P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 261 - May 3, 2023
Dear Collectors
Here is the e-mail version of my much delayed “Spring/ after Tucson” list. I have been so busy with various things that I came close to not doing this offering. However, I have had a number of people asking me “when is your new list coming out”. The answer is “Now”.
One important note: I have to be out of town May 9th and 10th. So, if you try to reach me either of those days, you will likely not be able to and will have to wait until Thursday the 11th (assuming no disasters that end up getting me stuck on the wrong side of the mountains an extra day or two anyway).
A note concerning the photos in this offering:
I want everyone receiving this post with imbedded group photos of the items on this list that the item pictured MAY NOT be the identical item you receive (except for cases where I have clearly labeled an item as “the only one this size” or similar). I usually have (and sell) multiple pieces of each size of the items listed (sometimes MANY of them – far to many to put all in a photograph for people to pick from). What I normally do is send the first person that asks for a particular item the largest piece available in whatever size range it is that the specimen they are buying belongs to (when I send a piece that is not in the photo, you generally get a very similar but slightly larger piece). This came about as MOST of my sales from these periodic (three times a year) catalogs come from the paper mailed version of this offering where no photos exist so customers don’t know exactly what the piece they ordered looks like (and are usually quite happy to receive a slightly larger specimen instead). So, you can certainly request the exact item in the group photo and I am happy to send it if someone else hasn’t already requested it. Please let me know if you would likely ONLY be happy with receiving that actual pictured piece(s) and I will NOT do any substitution(s) in your order.
GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite (ungrouped). Found 2008.
Yes, I know I have offered plenty of this in the past. However, these pieces are special. It has been said that “meteorites do not hit the ground hot”. Yes, that IS true for something like 99.99% of them. However, these pieces are clearly an exception to that “rule”. These pieces each have a substantial patch (or several) of black bubbly glass adhering to them. This is from them hitting the local sand after the impact still hot enough to turn some of that sand into glass that ended up sticking to the meteorite. I suppose this should not be too surprising, given that Gebel was a crater forming impact, We have all (well, most of us anyway) seen impactites and impact glasses from some of the larger impact crater meteorites. However, I think that this is the first meteorite that I have ever seen showing melted stuff attached to it (aside from a very special and very expensive Portales Valley, NM piece I had years ago that had just the right wide metal vein trapped in the center of a mostly stone meteorite that melted a small patch of blue tarp to it when it landed). I went through a pretty good pile of this material and found few pieces that had any glass on them and much fewer still that showed relatively large (easily visible) amounts of it. Not cheap for “Gebel” in general, I realize, but these are special pieces!
1) Individuals as found
a) 2.8 grams - 5mm x 10mm x 4mm - $15 - not in the photo
b) 5.1 grams - 18mm x 15mm x 5mm - $25
c) 8.0 grams - 22mm x 18mm x 6mm - $38
d) 12.3 grams - 22mm x 21mm x 6mm - $57
e) 20.0 grams - 37mm x 17mm x 11mm - $90
f) 24.9 grams - 27mm x 24mm x 11mm - $110
ABA PANU, Nigeria: Ordinary chondrite (L3), S4, W0. Fell April 19, 2018. Tkw = 160kg.
Here are some slices of a really nice and really fresh type 3 chondrite. The fireball from the fall of this meteorite was recorded by NASA’s Center for Near Earth Objects Studies. The meteor arrived traveling at 20.9 km/ second and detonated at 30km high, releasing .23 kilotons of energy. Cutting reveals a beautiful light to medium gray interior filled with lots of chondrules, chondrule fragments and some angular to sub-rounded clasts (both light and dark). This meteorite has suffered very strong shock. This shock hardened this meteorite to the point of making it the currently hardest known meteorite (I know I had trouble even breaking these thing slices down into smaller pieces). Most of these pieces have not really been polished. They were cut with a wire saw, so saw marks remaining are not very visible (you have to really look for them to see them). I choose not to try and “fix” this as any polishing attempt at all would likely only result in making the chondrules harder to see (mushy) and just darken the overall appearance of this beautiful as is meteorite.
1) Slices:
a) 2.9 grams - 25mm x 12mm x 2mm - $35
b) 4.9 grams - 33mm x 19mm x 2.5mm - $56
c) 10.0 grams - 45mm x 26mm x 2.5mm - $110
d) 19.5 grams - 50mm x 45mm x 2mm - $210
e) 36.4 grams - 65mm x 53mm x 3mm - $370
f) 71.0 grams - 120mm x 62mm x 3mm - $700
g) 150.9 grams - 140mm x 120mm x 3mm - $1450 – beautiful full slice.
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NWA (11026): Ordinary chondrite. (LL4), S4, W2. Found 2016. Tkw = 385 grams.
