Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 151
Dear Collectors,
I think this is my last “after Tucson ”
list. Now I’ll have to dig around to come up with new future offerings (I need
to get a mailed list pulled together soon as well – it’ll be a busy couple
weeks ahead). This is going out a bit later than I would have liked as I went
to Montrose (and took longer than expected) to look at some potential
meteorites (none were, unfortunately) and buy an old broken pocket watch. I
will try to keep on top of e-mails this afternoon but there may be a couple
issues. First, I do have some people coming over later (mine and Blake’s
birthday – now over the hill at 50 even) so I may not get to check as often as
usual. In addition we have ferocious winds right now. High winds like this, for
some reason, often knock out our internet/ DSL connection. Strange, I thought
it was all wires in the ground. Anyway, I’ll do my best to keep checking (the
phone should always work, though we lost power and phone for an hour or so a
few days ago during a wind storm as well).
DHOFAR (1286),
Oman :
(Eucrite), polymict breccia. Found December 2005. Tkw = 848 grams.
Two pieces that fit together were found about 30 meters apart.
This meteorite contains clasts/ fragments of various compositions and colors –
making it look very much like a howardite. However, this lacked enough pyroxene
to be classified as a howardite. I recently sold out of what I had of this
meteorite (and tossed out the remaining info cards) but then picked up a few
more pieces in Tucson (and re-made
new cards).
a) 2.0
gram slice – 20mm x 17mm x 2.5mm - $25
b) 4.2
gram slice – 42mm x 20mm x 2mm - $50
c) 6.8
gram slice – 35mm x 25mm x 3mm - $75
d) 20.2
gram end piece – 40mm x 20mm x 16mm - $200
IMILAC,
Chile: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1822.
This is a beautiful ¼ slice (2 cut edges at right angle to
each other with the remainder being a long natural edge). This is cut super
thin so light passes through all of the crystals. This fantastic material has
gotten hard (and expensive) to acquire these days. I think this is the first
thin slice of Imilac I have had in several years or more. A simply stunning
display piece.
22.9
gram part slice – 55mm x 55mm x 1.5mm - sold
NWA (769):
(Eucrite), unbrecciated. Found November 10, 2000. Tkw = 712 grams.
I don’t think I have ever had any pieces of this meteorite
before. I got a small lot of fragments, cut fragments and a couple slices at
the show. Most of this does indeed look very similar in texture to typical
Millbillillie but with much smaller crystal size (really fine-grained).
However, a couple pieces do show some uniform (pretty much no crystal texture
visible) light gray clasts. Most of the fragments and cut fragments have some
(some pieces quite a lot) of nice dark crust that has not had its
texture wind-polished away.
a) 2.0
gram slice – 20mm x 10mm x 4mm - $25
b) 3.9
gram fragment – 20mm x 15mm x 10mm - $49 – 12mm x 15mm crust.
c) 5.4
gram slice – 30mm x 18mm x 5mm - $67
d) 10.9
gram end piece – 23mm x 15mm x 17mm - $135 – back ~ 35% crust.
e) 15.8
gram end piece – 35mm x 17mm x 16mm - $195 – back 40%+ crusted.
f)
38.0 gram end piece – 55mm x 30mm x 17mm - $450 – back
over 50% crusted.
NWA (7325):
Ungrouped achondrite. Found 2012. Tkw = 345+ grams.
This is the stuff that showed weird green fusion crust on
the rare pieces that had crust. Its low iron content, texture and other
features have led some to believe that this may be from the planet Mercury
(though others would argue that this material is far too ancient to be from a
body of that size). Regardless, this is strange and unique material no matter
where it came from. I have a few cut pieces and one fragment (that actually
does have a small 3mm x 2mm patch of the weird green crust) that I picked up
from Matt in Denver back in December but only recently got around to cataloging
them.
a) .61
gram slice – 18mm x 10mm x 1mm - $580
b) .87
gram end piece – 14mm x 10mm x 4mm - $785
c) 1.54
gram fragment – 13mm x 12mm x 7mm - $1400 – has small patch of crust.
d) 1.68
gram slice – 28mm x 16mm x 1mm - $1590
NWA 8159:
Martian. Augite basalt. Found 2013. Tkw = 149.4 grams.
