Wednesday 1 December 2010

List 96, more miscellaneous consigned items

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487

..................................LIST 96

November 30, 2010

Dear Collectors,

I have been very busy with projects of various sorts and have not had time to put together any kind of list for the past month and a half. These items are actually from a box of consignments that was sent to me shortly after the Denver Show. I do hope to get on the ball and get inventory work started soon. That should bring out some special "only got a tiny bit left" offerings next month. Unfortunately though that on top of all of the other things I have been trying to accomplish I got notice yesterday that I need to prepare the "landing spot" for a trailer that will become my ultra-light's hanger. I have gotten tired of hanging myself trying to carefully get around all of the wires of the hang-glider wing taking up a substantial portion of my garage (I am beginning to think that the reason they call these wings "hang-gliders" is not because you hang underneath them while flying, but because you can't move around one that is completely or partially set up with out hanging yourself on a support wire or two). This was NOT a project I had planned on working on for the near term, but the trailer yard says it must be moved by the end of next week. I will have many hours of dirt moving and such to do now, so future lists (and the inventory work that will generate them) will likely be a bit delayed or oddly timed. I apologize for this.

ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This is a nice complete stone! It has a very high amount of crust coverage (something like 90% - only the usual chipped edges). What is interesting is that all o this crust shows lots of contraction cracks. This may be partly due to the act that I think that this may be a "later" recovery and some light colored dirt has settled into the cracks. However, this is not one of the really later recoveries, it is still very fresh (no rust, no lichen and such as found on some of the most recent recovered specimens). Another interesting feature is a crater where a 3mm chondrule popped out during the fall that is now fully crusted over.
8.8 gram crusted individual – 20mm x 17mm x 16mm - $90

BONITA SPRINGS, Florida: (H5). Found 1938. Tkw = 41.8 kg.
I am quite surprised at how fresh this is. I would think that any iron bearing meteorite found in Florida (or similar environment) would be deeply rust weathered. This is a nice light gray (there are some brown spots) color with lots of fresh metal.
3.0 gram slice – 18mm x 18mm x 3mm - $75

BRAHIN, Belarus: (pallasite). Found 1810. Tkw = 1000+kg.
This slice, of coarse, shows a fair amount of rusting, but it has not completely fallen apart (amazing considering it spent a long time in Florida). This does have some nice gemmy crystals though. One is really clear (only about 4mm x 4mm though) and could possibly be cut into a gem stone
5.7 gram slice – 27mm x 12mm x 5mm - $10

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: rock flour.
This is a small container (approximately 20mm x 20mm x 15mm) that is a bit over half full of white powdered sandstone. This is some of the "rock flour" (highly shocked Coconino Sandstone) that was retrieved from the "mine" shaft in the bottom of the crater.
Approximately 18mm x 18mm x 10mm in box - $20

GHUBARA, Oman: (L5), black, xenolithic. Found 1954. Tkw = 250+kg.
2.5 gram slice – 15mm x 8mm x 6mm - $3

GOLD BASIN, Arizona: (L4). Found 1995.
This is nothing special, just a typical representative cut fragment ( the back side is natural, but I don't see anything I would call crust). It has the usual surprisingly fresh interior with a fair amount o metal in a mixed gray and brown matrix.
5.6 gram end piece –26mm x 13mm x 8mm - $8

HENBURY, Australia; Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1931.
This is just a typical natural individual. I used to have a lot of this stuff (in fact, this probably came from me years ago), but I am now down to only a small hand full (the strength of the Australian dollar combined with the weakness of the US dollar has made the "wholesale" price of this material higher than what I normally sold it for so I have not picked up any new materail in years).
8.6 gram natural individual – 20mm x 15mm x 6mm - $10

HUCKITTA, Australia: (pallasite).
This is an end piece of the usual oxide material.
21.6 gram end piece – 35mm x 13mm x 17mm - $32

IMILAC, Chile: (Pallasite).
This is a particularly nice "shrapnel" fragment. It has a really wild shape with some yellow and almost pinkish olivine in the deepest pockets.
10.0 gram fragment – 20mm x 18mm x 10mm - $60

MONTURAQUI, Chile: Impactite.
This is one of the better cut pieces of this I have seen.
7.7 gram end piece – 33mm x 23mm x 6mm - $15

MUNDRABILLA, Australia: Medium octahedrite, ungrouped.
This is just a basic natural individual metal nugget. Nice, but typical for this meteorite.
20.3 gram individual – 25mm x 17mm x 10mm - $20

NWA (------): unclassified, likely (H5).
This is a nice end piece with a large cut face (about 70mm x 60mm) that has not been polished (I can do this if you like). There is also another "test cut" on the back (about 35mm x 25mm). Overall, this is a nice specimen and would make an ideal "pass around" educational specimen. The interior is quite fresh – showing lots of metal in a light tan matrix (reminds of Gao). The exterior is very smooth (highly wind-polished) and has in interesting pinkish brown color. This looks shockingly similar (internally and externally) to the Sahara (99427) listed below, but then this piece weighs as much as the total reported (according the hand scribbled notes that came with all of this anyway – that Sahara stone has not been officially reported – according to Meteorites A to Z).
351.1 gram end piece – 70mm x 60mm x 40mm - $150

NWA (----), Unclassified.
This is just a typical fragment of chondrite (no real idea what kind as it has no cut or polished suraces).
7.0 gram fragment – 15mm x 15mm x 14mm - $3

NWA (482): Lunar impact melt breccia. Found 2000. Tkw = 1015grams.
This is a small fragment in a capsule in a magnifier box. This is almost completely white (anorthosite) with only a few hints of shock darkening.
.027 gram fragment 2.5mm x 2mm x 2mm - $50

NWA (2932) (Mesosiderite). Found 2005. Tkw = 15+kg.
I really wish I bought more of this when the "big" batch came out (I am out of it myself). This is what a mesosiderite should look like. It has a nice mix of metal (including one 5mm or so nodule) and silicates.
22.5 gram end piece – 40mm x 20mm x 13mm - $135

PUTORANA, Russia: Terrestrial Fe/Ni in basalt.
This is still a mystery to me. This has Fe, Ni ands even troilite. It is a breccia (unlike any other iron in basalt that I am aware of). This is a nice highly polished specimen that has loads of iron. This is a nice as any mesosiderite. This is the only piece of this I have (I am COMPLETELY sold out in my inventory).
7.8 gram slice – 40mm x 6mm x 5mm - $11

SAHARA (99427): Not reported but likely (H5), Tkw = 351.1 grams.
Here is a slice of this, unfortunately, unreported stone. It is quite fresh and shows lots of metal in a tan to brown matrix (reminds me of Gao).
43.2 gram slice – 47mm x 38mm x 8mm - $45

SANTA VITORIA DO PALMAR, Brazil. (L3). Ound 2003/2004. Tkw = 50.36kg.
This is the one, despite its rather dark matrix and lack of metal, that is reproted to have likely fallen June 25, 1997. I quickly sold all I had when I had a good quantity of it a few years ago. This does show lots of chondrules of all sizes, though there are a bit hidden in the dark brown matrix.
17.2 gram slice – 50mm x 25mm x 4mm - $80

SARIR QATTUSAH (001), Libya: (L/LL3). Found 1994. Tkw = 796 grams.
This is actually a nice specimen. It is weathered ( it only shows a few bits of metal) but it has lots of chondrules of different colors. It kind of reminds me of Ragland or Wells.
1.9 gram slice – 14mm x 12mm x 5mm - $30