Blaine Reed Meteorites List 78 NOV09

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax: (970) 874 -1487
………………………………………………………..LIST 78

November 2009

Dear Collectors,

Here is the e-mail (now blog post) version of my new mailed list that was recently sent out by mail to my customers. If you see anything of interest or have questions, please contact me. Phone is usually best (for those in the US anyway) for me (I am a lousy typist and we can cover more in just a couple minutes than hours of typing e-mails back and forth). However, I will be in and out of the house the next couple days working on a project (attempting to install a couple solar heating panels I recently picked up). So leave a message and I will call you back when I get back in. E-mail (brmeteorites@yahoo.com) is obviously best for overseas people, but I can be a bit lax in checking it from time to time (kind of a pain turning on the computer, booting up, signing in and all of that. Close to half an hour gone before I even get "down to business" so I sometimes end up going quite awhile without checking if things are otherwise busy).

CAMPO DEL CIELO, Argentina: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1576.
Here are some nice complete slices of highly silicated material. These are loaded with various silicate minerals, graphite and troilite. They look every bit as good as the famous Zagora, Udei Station or Landes meteorites but at a fraction of the price. I just finished polishing these up but did not etch them. First, most pieces have very little metal field areas that would show much of an etch anyway. Secondly, I had received these unpolished and un-coated. They showed no rust (except a thin brown staining on a couple pieces). Remembering a warning I got many years ago from Glenn Huss that the acid when etching potential problem irons will often set off a serious rusting reaction, I decided to just leave these beautiful slices alone as they were quite stable in their current state.
1)Slices of a highly silicated individual (all are complete but the 16.1g):
a) 16.1 grams - 45mm x 35mm x 3mm - $30.00
b) 24.3 grams - 47mm x 33mm x 4mm - $45.00
c) 39.1 grams - 63mm x 36mm x 4mm - $70.00
d) 74.0 grams - 80mm x 54mm x 4mm - $130.00 - has several olivine or pyroxene crystals.

NOKTAT ADDAGMAR, Mauritania: (LL5). Found October or November 2006, Tkw = about 1kg.
To stones (581grams and 188grams) were originally found (and a good number of tiny stones later) by a mineral collector near the cravansary of Noktat Addagmar after local reports of "stones that recently fell from the sky". These are very fresh (weathering grade of W0), but scientific studies of short-lived radionuclides indicate that they fell at least several decades earlier. These are all small individuals as found. They all have nice black crust (though there is some wind-polish shine to some portions) and most show contraction cracks and small chipped areas that reveal the fresh light-colored interior. Neat little pieces of a moderately rare type stone.
1) Individuals as found:
a) .25 grams - 9mm x 7mm x 6mm - $4.00
b) 1.44 grams - 12mm x 9mm x 8mm - $17.00
c) 2.45 grams - 12mm x 12mm x 10mm - $28.00

NWA (2136): Ordinary chondrite. (L3.5). Found before February 2004, Tkw = 1045 grams.
I can't believe I have had this hidden in storage for over 5 years now! But then I have been digging in older material more and more lately as there seems to be very little new available the past year or so. This is interesting and rare material (there are only around 5 L3.5 meteorites reported). This shows lots of gray chondrules of many sizes in an almost orange matrix. It is also quite porous. I had assumed that this was from weathering, but probably not as there are still plenty of fresh metal grains scattered throughout the specimen. I suspect that this just has not seen much shock in its life. At least not enough to compact and consolidate the material to a great degree.
1) Slices:
a) 3.4 grams - 36mm x 15mm x 2mm - $20.00
b) 6.3 grams - 33mm x 33mm x 3mm - $38.00
c) 13.0 grams - 60mm x 30mm x 2mm - $75.00
d) 23.5 grams - 60mm x 43mm x 3mm - $130.00
e) 37.9 grams - 75mm x 48mm x 4mm - $200.00

VIEDMA, Argentina: (L6). Found Feb 12, 2000, possibly fell Nov 5, 1998. Tkw = 6.9 kilograms.
A single stone was found by a gold prospector on Balneario el Condor Beach. There were local newspaper reports of a fireball traveling from west to east that detonated over Viedma on November 5, 1998. The find location of this stone was very close to the fall location suggested in the newspaper. This is indeed quite fresh material. It has a very light gray interior that shows only minor light brown oxide spotting. The crust is dark gray/black with only minor brown spotting as well. I have no trouble believing that this meteorite is indeed the one that fell in November of 1998. Unfortunately, I have very little of this material.
1) Slices:
a) 5.0 grams - 30mm x 14mm x 4mm - $30.00
b) 9.7 grams - 45mm x 18mm x 4mm - $58.00
c) 26.2 grams - 50mm x 32mm x 5mm - $150.00 - one crusted edge.
d) 63.1 grams - 95mm x 64mm x 3mm - $350.00 - 2/3 edge crusted.
e) 159.3 grams - 130mm x 90mm x 5mm - $800.00 - 90+% edge crusted.

