smith medal was received in 2021 by Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa, Arizona State University (ASU), School Director and Foundation Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration. Other past notable recipients that caught my eye were George P. Merrill (Head Curator Geology and Minerals, including meteorites, at the Smithsonian Museum), Fred L. Whipple (Harvard Observatory and creator of the “dirty snowball” hypothesis of comets) and John T. Wasson (Emeritus Professor in UCLA's Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences).

Acknowledgement:

I would like to thank my longtime friend Mike Bandli who has been generous with his time and educating me on historic meteorites and people. He shared many great stories about the meteorites with me. I would not be able to have written so many interesting articles on historic people and meteorites without his early guidance.

I would like to thank my longtime friend Dr. Arnaud Mignan who educated me on historic meteorites and people. Arnaud has tirelessly updated his historic collection of meteorites and written sublime articles about them on his website. He was planning to replace his website with an app or something similar.

I would like to thank my friend Frank Cressy for providing photos of his outstanding specimens from his extraordinary collection. We share a love of historic meteorites, people and the great stories behind them. Frank’s exceptional book, “From Weston to Creston: A Compendium of U.S. Witnessed Meteorite Falls 1807 to 2016” is on my must read meteorite book list.

References:

J. Lawrence Smith (chemist) - Wikipedia

J. LAWRENCE SMITH AND HIS METEORITE COLLECTIONS Lee Anne Willson (studylib.net)

J. Lawrence Smith Medal (nasonline.org)

History | Mineralogical & Geological Museum (harvard.edu)

Benjamin Silliman | Chemistry Professor, Yale University, Mineralogy | Britannica

Meenakshi Wadhwa | ASU Search

Friedrich Wöhler - Wikipedia

A Visit to a Distant Impact Site

Alan Keese

In South Texas we're enjoying the twentieth consecutive day of one hundred plus degrees. On days like these I find my mind wandering back more than two decades to a time when I was happy to find refuge from the noon sun in a shaded spot that was itself over 115 degrees. Pulling up Google Earth Pro to retrace the route of that year 2000 expedition, I see places I knew decades ago as mere dust motes in the deep deserts of Saudi Arabia have now grown into veritable fly specs.

Living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in the 1970s I occasionally heard talk of meteorite craters five hundred kilometers south at a place called Wabar. The site was virtually inaccessible, far out in the desert called Rub'al Khali, sometimes shortened to just "the 'Rub". The name means "Empty Quarter" in Arabic. It actually does cover roughly one-quarter of the country's area, making it the largest contiguous dune desert on earth. The portion in Saudi Arabia is equal to the combined land areas of California and Pennsylvania. Anyone wishing to find Wabar in those pre-GPS days had to plan a major expedition complete with Bedouin guides.

So I never thought seriously of driving to Wabar in spite of an interest in astronomy and meteorites (Twice I'd climbed to the bottom of Arizona's Barringer Crater in the days when that was allowed). And after all, my job conducting flow tests on wildcat drilling rigs already took me into the Empty Quarter occasionally, although hundreds of kilometers east of the craters, and I found the place uncomfortable past belief; fine sand blew into hair, clothes, everything (I averaged one alarm clock per trip), yet the brackish rig water stank enough of sulfur to actually make people skip showering.

Mid-day shade temperatures in summer easily reached 126-130° F. On those days sand was spread across the rigs' steel drilling floors because they became so hot that even heavy boots couldn't protect the roughnecks' feet. The workers survived their shifts by ingesting gallons of water and handfuls of salt tablets—no fancy electrolyte beverages back then.

Of course during the short winter the whole region became quite comfortable. Light jackets were even worn at night. Nothing for recreational campers to worry about then but sand cobras, scorpions, camel spiders, running off dune slip faces, and mechanical breakdowns. At least when we were on company business we didn't have to drive there. We flew down in twin-engine Fokker 27s to within a few kilometers of the drilling location, landing on ancient lake beds.

And, unlike the more desolate Wabar landscape, I found the eastern part of the Empty Quarter fascinating. Stark vistas mirror those vintage illustrations from the mid-1900s of how scientists thought Mars might look, with clear, cobalt skies and orange-colored dunes two hundred meters high.

Photo 1, F-27.

Photo 2, Eastern Empty Quarter.

The water table in the eastern Rub'al Khali is shallow enough that it actually lies at the surface in one place—scenic, but saltier than seawater.