This is one that brings up mixed emotions for me. I am
thrilled at its discovery as I am the one that pretty much discovered this gem.
It was in the “likely junk to go out to the rock garden” pile that a fellow
meteorite dealer had at the 2013 Denver Show. He had me going through MANY
(easily over 100) rocks to see what might be important (with the rain and
flooding during the show, I had plenty of time for this and found it, at times,
to be an interesting distraction). I saw this one in the “junk” pile and
commented that it most definitely was a meteorite as it had clearly visible
shock veins. Thankfully, he had cut the thing so I had a cut surface to run the
XRF on. I expected the thing to come up as a Eucrite, as that is pretty much
what the thing looked like. HOWEVER, the chemistry of the thing came up as
MARTIAN! At that point, the owner said that if this turned out to be the case
he would give me “a complete slice of like 20grams” (gads, I wish I had gotten
THAT in writing now). Anyway, not only did this thing turn out to be Martian,
it turned out to be a completely new type of Martian! It has some similarities
to various features of Nakhlites and Shegottites but yet is overall different.
I did indeed get a package from the owner containing a sample for my helping in
the discovery once this was officially reported. It contained a 2.2g block. I
double/ triple checked the box to be sure I didn’t miss anything else in the
packing material. Nope, nothing. I figured more would come later after cutting.
I checked the Meteoritical Bulletin report for the thing and it did list me as
having some of this (but unfortunately not anything about my part in the
discovery) and it did indeed confirm that my share was indeed 2.2 grams. Now
don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to have this (certainly better than NOTHING
which is easily what I could have ended up with). I guess I am being a little greedy
myself. A couple grams certainly will change my month, but 20grams would have
changed my year (but then, I would have found it really difficult to break up a
complete slice). I split the thick block into two thinner slices and then broke
those up into the pieces listed here. I have already sold some and am keeping a
small piece for myself so I have less than 1.25 grams total to sell. The price is going to seem really high BUT
this is right about what much larger pieces were selling (and pieces were indeed
selling) for per gram in Tucson. The price has supposedly been raised (right
after the show) to $8159/ gram. Given what the other unique Mars rock “Black
Beauty” has been bringing, this is probably not all that unreasonable or
surprising. Anyway, get em while I got em. I’ll give the contact info for the
holder of the main portion of this material if I run out or you really need
something bigger than I have here. All of these pieces are in a membrane box.
a) .042
gram slice – 3mm x 3mm x 2mm - sold
b) .080
gram slice – 4mm x 4mm x 2mm - $420
c) .115
gram slice – 6mm x 4mm x 2mm - sold
d) .335
gram slice – 9mm x 7mm x 2mm - sold
e) .580
gram slice – 11mm x 9.5mm x 2mm - $2900
SMARA,
Western Sahara. Achondrite (Eucrite), polymict breccia. Found 2000. Tkw = 12.87
kilograms.
Here is a eucrite that came from the NWA area but has an
actual name and known find location. In addition, this is interesting in that
it is a breccia containing clasts of many types (including subophitic basalts,
granular microgabbros and impact melt clasts). I have two piece that were once
one; a long part slice that I managed to break (not intentionally however)
during transport back home from the show.
19.0
gram part slice – 35mm x 34mm x 6mm - $230
25.1
gram part slice – 45mm x 35mm x 6mm - $300
SPRING WATER,
Canada: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1931.
Here is a fairly small block that I have left exactly as I
got it. It is a piece that is cut on all sides. It has not been polished or
coated but yet still shows bright metal (with no distinct rusting) and nice
bright crystals. I think that this was an old research work piece as it is in a
research type snap lid plastic vial. This also has the number 135d written on
it in black ink (a big part o the reason I left this thing alone – handling
while polishing or the spray coating material could have easily destroyed this
feature) indicating that this was likely cut from the early Nininger Spring
water specimen.
11.67
gram block – 17mm x 14mm x 12mm - $250
VACA MUERTA,
Chile: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found 1861.
This is a small cut fragment that came in as part of a
collection. It is nothing special but the small (17mm x 11mm) cut face does
show more metal than most Vaca pieces I have had.
8.0
gram cut fragment – 18mm x 13mm x 14mm - $24
