Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale List 147 - email version of latest mailed list
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………….LIST 147
January, 2014
Dear Collectors,
Here is the e-mail version of my new mailed list that is just now getting into collector’s hands. For those of you that want the particulars of Tucson- PLEASE CONTACT ME.
CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Graphite nodules.
It has been along time since I have had any of these. I picked these up from a mineral dealer that had a few meteorites at the Creede show this past August. I have heard a couple different theories on just what these things are. One theory is that they are graphite inclusions (that have metal veins running through them) that have been left behind after a large meteorite that contained them has weathered away. I have a couple things that bother me about this theory. First, I have seen many inclusions in Canyon Diablo meteorites, including graphite inclusions, but not any that really match the textures of a cut piece of one of these. Second, these things tend to be quite unstable and tend to rust away rapidly (not bad if left intact though, for that reason these have only been brushed NOT cut. No evidence of rusting since I purchased them). It is a bit hard for me to imagine a big piece of iron rotting away leaving some of these behind. The other theory (with its own set of hard to believe/ imagine problems) is that these things formed from the baking of the lime stones at the exact impact site all the way back to carbon (with the calcium and oxygen being completely driven off). This graphite (carbon) would have then mixed with some of the actual iron body that formed the main crater. Either way, these are fascinating and quite rare items. I have VERY few.
1) Natural shaped individuals/ fragments lightly brushed:
a) 5.0 grams – 23mm x 18mm x 7mm - $10
b) 16.1 grams - 30mm x 17mm x 13mm - $32
c) 39.4 grams - 43mm x 34mm x 22mm - $75
d) 61.6 grams – 53mm x 33mm x 25mm - $110
NWA (7018): Ordinary chondrite, (H6), S2, W2/3. Found before February 2011. Tkw = 443.4 grams.
This is yet another case of supposed to be primitive achondrite but was really an H chondrite. The seller said that this was a another piece of an already known brachinite. It certainly did look like it could be (and I didn’t have any XRF machine and data to help). I cut it up into slices and did find a couple things that looked like they could be chondrules. Otherwise, this thing had the crystalline texture of an anchondrite. Unfortunately, research work did show it was an H. Fortunately, the Moroccan who sold it to me gave me some credit towards other things for this “goof”. Anyway, this does have a lighter brown color than typical “weathered” H chondrites (more of a nice medium brown). It has a crystalline look like a brachinite and only a very rare chondrule or something hinting at being a chondrule. This one was probably only a tiny step away from being an “H7”.
1) Slices:
a) 4.5 grams - 20mm x 20mm x 5mm - $9
b) 8.5 grams - 30mm x 23mm x 4mm - $17
c) 25.9 grams - 50mm x 35mm x 5mm - $45 – complete slice.
NWA (7197): Ordinary chondrite. (L3.8). Found before February 2009. Tkw = 1148.5 grams.
The weathering grade reported for this one (W3) has me confused. I have a bag of cut pieces of this meteorite and they all look quite fresh. There is quite a bit of metal and sulfides visible in a very light gray, nearly white matrix. Unfortunately, the chondrules, while very present, are not all that easily visible in much of this material. However, in the rare spot that does show some oxidation, they are visible and there are a lot of them (hmm, should I put this in some water for a few weeks?). I suspect that the t-section for the research work was from one of these more weathered areas (I seem to recall that I bought this one after specimens had already been sent in). Despite the report, this is definitely one of the fresher type 3s (visually anyway) I’ve had.
1) Slices:
a) 3.2 grams - 30mm x 13mm x 3mm - $13
b) 6.1 grams - 32mm x 18mm x 3mm - $25
c) 11.1 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 3mm - $45
d) 20.5 grams - 70mm x 33mm x 3mm - $80
e) 45.4 grams - 67mm x 60mm x 4mm - $175
NWA (7346): Ordinary chondrite. (LL6), W1. Found before February 2009. Tkw = 269.3 grams.
This one was originally thought to be a howardite as it has lots of fine shock veins and light clasts/ breccia fragments in a medium gray matrix. The XRF showed it was just an LL though (much to the disappointment of the original buyer of this who
bought it as a howardite). Full research work proved this to be the case. Aside from the presence of some metal and sulfides (very little actually, but a little more than a typical achondrite would have) this could easily be mistaken for a howardite in any collection. This was a small stone so I don’t have a lot of this fresh, interesting and aesthetic material.