Photo 3, Eastern Empty Quarter.

Photo 4, Brine Lake.

The entire Empty Quarter, from its east and then westward to Wabar, is dystopian in one sense, though; it wasn't always as it is now. In the last Pleistocene ice age it was a thick savanna grassland with groves of trees and fresh water streams. People lived there then—even the Neanderthal if you go back far enough. Between present-day dunes one can walk the shores of long vanished lakes and occasionally find ancient arrowheads and crudely fashioned spear points.

Photo 5, Salt Crystals.

Ice age sea levels were 300' lower. In place of our relatively shallow present-day Arabian Gulf was a lush, river valley paradise where the Tigris, Euphrates, and other rivers joined and flowed southward to the Arabian Sea.

In the 1990s the Middle Eastern camping world also made a big change. With GPS units it became possible to navigate to any point in the 'Rub. And by then I had a full-sized Land Cruiser that I had tested out in Central Arabian canyon lands and the volcanos near the Red Sea. After reading the published reports on Wabar by Jeffrey C. Wynn and Eugene M. Shoemaker my camping friends were keen to put the craters on our year 2000 schedule.

Photo 6, Spear Point.

Incidentally, Wabar isn't the only big meteorite that ever struck the 'Rub. In the 1990s Saudi Aramco made an extensive seismic survey across nearly the whole place looking for hydrocarbon-bearing structures. Sure enough, it revealed a few ancient sub-surface astroblemes. One was well over one hundred meters across and was buried only three hundred meters below the surface.

"Bring 'em back alive" is the first rule for expeditions into the Empty Quarter, and that requires meticulous planning. Our first decision was when to leave. We assumed temperatures would still be reasonable enough in March: a mistake!

I already knew from my visits to drilling rigs in the 1970s that summertime camping at Wabar was unthinkable. When the air temperature is above 120° F. in the shade, then on the unshaded desert our bodies' cooling systems just can't cope. Augmenting the high air temperature we have the sunlight roasting us from above plus ferocious infrared heating from the desert sand below. In the oil fields during summer the rule was never to hike away from your truck if it stalls, even if you're running low on water. Those who broke this rule often died from heat stroke less than 200 meters from their vehicles.

We planned a nine-day trip: three to reach the craters, three exploring the site, two to return (by a more direct route), and a ninth in reserve. Our group would be four people in three Land Cruisers equipped with high and low-range 4-wheel drives. We planned for each car to carry four jerry cans of gasoline, four of water for each person in it, tools, car parts (full set of hoses, fuel & water pumps, etc.), a GPS unit, food, camp gear, and fiberglass skid boards. Individuals were penciled in to bring specific items such as the car-to-car radios, tow rope, maps, table, firewood, and scuba tank to refill aired-down tires.

All those jerry cans of gasoline would convert each Land Cruiser into a rolling fire-bomb. A basic decision for each driver was whether to transport his cans outside on a luggage rack or inside. If they leak and ignite outside, your chance of getting away from the car is much better than if they go off inside. But if they're inside then you'll be more likely to smell and find any small leak before it ignites. My decision was to get the sturdiest steel cans available, then pack them inside.

While I was living in Dhahran our company newspaper reported that an extended family actually did have such a fire while deep in the Empty Quarter. One of their three SUVs was carrying a gas can up on the luggage rack that leaked down to a hot tailpipe and blew up. As the gasoline and flames spread across the car exterior everyone got out except a three-year-old who was tangled in his seat belt. No one noticed except one boy—eleven or twelve years old, I think it wrote. He dived back in, freed his cousin, and dragged him to safety an instant before the fuel tank blew sky high. Helpless to extinguish the fire, though, the family watched while it consumed everything and eventually burned itself out.

We plotted a route south from Yabreen (end of pavement and last filling station) to Wabar that would be east of our return path through Ash Shalfa back to Yabreen. We expected the travel down and back would be as exciting as our time at Wabar, so why retrace a route and cut in half the number of discoveries?

Gasoline was a supply as well as a safety concern. I'd be driving a standard transmission without using air conditioning. Still, I knew from experience that I'd have at best 3.7

kilometers/liter when pushing through deep sand in 4-wheel drive with my sand tire pressures lowered to 12-14 psi. The other cars would be worse with their automatic transmissions. Leaving Yabreen my total gas inventory (tank plus jerry cans) would be enough to make the round trip down and back with only four gallons left—not enough margin. Somehow, we would need to find gas far out in the Empty Quarter.