A single stone was found and later classified at UCLA. The research work showed this to be a member of the relatively rare LL4 group. Thin sections showed well-defined chondrules and some twinned pyroxenes but these are hard to see in a hand specimen as they are in a somewhat shock darkened matrix. Reflecting light off of a polished surface shows a lot of chondrules (some armored) and lots of fresh metal and sulfides. Not visually striking at first glance but nice and interesting when looked at closer. I have very little of this material (I got well under half of the stone that was found) so contact me quickly if you want a piece of this one.Slices: a) 4.1 grams - 19mm x 18mm x 4mm - $20
b) 8.0 grams - 35mm x 19mm x 4mm - $38
c) 12.4 grams - 43mm x 34mm x 3mm - $60 – not in photo..
2) End piece:
a) 57.9 grams - 40mm x 34mm x 20mm - $200
MURCHISON, Australia: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell September 28, 1969.
I really, really thought I was completely out of this stuff. I had a person call and ask for a “small” piece of Murchison around the time I was doing inventory work. I told them I was completely out. I later remembered that, at one time, I had small fragments I had put in a capsule and then put that in a magnifier box. I knew I had sold out of all of those that I had in inventory but thought that, maybe, I might still have the “reference” (original) capsule I had made up and used to compare ones I made to sell (I tried to have a roughly equal amount in the ones I sold. The reference one came from my own personal piece of Murchison I had from years earlier). Well, I DID find that as well as another gram or so of “personal collection” fragments and crumbs with it! Still having the capsules and some of the magnifier boxes, I decided to make up more of the same kind of specimens I had offered years earlier (fragments/ crumbs in a capsule in a magnifier box). These all are made up of fragments that are from around 1mm to 3mm or so in size. I did a rough weight calculation (starting material weight divided by the number of capsules I made) and came up with these averaging around .05g (actually, closer to .06g). I wasn’t able to make a lot of these but decided to offer them here anyway as I have had A LOT of people asking for Murchison lately.
1) Around .05g+ of fragments and crumbs in capsule in magnifier box - $40
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NWA (14016): HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia). Found 2020. Tkw = 29.4kg.
This is a meteorite I picked up in Tucson. I really liked its Moon rock like look and its really cheap (for any sliced achondrite) price. This meteorite shows angular to rounded eucrite clasts (that range from nearly white to brownish gray) in a “sparse” melted matrix. Some pieces of this show wider melt veins (around a cm or two wide) that show flow structure and often have some vesicles. As with most HED meteorites, this one does not have strange/ unusual isotopic contents or mineralogy and, as such, is a rock from the surface of the asteroid Vesta. This is a great meteorite for people that want a larger specimen with the moon rock look but for a small fraction of the price.Slices: a) 7.5 grams - 25mm x 22mm x 4mm - $30
b) 15.2 grams - 32mm x 32mm x 4mm - $60
c) 24.4 grams - 50mm x 35mm x 4mm - $92
d) 49.2 grams - 70mm x 55mm x 5mm - $180
e) 100.8 grams - 95mm x 95mm x 3mm - sold.
f) 259.8 grams - 180mm x 125mm x 5mm - $850 – complete slice.
2) End piece:
a) 1293.7 grams - 200mm x 130mm x 33mm - $3500
METEOR CRATER POST CARD:
I offered some of these a few years ago. Those ones were based on a slightly different picture of the crater. The ones I offered last time had the entire crater in the picture, on these cards, the left side of the crater falls off the edge. These cards, like the ones I offered earlier, are likely from the 1930’s and 1940’s, and are from a colorized (painted) black and white picture. MOST of these have an added secondary crater North of Meteor Crater. There IS such a thing in reality, but it is very indistinct (I have actually been in it). These cards make it look like a real moon type crater. I have quite a number of varieties of these cards, if you consider various things like “distributed by” the two different (real and modified) picture versions and such. Most of these “varieties” I am gong to offer in sets, as these “different” ones I only had one, two or three of in total (each set will have each picture style in them). I have ONLY ONE SET of each set size available. As I did before, shipping costs are included in the price (to US, overseas may be an extra $1 or so depending upon how many are ordered). For the most part, I’ll be sending these in a regular envelope on their own.
a) “Real” Crater picture: $5
b) Picture with secondary crater added: $5
c) Set of 3 different - $15
d) Set of 4 different - $20
Shipping info:
For small US orders $6 is now needed Larger orders are now $17 (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 $20.
IMPORTANT FAX NOTE: My fax machine seems to have blown itself apart a few weeks ago. Someone tried to send me a fax and I hit “start” and sat back waiting for it to do its thing. Nope. The machine pretty much came apart internally.(some plastic gears have broken from age). I have looked into fixing it and have been looking to find a cheap replacement (though I do question doing that as I think I have only used the machine maybe a couple times in each of the past 5 years or so). So far, not much luck (unless I spend real $ and buy new). So, for the time being, I do not have a fax machine.