1) Slices:
a) 2.8 grams - 17mm x 17mm x 4mm - $17
b) 6.0 grams - 25mm x 20mm x 4mm - $36
c) 12.1 grams - 35mm x 27mm x 4mm - $70
d) 25.2 grams - 58mm x 35mm x 4mm - $145
SaU (560), Oman: Ordinary chondrite. (H6), W3. Found March 2006. Tkw = 2776 grams.
I got this from Robert Ward and was able to get it classified and reported later through UNM. Robert had already cut and polished some of this. He had cut a thin end piece off of this stone (which I broke in these smaller pieces) and left the bulk of it as a nice large end piece that displays very nicely. He put a high diamond polish on these so they are quite nice in appearance. Unlike the NWA (7018) listed above, this does have quite a number of obvious chondrules and chondrule fragments.
1) End pieces:
a) 20.9 grams - 30mm x 12mm x 12mm - $25
b) 50.9 grams - 48mm x 45mm x 10mm - $50
c) 111.6 grams - 85mm x 40mm x 10mm - $100
d) 2306.4 grams - 140mm x 110mm x 70mm - $1150 – main mass, nice display piece.
NWA (7020): Carbonaceous chondrite (CR2). Found before February 2011. Tkw = 715 grams.
It has been quite a while since I have been able to offer a CR. This type meteorite is one of my favorites. Lots of chondrules, many of which are surrounded by metal, along with lots of other chunks of metal (some rounded looking like metal chondrules) make these one of the most visually striking meteorites available. This one took a bit of time to get through research. Part of it was that the original thin-sectioned piece had pretty much no water altered minerals in it – making it possible that this was a super rare CR3. Other pieces t-sectioned pieces later showed some (but still very little) hydrated minerals so this eventually passed through the nomenclature committee as a CR2 after all. I have only a handful of mostly small end pieces available (however, I do have a pretty good bag of small individuals/ fragments if any of you need pieces for meteorite kits/ micros or such). Of the two largest sizes I have only one of each, unfortunately.
1) Cut fragments/ end pieces:
a) .8 grams - 13mm x 10mm x 3mm - $20
b) 1.5 grams - 15mm x 11mm x 5mm - $38
c) 3.0 grams - 24mm x 14mm x 4mm - $75
d) 5.1 grams - 23mm x 20mm x 6mm - $125
e) 10.0 grams - 27mm x 23mm x 8mm - $250
f) 15.8 grams - 35mm x 25mm x 8mm - $395
NWA (8043): Achondrite. (Diogenite). Found before July 2013. Tkw = over 1860 grams.
This neat material is something Matt got for me from one of his sources. This is strange/ different looking material. These are somewhat angular fragments (natural but cleaned of most adhering dirt) that are composed of blocky intensely green crystals. The classification description described this meteorite as “somewhat friable (a bit crumbly but these pieces are fairly solid) material is composed almost entirely of coarse-grained transparent green pyroxene crystals”. I put “over 1860 grams” on the TKW of this. 1860 grams is what I got (which was assigned the NWA(8043) number) but I saw a few handfuls or so of this at the Denver Show and this is more than likely paired to NWA (7977), which was 3.4kg. None the less, interesting and different material and probably the cheapest diogenite I have ever offered. Note: I have very few of the larger size pieces.
1) Natural fragments, cleaned to remove most of the original adhering dirt:
a) 5.4 grams - 20mm x 13mm x 12mm - $33
b) 10.2 grams - 30mm x 15mm x 9mm - $61
c) 21.3 grams - 30mm x 27mm x 13mm - $125
d) 38.6 grams - 42mm x 30mm x 20mm - $225
e) 59.3 grams - 45mm x 35mm x 25mm - $340
f) 130.2 grams – 50mm x 47mm x 30mm - $735
Please note:
The post office drastically increased most shipping rates (and they are going to increase them yet again later this month). For small US orders $3 should still be fine. Larger orders are now $12 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it). The real increases came in overseas (or even Canada) shipping. These prices pretty much doubled from what they were before. Now small overseas orders are around $9 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Thankfully, it seems that the rate for registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is still $12 (for now).
My fax machine has pretty much blown up on me. I can nurse it to work if I must (but often loose the incoming fax if I am not really careful). For overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail. I generally get/ deal with phone calls quicker but I will try to keep up on checking e-mail this time.