There actually are a few refueling points in the deep desert, and they definitely look postapocalyptic; one or two tanks are removed from scrapped transport trucks, set atop a dune, and equipped with turbine meters hooked up to rubber hoses. Usually, they're partially buried to keep the sun from boiling away the gas or, worse yet, igniting it. A Bedouin shelters in a small tent alongside, trying to remember not to smoke. For a small fortune he will let gravity and the hose fill your tank. But those establishments are without gas and deserted for long and unpredictable stretches. We had GPS coordinates for two of them on our southerly route outbound to Wabar. The first was said to be very unreliable and the second less so. The only safe course if we found both of them shuttered would be to turn around and come home.

Day One

We started in early morning on the 370 kilometers south from Dhahran to pavement's end at Yabreen. By mid-afternoon we were topping up our tanks at the tiny outpost and shopping for last minute items in its store.

Disaster struck less than ten kilometers after leaving the road. I was the lead car and went through the first tricky stretch. The hard ground dropped down a meter into soft sand that immediately required a sharp cut to the right while reducing gear, then gassing it to climb back out. Seconds after I came through, the car following ten meters behind me flew out of control and ended up crashing hard into a dune.

The driver was our least experienced team member, and his Land Cruiser was less than a month old. It should be noted, though, that he later became a proficient desert driver and avid camper. He was uninjured, but the impact pulled his front left tire off its wheel and misaligned the front end. We decided to camp there and study our options. The first concern was how to remount—when you're out past the back of beyond—a tubeless tire onto its wheel. We would not risk taking a car into the deep desert without four inflated tires plus a spare.

Photo 7, Yabreen Store.

Near sunset we decided on a drastic measure. We removed the wheel and laid it on the sand with the tire placed in position around it. Then we sprayed starter fluid around inside the tire. Finally, holding a barbecue grill lighter in his fully extended arm one of us sparked the thing. The resulting explosion simultaneously inflated and remounted the tire. After patting out little residual flames on it we measured its pressure at 5 psi—enough to hold a seal while we inflated it to normal.

The car needed to be test driven; something seemed wrong with the front end. We were still close to Yabreen, so if it was mobile but unfit for the 'Rub then one of us would accompany it back to there. It's driver could then return alone to Dhahran safely on pavement. The remaining two cars would proceed to Wabar. It was already dark, so we deferred the test drive until morning and finish setting up camp.

I finished a quick supper, then arranged a foam pad, sheet, and pillow on top of the cargo inside my Land Cruiser. The others opted for sleeping in single occupant, pop-up tents with door flaps that zipped closed. To each his own. The main thing is never to sleep outside on that desert floor at night. I've slept outside in the Empty Quarter just one time, but that was in the eastern 'Rub atop a five-hundred-foot dune; nothing bothers you up there.

The creatures of the Empty Quarter are nocturnal, and most will leave you alone. Sand cobras and vipers are looking for something small enough to swallow. Even the giant black scorpions are docile enough toward humans. But as dawn approaches, they're trying to get under or into

Photo 8, Atop Dune.

something, so don't roll over. At any rate, unless you're a very heavy sleeper the ubiquitous black beetles will wake you every few minutes as one explores inside your sleeping bag and clothing.

It's mainly to avoid camel spiders, though, that I sleep only in my car or on its roof, depending on how hot the night is. The six-inch beasts (body plus legs) aren't true spiders. They're actually in the Solifugae Order of the Arachnida Class, along with the smaller vinegaroons of the American deserts. Spiders are a separate order of arachnid.

As ghastly as the dead ones are, it's somehow the way the live ones move that gives humans the willies on an instinctive level. Such a macabre creature naturally inspires tall tales. Gulf War troops invented many of them, but one goes back at least to the 1970s. As the story goes: the camel spider silently slips up to a sleeping camel at night and injects a natural, local anesthetic into its leg. Then it proceeds to enjoy a midnight snack. The next morning the owner has a crippled camel. It supposedly also explains why the occasional Bedouin has a partly missing cheek or other major facial scar. One night he was careless about covering his face.