NWA (2822): Rumurutiite. (R4), polymict breccia. Found before February 2005. Tkw = 1675 grams.
This is another one of my longer term stored items. I personally like R - chondrites and think they are a bit under appreciated in general. But then, I remember the early days of their discovery (the Carlisle Lakes, Australia material) and the excitement it generated in the research community. I had not realized how long it has been since I have offered an R-chondrite on one of my mailed lists (I have had the odd piece or two float through my e-mail offerings, but not many). Digging through my old records, it seems that the last R I listed was in October of 2004 - before this one was even found! This is nice material. It has a nice mottled medium orange to brown matrix that contains lots of lighter colored chondrules and the occasional odd dark clast. This is indeed a breccia containing pieces of rocks of different compositions, hence the "polymict" breccia classification.
1) Slices:
a) 3.0 grams - 18mm x 16mm x 3mm - $36.00
b) 6.1 grams - 33mm x 25mm x 3mm - $73.00
c) 16.7 grams - 58mm x 32mm x 3mm - $200.00 - complete slice
d) 25.6 grams - 60mm x 43mm x 3mm - $300.00 - complete slice
e) 33.5 grams - 68mm x 54mm x 3mm - $385.00

NWA (5745): Achondrite (Ureilite). Found before January 2006. Tkw = 1.5kg (9kg including pairings).
Here are some slices from some material that Mike Martinez and I picked up at the Tucson Show in 2006. Mike got the thrill of cutting this for me (NOT easy, this one contains plenty of blade busting diamonds). We had bought several fragments from a large piece that weighed about 9kg that was broken apart at the show. The largest piece (6kg and assigned NWA (2218)) went to Canada with David Gregory and is going to be donated to the Royal Ontario Museum (no idea where the other pieces went). Research work showed this material to be mineralogically unusual. It has a lower pyroxene content than most ureilites and is composed mostly of olivine with graphite and micro-diamonds.
1) Slices:
a) .93 grams - 13mm x 12mm x 2mm - $24.00
b) 1.8 grams - 22mm x 15mm x 2mm - $45.00
c) 4.5 grams - 27mm x 14mm x 4mm - $110.00
d) 6.5 grams - 35mm x 25mm x 3mm - $150.00
e) 8.3 grams - 35mm x 21mm x 4mm - $170.00
f) 24.3 grams - 65mm x 36mm x 4mm - $485.00
g) 37.2 grams - 58mm x 57mm x 4mm - $700.00
2) End pieces:
a) 10.7 grams - 33mm x 19mm x 8mm - $210.00
b) 71.3 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 20mm - $1250.00 - stands up nicely on its own.

MOLDAVITE: Tekitite. Beautiful green colored.
Here are some beautiful LARGE pieces. I have not had pieces this large for a long time (my bigger pieces seem to sell fastest, a different problem from other dealers and items). I got these in trade in Tucson this February and was thrilled to get them offered to me. They are all nice complete specimens (the largest has a chip on the underside, and others may have some tiny chipping that isn't noticeable without very careful inspection) that have very nice shapes and surface sculpting.
1) Complete specimens as found:
a) 7.9 grams - 22mm x 20mm x 12mm - $40.00
b) 11.2 grams - 38mm x 20mm x 9mm - $56.00
c) 14.9 grams - 42mm x 20mm x 12mm - $75.00
d) 18.3 grams - 40mm x 34mm x 12mm - $92.00
e) 21.3 grams - 55mm x 32mm x 9mm - $125.00
f) 32.6 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 8mm - $225.00

Please include postage; a couple dollars on small U.S. orders and about $2 per pound on larger items for 1st class (insurance is extra). On small overseas orders, $3 to $5 is generally plenty, and about $1 per ounce (28 grams) on larger items for air-mail. Registration is also recommended on overseas shipments - an extra $10.00.
If you are sending a fax, simply begin transmitting when my line is answered. My new machine will automatically start and receive just as the manual said.