Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
April, 17, 2019
LIST 225
Note for Colorado buyers: I have not seen any changes recently to the “grace period” on the requirement that I collect and remit ALL sales taxes for your locations (this will be different, with different agencies that have to be properly paid for every address I need to ship to). The grace period runs out on May 31st (despite there being no system set up for me to even be able to begin to try and comply with this ridiculous new regulation). So, if you are a RETAIL buyer in Colorado, please try to place orders for anything you might like from this list at least couple days before the May 31st compliance deadline so I can have the items fully invoiced, packed and shipped out on or before May 31st. Thanks!
Note: Pieces listed with ** after the weight are replacements for the piece that was originally in the group photo for these meteorites. They are, for the most part, very similar to the photo piece but are NOT the actual pieces in the photo(s)
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CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
Here is something I have not had in a long, long time – etched slices of this meteorite! Even better, these are all nice complete slices of small individuals. Canyon Diablo is not often cut. I have known several people over the years that have tried but they usually end up giving up after they hit a diamond in a specimen (and a diamond in an iron meteorite will win against those on the edge of a multi-hundreds of $ saw blade every time) or (what embarrassingly happened to me in a geochemistry class in college) the specimens don’t etch from being heated during the impact. Anyway, these are nice little complete slices that all show a good etch (and inclusions) structure.
1) Etched complete slices:
a) 10.8 grams - 30mm x 20mm x 3mm - $22
b) 22.7 grams - 38mm x 25mm x 3mm - $45
c) 33.7 grams** - 40mm x 32mm x 3mm - $66
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NWA (11190): Ordinary chondrite. (L4), S2, W1. Found before January 2017. Tkw = 1000grams.
This is a Main Mass I have decided to offer intact (well, mostly, there is an end cut off that supplied the material for the research work done on this) because this is actually a pretty nice desk specimen as it is. This is quite fresh, shows lots of chondrules and metal in a light gray matrix that has only minor rust staining on the 50mm x 45mm cut face. This also has a good amount of fairly fresh fusion crust covering around 70% or so of the exterior surfaces. If this does not sell intact, I will likely cut it and offer up slices (and an end piece) on a future list.
977.3 gram main mass – 85mm x 80mm x 70mm - $900
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NWA (7902): Ordinary chondrite, (L3.7), W2. Found before February 2013. Tkw = 2016.5 grams.
This is a stone that I have had for some years but had only offered as a nearly 2kg main mass in the past (and nearly sold it as such). I finally got around to cutting it. The interior shows densely packed chondrules (though not super vibrant) and small veins of Fe-oxide in a brown matrix. Research work showed this meteorite to have kind of a split personality. The Fa (a measure of the iron content) spread of the olivines indicates a type 3.7 classification but the Pyroxenes Fs spread (again a measure of the iron content) indicates a lower type 3.4.
1) Slices:
a) 5.1 grams - 24mm x 15mm x 4mm - $20
b) 10.3 grams - 27mm x 22mm x 5mm - $40
c) 21.3 grams - 50mm x 40mm x 4mm - $80
d) 39.2 grams - 80mm x 44mm x 4mm - $135 – complete slice.
e) 77.6 grams - 90mm x 65mm x 5mm - $250 – complete slice.
2) End piece:
a) 889.2 grams - 85mm x 74mm x 80mm - $1600 – Main Mass.
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NWA (12007), Ordinary chondrite, (LL6), S2, W1. Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = 155.6 grams.
Like the earlier offered NWA (12005), this one came to me at the very end of the show. Like NWA (12005) offered on my last list, this also looked to be far more interesting than research showed it to be. This had the exterior look of a CK meteorite, though the “chondrules” looked like they could be rounded breccia clasts. This also showed no attraction to a strong magnet. I thought that this was either weird CK (many of those do show magnetic attraction though) or a weird eucrite. Nope, this is actually a weird looking LL6. It’s interior in a dark gray with a few chondrule remnants (one large one is offset by a shock vein) in a couple of the slices and, despite its lack of magnetic attraction, some “metal” (more likely troilite) grains. Nothing special really but a bit different from the usual LL6 stones I have had.