"Absolute rubbish," declare all scientists who have ever studied Solifugae. They have no injection equipment nor any venom (or anesthetic!) to inject. Scientists do concede the beasts are carnivorous and have everything else they would need: silent and stealthy movements, good night vision, size (largest of all 1,100 Solifugae species), and those powerful pincers to cut up their prey—bugs, lizards, small rodents, and birds. They can slice through small bones with those, so could easily cut into camel skin.

Here's my problem: scientists also tell us there are likely still many undocumented creatures in

Photo 9, Camel Spider,

the Empty Quarter. How hard would it be for a species possessing all the other equipment to evolve an injector and anesthetic sack? Anyway, if someone wants to prove there really are only 1,100 species—not 1,101—by sleeping exposed some dark night on the Rub'al Khali sands, I'll wish them the best of luck.

Day Two

After breakfast we determined that the damaged car was still roadworthy but had serious alignment issues. We sadly escorted our teammate back to Yabreen to begin his slow journey home. Then Steve, Jim, and I turned the remaining two Land Cruisers southward and set out.

We spent the rest of the day in easy, 2-wheel drive terrain. It was a chance to check how our vehicles took to the 'Rub, as we steadily navigated southeast toward our first gasoline outpost. After 100 kilometers we reached the soft dune region and decided to make camp before dark. That's prudent because even in daylight, set-ups are always inefficient. It was our second camp, but still maddening trying to remember where in our boxes and bags we stashed the dozens of items to start campfires, cook suppers, and prepare bed rolls. By the third night the process would be at least an hour quicker.

Each of us prepared his own supper. In the bush mine is probably the most basic, my fellow campers apply worse labels. That night I opened two cans—one tuna and one spinach—and set them in the campfire. Once they heated up, I slipped a glove on one hand, lifted them out of the fire, and ate from the can, putting the meat in lettuce or bread sandwiches. Afterwards the cans went into my garbage bag and the only clean-up was my fork and drinking glass. Lunches were simpler—a couple of pieces of fruit along with a can of sardines or sausages. Breakfast was the quickest: three slices of bread and a large glass of water followed by a cup of coffee. To relieve the monotony, I also brought some packaged pastries and cola.

Day Three

The next morning, we rose before the sun and prepared for dune field driving. We switched to 4-wheel drive and let most of the air out of our sand tires. These were designed for highway as well as sand driving. That meant they wouldn't be as immune to becoming stuck as we would have liked. To give ourselves an extra edge we reduced their pressures to 12-14 psi. They still gripped the wheel rims tightly despite looking almost flat. Even with all that we could count on each vehicle becoming stuck about three times daily. Yet with shovels and skid boards it almost never took us more than ten minutes to free one and be off again.

We could have further reduced the frequency of stuck cars by simply driving faster, but that would be dangerous. Winds have a prevailing direction in the Empty Quarter. Those shape the windward sides of dunes into gradual slopes. Sand grains move up that incline until they reach the top and tumble down the leeward side, called the "slip face". Slip faces are inclined at about 32 degrees. That doesn't sound very steep, but it is. Driving carefully over the edge of a high dune's slip face is terrifying the first time; it feels like rolling over a cliff. Sailing over the edge at high speed because you feared being stuck is far worse, though. Then it becomes what NASA

calls an "NSE" (non-survivable event).

It's basic physics. The dunes rest on and move across a flat, packed desert surface (hard pan). A fast moving car that zooms over the edge will probably not land on the soft slip face, since that falls away so steeply. Instead, the car's momentum will carry it outward steadily as it accelerates downward until it finally strikes the hard pan. For a 70' dune it's as though the car was released by a crane to fall nose down 70' onto concrete. Fly off a high slip face or pop the glove latch on your spacesuit—both NSEs.

But why not drive fast enough to avoid getting stuck, and then just slow down or veer away when you see an edge coming up? The problem is that often you can't see the infernal things. Through most of the day the landscape was a glaring white-out. We wore the darkest polarized sunglasses available, but even then, the edges where windward sides ended were tricky to recognize against the similarly colored dunes behind them.

So, we drove just a bit slower, crossed windward sides of dunes a bit lower, and accepted more frequent stuck cars.

Photo 10, Stuck Car.

On rare occasions one hung up high-centered, as in this picture from a later expedition to the eastern 'Rub. Those were the worst and could take 40 minutes of digging to get free.

Operating with 4-wheel drive through the deep sand while constantly shifting the standard transmission down and up made the previous day seem like a luxury cruise. It required constant attention to decide where to approach each upcoming dune—to strike where its sand was hardest—and which gear would be best. Decide wrong and you're digging out your stuck car yet again. Most of the time I stayed in high 4-wheel drive, but where the way ahead looked especially soft, I switched to the low range, selected my gear, and gunned the engine. Swerving back and forth through the worst patches with those aired-down tires felt more like swimming than driving. I tried not to think of my low gas mileage.

I needn't have worried. Eighty kilometers from the last camp and before the sun was even very high, we reached the first deep desert refueling point—the least reliable one. And the place

Photo 11, High-Centered.

was manned and had gas! Only then did we know with certainty we would be visiting Wabar, and everyone's spirits lifted.

We moved on after quickly topping up our tanks. The next stretch was especially difficult. It seemed like we spent more time digging out stuck cars than driving; by the time we crossed ninety kilometers of it the sun was setting. We were worn out but encouraged that we had put 170 kilometers of the worst driving behind us that day.

After supper I set an alarm for 1:00 am and retired early. When it woke me, I slipped out of my car and moved off a hundred meters with 10X50 binoculars and a lawn chair. On moonless nights Rub'al Khali night skies are among the darkest on earth. Light pollution is non-existent, humidity nearly zero, and the stars saturate the sky all the way down to the 360 degrees of unobstructed horizon. The latitude is south of that in the continental US, so in spring Sagittarius, Scorpius, and even Centaurus are high after midnight. Behind the first two our Milky Way galaxy glowed brightly and was well delineated. The binoculars resolved most of its small, brighter patches into open star clusters, each with dozens of member stars. Even a few stars in the Omega Centauri globular were visible. Sitting in a lawn chair under such a clear sky with total silence around me it was easy to grasp what the view actually was—that I was gazing out from our own curved spiral arm and across a gulf of 2,500 light years to the next arm inward toward the galactic core, itself 26,000 light years away. All those star clusters I was resolving in Scorpius and Sagittarius reside in that arm at distances from us of 2,000 to 3,500 light years.

Photo 12, Filling Station.

Day Four

I wake up after sunrise in a dreamy haze after yesterday's exertions and late-night star gazing. Jim and Steve have already stowed their tents and are finishing breakfast. I quickly eat mine, and we pull out.

The terrain becomes level desert with only tiny dunes, and we drift along easily. It's so flat that any person, camel, or car would be clearly seen at a distance. It seems empty, though. But an hour into it we do spot something on the horizon ahead. The dreamlike quality increases when we come upon the lonely wreckage of a small plane.

Around it a desert waste stretches empty to the horizon in every direction. Like Alice falling into the rabbit hole, it feels like we've dropped into the closing lines from Percy Shelley's Ozymandias:

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

We press on. Behind us the hulk is left to ponder the glories of its high-altitude past and resume its "decay" back into the base elements from whence it came.

The farther we got from it the more things focused back into reality. Stretches of difficult driving helped. Occasionally a car became stuck but spending a few minutes digging it out was actually

Photo 13, Wrecked Airplane.

a welcome break from the driving.

Shortly before sundown we reached the second deep desert refueling point—the "more reliable" one. It lay next to a decades old operating base

of the Arabian American Oil Company, later renamed Saudi Aramco. The base had been deserted many years before, and the fuel facility had now joined it. If we had not found gas earlier at the "unreliable" facility, we would have been turning around here and returning to Dhahran.

Photo 14, Deserted Aramco Base.

Photo 15, Abandoned Trucks.

We examined derelict trucks and other artifacts left behind at the base. The only solid structure was a cinder block shed near the fallen down perimeter fence. Its door was missing, so even before entering we could see the universal radiation warning sign on an oddly shaped cylinder, standing half buried by sand accumulation.

Steve and Jim reported from inside that the sand around it was unusually warm to the touch. I decided I could see and photograph it fine from outside the doorway. It likely contained one of the extremely radioactive sources used to check pipeline welds, and should never have been left abandoned and forgotten. We gave its coordinates to the company Security Department on returning to Dhahran.

We covered another twenty-four kilometers before camping. Our GPS units said only forty more to the craters. Since leaving the abandoned base we'd had a surface of moderately soft sand with only an occasional seif dune—fairly easy driving. It was sobering to think that we were probably in the exact type of terrain that the asteroid struck.