1) Slices:
a) 2.0 grams - 18mm x 15mm x 2mm - $16
b) 3.9 grams - 25mm x 18mm x 3mm - $31
c) 8.6 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 3mm - $67
d) 10.7 grams - 50mm x 33mm x 2mm - $80 – complete slice.
2) Main mass: 42.1 gram end piece – 50mm x 30mm x 15mm - $250.00
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VINALES, Cuba: Unstudied but likely L or LL6. Fell February 1, 2019.
I actually had these on the way to my house before I left Tucson. I rapidly sold the complete individuals but have (finally – in between the endless snow and rain storms we’ve had since I’ve been home) prepped up some end pieces and slices from a few of the larger broken individuals I had. These were all cut from pieces that were recovered before rains had come in after the fall so these are (for the most part – there are a few pieces cut from a piece that was found in a low area that show some minor hints of brown staining near the edges) quite bright white and show lots of fresh metal and sulfides. All of my pieces show some shock veining and some have larger areas of shock darkening and brecciation (looking somewhat similar to some Chelyabinsk specimens). I am giving out temporary identification cards with these specimens and will have to send buyers of these pieces real cards once research work is done and reported on this new fall. This is only the second meteorite reported from Cuba! (the other was a small 1.5kg iron found way back in 1871. I found notes in one article commenting about a supposed fall near a reservoir back in 1994 but can’t find any further records of the event in official meteorite records).
1) Slices:
a) 1.1 grams** - 13mm x 11mm x 3mm - $27
b) 2.0 grams - 17mm x 14mm x 3mm - $50
c) 3.8 grams** - 26mm x 21mm x 3mm - $95 – complete slice.
d) 7.2 grams - 33mm x 27mm x 3mm - $180 – nice complete slice.
2) End pieces: with nice crust on the back. I have only one of each of these:
a) 6.3 grams - 24mm x 17mm x 8mm - $160
b) 9.7 grams** - 17mm x 16mm x 5mm - $240 – mostly secondary crust on back.
c) 16.6 grams - 33mm x 23mm x 13mm - $415
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El MEDANO (395), Chile: Primitive achondrite (Brachinite). Found November 2018. Tkw = 2288 grams.
Steve Arnold found this stone on top of a hill while on a meteorite hunt in the Chile. He sent me a piece to run on the XRF wanting to know if it was a meteorite. I did not know that he had already sent pieces off to a researcher. My answer was “Yes” it is a meteorite and that it looked to be a brachinite (a very rare type achondrite that is mostly olivine). He said the researcher thought it was a “low carbon ureilite”. Well, the Fe content (and Fe/Mn ratio) was wrong for such a thing (even though this does indeed have the granular/ crystalline texture almost identical to many ureilites). I (rightfully it turned out) suggested that he tell the researcher about this as Brachinites are rare enough that many researchers have never seen one (and thus not consider that possibility so easily). Anyway, this DID turn out to be a brachinite and it is the first one from the entire Western Hemisphere! These are all slices that were cut fairly thin with a wire saw. I got them unpolished and I did try (using both a flat lap and my usual drum sander) sanding these but ended up with somewhat bad results. Given the granular texture of this material, it kept crumbling into ever smaller pieces the more I tried to work with it. I eventually gave up and decided to simply spray-coat one side of each of these (gives a polished look without my making all of this into sub-gram sized pieces) that can easily be removed in the future if one is so inclined.
1) Slices:
a) .45 grams - 11mm x 7mm x 2mm - $23
b) .91 grams - 17mm x 9mm x 2mm - $46
c) 1.4 grams - 20mm x 12mm x 2mm - $70
d) 2.0 grams - 20mm x 18mm x 2mm - $100
e) 2.9 grams - 28mm x 17mm x 2mm - $140
f) 5.4 grams - 37mm x 25mm x 2.5mm - sold
g) 10.3 grams - 50mm x 42mm x 2mm - sold
Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $13 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it). Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $15 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.
I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.