Day Five

We drove into Wabar from the east the next morning about 9:30, but I didn't realize it at first. Somehow, I must have expected it to look drastically different from the forty kilometers of monotonous terrain that we'd crossed since breaking camp. As I drove slowly along watching my GPS, I actually thought, "Something's wrong; it should be right here." I finally woke up and noticed the many black objects scattered across the desert to my right.

Less than two hundred meters off—also to my right—was a nondescript dune that looked like dozens I had passed that morning. All at once I realized that it was the dune: the seif dune

Photo 16, Radioactive Container.

that's burying Philby "A" Crater and is drawn on all the maps. I spent the next three days walking all around this celebrity and taking pictures from its crest. It must be about ten meters tall, yet its low profile is so underwhelming that I neglected to ever stand off and take its portrait.

We set up well to the south to avoid driving over any of the specimens. Our camp can be seen in Photo 17, a mosaic panorama taken from atop the famous dune, facing south.

It covers about 100 degrees of horizon. The crescent-shaped pattern of lighter material on the far left is the western and part of the southern rim of Philby "B" Crater, seen mostly in shadow.

As the others began unpacking, I couldn't resist a quick exploration of the site, breaking the rule about always setting up your camp first. Returning to the cars half an hour later, I was well on the way to heat exhaustion. While I sat on the ground in my car's shade drinking electrolyte, we discussed the situation. It wasn't even the hottest part of the day yet. If we were going to keep safe we would need to stay shaded and sedentary through the worst three to four hours of each day and do our sightseeing before and after.

Late in the afternoon we resumed exploring the site. We located the last vestige of the Philby "A" Crater

Photo 17, Southern Horizon.

Photo 18, Philby -A- Crater.

casting a shadow at the south foot of the advancing dune. It's now over twenty years later, so the crater is likely buried. The bush seen behind Jim's right shoulder in the photo was growing in the 11-meter crater. It was recent. There's no sign of the bush in the 1998 Scientific American picture of that crater. The dune can be seen approaching in a shot I took from the dune's crest.

Jim stood in the crater to recreate the Scientific American picture. The photos are taken a few years apart and the dune's advance is apparent when the two are side by side. Comparing Philby's 1932 map and my photo I estimate the thing had moved 120 meters southward in the 68 years. Incidentally, those wishing to examine Philby's 1932 map can find it at the Meteorite Picture of the Day site for August 19, 2023.

Photo 19, 11-Meter Crater.

Before

Day Six

After an early breakfast we continued inspecting the impact site. The events that created it are well described in the 1998 Scientific American article. Authors Wynn and Shoemaker explain how an iron-nickel meteor came in at a flat angle from the northwest, breaking into at least four pieces before impact. The two largest ones created the Philby "A" and Philby "B" craters. Their diameters are sixty-four and 116 meters, respectively. A smaller one made the 11-Meter Crater. The impact shock waves from the two largest ones flash melted tons of sand into black glass—called "impact melt"—and splattered it across the landscape. Farther out the shock waves welded individual sand grains together without melting to create a material called "impactite",

Photo 20, Gassing Up.

supper that evening I emptied the last of my jerry cans into my fuel tank. No more driving a fire-bomb.

which looks somewhat like a pure white sandstone.

Happily, hundreds of fragments from the impactors survived and are also scattered among the pieces of white impactite and black impact melt. Wynn and Shoemaker explain that a reverse shock wave ripped through the impactors in the instant before they disintegrated, spalling pieces off their trailing surfaces and ejecting them toward the northwest. They go on to describe a blindingly bright fireball that would have risen to the stratosphere to create a glowing mushroom cloud.

The fierceness of the fireball's radiant heat may explain why we found some occasional pieces of impact melt that were rough on one side and smooth on the other, with almost a mirror-like sheen.

Photo 21, Impactite.

One guess is that after the shock-melted globs fell onto the desert surface their upward facing sides reached even higher temperatures from radiant heating by the fireball above them.

In isolated places we found the ground littered with tiny ovoids and drop shapes of impact melt like those arranged in Photo 23.

Photo 22, Impact Melt.

It and Photo 24 were composed by positioning especially interesting impact melts near one another to be photographed. We didn't see any naturally occurring concentrations as dense as that (We only wish!), not even after our second night when some original desert surface had been uncovered by a sandstorm. Photo 25 shows how the natural surface was before we messed with it, although that patch actually looks a little too depleted of interesting specimens.

Photo 23, Impact Melt.

We saw occasional pieces of impact melt that were shaped like barbells, as though rapidly spinning drops had solidified before they could spin in two. Others succeeded, but just barely. Then the resulting two drops would each be left with glass "tails", some as thin as a human hair. A mystery is that since the impact is suspected to have happened at least as far back as the 19th century how could such delicate glass pieces survive 150 years of sandstorms. Perhaps they were buried under protective sand soon after the impact by those same storms.

Wynn and Shoemaker mention that following the impacts raindrops of molten glass apparently fell across the landscape for some time. They observed them wherever the original desert surface was visible.

But what was the source of this glass rain? Maybe countless tiny impact melt drops were first created by shock waves and then swept to high altitude by the fireball. Other drops perhaps condensed from white-hot microscopic droplets composing the fireball itself when it began to cool at high altitude. Whatever their origins, all of them must have solidified long before they reached the ground.

The range of shapes taken by both large and small pieces of impact melt seems endless.

Photo 25, Uncovered Surface.

24, Impact Melt.

Sometimes we try to guess how they might have formed. One seems to have flown through the air with a flat, molten tail trailing behind. Then that morphed into a unicorn's spiral horn when perhaps something struck and spun the head. When a drop trailing two streamers was also set spinning the tails twisted into a braid. We saw many of the glass spheres called "Wabar pearls" that had mixed in with the sand. No two were the same. Some had smooth surfaces, but others were peppered by countless tiny drops that struck them and stuck. Some surfaces were black, while others were chocolate brown. A few rare ones had reflective, almost mirror-like exteriors. We also saw blue-colored impact melt. The color was especially apparent on fracture planes of pieces that had broken.

Photo

Don't be confused by Photo 26; what may appear to be inclusions projecting outward are actually smooth-walled chambers that once held gas bubbles.

We made a happy discovery as the morning gradually became a furnace. The sand under the Land Cruisers was quite cool after a day and night shielded from the sun. We ate an early lunch and then dug trench burrows under our cars to spent a pleasant four hours napping and reading. The air wafting in was still a bit warm. I measured 117 degrees with a mercury lab thermometer. It was a totally dry heat, though, and lying on the soft, cool sand we were much more comfortable than roasting in the tents. For two days it was fine, but if we had been at Wabar much longer than that the scorpions and spiders would have eventually found our paradise.

That evening after we'd finished supper and were relaxing around the campfire, we found out how quickly things can change. We would have had some warning if it had been daytime, or I had been off star gazing. When the stars begin disappearing across the sky, it's hard to miss. We'll always remember how rapidly the thing struck. In under thirty seconds a gentle evening breeze became a raging sandstorm with gusts that could knock us down. We rummaged around to find safety goggles to protect our eyes. Then, crouched over, we scurried about securing the camp as best we could. That night it took me awhile to fall asleep inside my Land Cruiser due to its constant rocking and the pinging of sand against it. I woke up several times during the night. Each time it was still rocking. I was sure it was losing its exterior paint.

Photo 26, Blue Impact Melt.

Day Seven

The storm subsided a little after sunrise, and we crept out to survey its aftermath. The tents were partly buried, yet the sand under the car tires had been eroded. They were now in depressions. I wondered if they would have been eventually left resting on their axles had the storm continued for a few days. The paint jobs on the cars were fine. All I could guess was that the spherically shaped aeolian sands of the Empty Quarter are just not abrasive. If it had been coarse, clastic river sand I'm sure all the paint would have been gone. A last note: the storm broke one of Steve's tent poles. He's a technical mountain climber, and the small tent was rated for mighty mountain winds. I'll not mention the brand.

In the cool of the morning, I walked around the site drinking my morning coffee and made an interesting discovery. North of the bad boy dune that's burying the craters—just beyond its windward side—an expanse of original surface had been exposed the previous night. It was littered with glass raindrops, many with impossibly delicate tails. I used some of these little specimens to arrange Photo 23.

Meteorites thrown off the impactor were not easy to find. The black impact melt is everywhere. In the bright sunlight the much rarer iron looks exactly like it. At one point I lightly kicked an obvious piece of impact melt to roll it out of the sand, and it clanked instead of clunking; sure enough, a good-sized meteorite. In addition to that one we eventually found a few more.

The following year when I again visited Wabar (in December!) one of our group brought a metal detector.

Photo 27, Meteorites.

It turned out to be surprisingly ineffective. The impact melt is composed of about ten percent of dispersed metal, so we were getting false positives everywhere. When someone becomes totally aggravated, the Chinese call it "spitting blood".

As with all iron-nickel meteorites, those from Wabar can be polished and acid-etched to reveal Widmanstatten patterns.

Photo 28, Metal Detector.

The spectacular pictured specimen in the photo is in the private collection of Scott McGregor. Only iron meteorites ever exhibit these striking crystal structures. They form in the cores of small planetoids as they cool and solidify over periods of hundreds of millions of years. If one of these is later shattered in a collision with another planetoid, it produces iron-nickel asteroids.

The most singular object I found at Wabar was a nearly homogeneous mix of impact melt, impactite, and meteoritic material.

Photo 29, Wabar Etch Pattern.

It was almost as light as foam, and would have easily floated in water. No one examining it would ever doubt the violence and turbulence of the Wabar cataclysm.

As our last full day at Wabar drew to a close, we found ourselves wandering about the site taking last looks, unwilling to start supper until dark.

Photo 30, Mix of Everything.

None of us knew if he would ever get to return. With me it was a nagging unease that I had maybe missed something major and left it unseen. I wonder if each of our lunar astronauts had similar feelings before leaving the moon. Maybe not, they had specific mission tasks to perform and knew they had accomplished them.

Day Eight

We break camp and leave shortly after sunrise. As it was with my second day on the drive down, the return trip from our expedition into the 'Rub gave me an anticlimactic, dreamlike feeling. In the afternoon we float into the outpost of Ash Shalfa, the third "maybe" gasoline source. Happily, they have it. This means that even though we still had enough to make it to pavement and dependable stations, we can forget frugality and run air conditioners.

We gas up and discover that a well here produces clear, slightly brackish water. A standpipe feeds into a trough that's big enough to water a hundred camels. After our week living in sand, we can't resist it.

Photo 31, Last Look Around.

Then, already dressed and ready to drive out, we see something appear on the horizon. As though stepping out of a mirage a speck slowly resolves into two approaching camels: a tiny calf with its mother. Her objective is the watering trough, of course.

Camel faces aren't expressive, yet at the trough the cow's body language somehow communicates her fierce protectiveness along with motherly pride. She constantly hovers over the calf, and confronts me when I move in for a picture.

Photo 32, Camel Trough.

We take care not to disturb him after that. I'm reminded of how gigantic camels are compared to horses. Mount one and when he stands up the altitude practically gives you a nosebleed. I've ridden both, though, and would prefer the camel any day: far more sure-footed.

The little one can't be more than a few days old, with all that curly calf fur. He even still has a dried-up umbilical cord attached to his undercarriage. He eyes us curiously. We're probably the first large creatures he's seen apart from his mother. We guess that the other camels standing about the location are the cow's herd, and she's rejoining them after staying behind to deliver. From the direction she came we're sure the tyke's been feeding and hydrating only on mother's

Photo 33, Camel & Calf.

milk since birth. So it is that we witness his first tentative experience with the magical liquid we call "water".

After leaving Ash Shalfa, there was no more relaxed driving. Another 34 kilometers of dunes, then we hit the flats and pushed pedal to metal, heading home. When we stopped and made our last camp that evening there was just eighty kilometers of flat, easy driving between us and the pavement at Yabreen.

Day Nine

Our final day was a long one, but I have little recollection of it. After breaking camp, we quickly covered the eighty kilometers to pavement and then just kept driving. It was going to be a tiring day, but no one suggested camping somewhere for an extra night. We looked forward to seeing our families too much. I do remember drinking a couple of colas at stops along the highway—not because I like them that much, but in order to stay awake. Monotonous highway driving can be sleep-inducing after so much time spent off-road. Anyway, we reached Dhahran a little before midnight without incident.

Photo 34, Camel Calf.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to express his gratitude to Anne Black and Scott McGregor for their assistance. Anne initially conceived and encouraged the writing of the article. Scott applied his computer skills to dramatically liven all the photographs; then, as a much appreciated bonus, he performed a careful line-by-line edit of the initial draft.

Alan Keese August 2023

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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 © 2010 James Tobin