Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487 LIST 221
January 4, 2018
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here is the e-mail version of my just mailed “what’s new” offering.
TUCSON SHOW INFO: I will be on the road from January 29th until around February 20th. For the show itself, I will be in my usual spot but the motel has a new name. It was Ramada Limited but is now “Days Inn” I believe. Regardless, it is the same place (665 N. Freeway, Tucson) and I’ll be in my usual spot (room 134). I should be open by mid to late morning Saturday February 2nd. I likely will indeed stay through the bitter end – February 15th will be the last day. I open the door most days at 10AM. I will have the door open most evenings until around 9:30pm or so (or later if people are visiting/ still wandering about) but there may be a couple nights I will be out for dinner or such for a couple hours but that should be rare.
I apologize that this list is a little more difficult to read than most. it seems the Yahoo groups thing is not letting me format this better at this time.
GAO, Burkina Faso: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell March 5, 1960. Tkw = 100+ kilograms.
I know, I know, this is officially supposed to be “Gao-Guenie”. I remember the guy that came up with the notion of an overlapping fall a month apart brought specimens to my house in Durango for cutting. He got all excited exclaiming that he REALLY had a new fall after I split a few in half. I tried to explain to him that all I saw was that there was a difference in weathering grade (the Guenie pieces were simply more weathered in my opinion) and the pieces were otherwise structurally identical. So, I always considered the “Guenie” thing to be a false hope from the start. Regardless, I recently got a nice assortment of mostly complete (many of these have some areas of secondary crust) but dirty stones. I have cleaned them up (soda blasting) and they turned out quite nice. They all do have some small areas of brown rust spotting but are otherwise mostly covered in nice slate gray to black crust. By, far my cheapest witnessed fall individuals.
1) Nice individuals, cleaned to remove dirt and (most) oxide.a) 10.1 grams - 23mm x 17mm x 12mm - $15
b) 20.9 grams - 27mm x 22mm x 20mm - $30
c) 35.9 grams - 32mm x 27mm x 17mm - $50
d) 63.1 grams - 40mm x 28mm x 24mm - $85
e) 109.8 grams - 38mm x 37mm x 36mm - $135
f) 176.1 grams - 50mm x 34mm x 31mm - $220
NWA (8225): Ordinary chondrite. (H4), S2, W1. Found 2013. Tkw = 100 grams.
I believe this is the last of the small individual “Main masses” I have. Not sure I fully believe the research report of W1 on this though. The exterior has a nice rounded edge, somewhat thumb-printed shape. It does look like it is pretty much fully crusted, but the crust looks to me to be substantially weathered and wind-polished. The interior does not seem to show any fresh metal either. However, the interior does show lots of chondrules (mostly light gray to purplish brown) in medium brown matrix. I am sure it is all the chondrules that caused this little stone to get sent out for classification. Unfortunately, that work showed that this was an equilibrated type 4 chondrite. This is priced (more than $100) below what it would currently cost to get the classification work done.
85.1 gram main mass – 35mm x 18mm x 28mm - $150.00
NWA (10638): Ordinary chondrite (L6). Found before February 2016. Tkw = 306.6 grams.
I got this stone from a Moroccan dealer in Tucson who claimed that it was a “low number type 3” (but at a lower price than would be normal for such a stone – that should have given me a clue in itself). The small cut window did indeed show an interesting interior. It seemed to show light gray chondrules (what turned out to be mostly rounded breccia clasts) in a nearly black matrix. Regardless, actual research work showed this to be an L6! It still has in interesting texture though and, despite what the bulletin report suggests, lots of metal and sulfides. This meteorite certainly does not have your typical L6 look to it.
1) Slices:
a) 4.7 grams - 22mm x 18mm x 3mm - $9
b) 9.6 grams - 30mm x 29mm x 4mm - $18
c) 16.3 grams - 45mm x 40mm x 3mm - $30 – complete slice.
d) 26.8 grams - 50mm x 47mm x 4mm - $47 – complete slice.
2) End piece:
a) 31.2 grams - 40mm x 25mm x 40mm - $55 – main mass.
NWA (12005), Ordinary chondrite. (LL6/7), S2, W2. Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = 223.4 grams.
This is not fully “ordinary” but it is more so than the diogenite it really, really looked like when I bought it in Tucson. This had absolutely no attraction to even the strongest magnet and, as it was the very end of the show, I had already packed up the XRF (which would have quickly sorted this out). Anyway, this has dark gray metamorphic textured clasts (the LL7 part I believe) in a fine-grained medium brown matrix. It turns out that this is only the 5th meteorite to be classified as an LL6/7. The other four where NWA stones from years earlier and totaled only a mere 2.1kg in weight! So, this is actually a fairly rare item after all.
1) Slices:
a) 2.1 grams - 18mm x 11mm x 3mm - $20
b) 4.0 grams - 30mm x 19mm x 3mm - $38
c) 8.1 grams - 35mm x 27mm x 3mm - $75
d) 16.1 grams - 48mm x 38mm x 3mm - $145 – complete slice.
2) Main mass: 25.9 gram end piece – 45mm x 33mm x 12mm - $200
NWA (11880): Rumuruti chondrite (R3.5-4), S2, W0. Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = about 3.2 kilograms.
A 33gram piece was originally purchased at the 2018 Tucson Show. A couple months later, an additional 3150 grams were sent by mail. Studies showed that this is a breccia containing equilibrated (type4) lighter clasts mixed with darker unequilibrated (type 3.5) clasts. At the time of this discovery, this was only the second meteorite in the world to have the (R3.5-4) classification. The other is NWA (7489) weighing only 248 grams, bringing the entire world’s known weight of this type to just over 3.4kg. I don’t have a lot of this interesting meteorite (under a few hundred grams), so contact me fairly quickly if you want a piece. NOTE: I listed end pieces here as many collectors prefer them when they can get them. I do have some slices of this meteorite (.5g- $8, 1.1g- $17, 2.5g-$38, 5.8g- $85, 10.1g- $140. The 2 largest are complete slices) if you prefer a slice.
1) End pieces:
a) 1.2 grams - 20mm x 12mm x 3mm - $18
b) 3.8 grams - 26mm x 15mm x 4mm - $56
c) 6.4 grams - 30mm x 30mm x 5mm - $92
d) 9.3 grams - 28mm x 20mm x 6mm - $130
e) 15.0 grams - 35mm x 27mm x 9mm - $200
f) 25.3 grams - 45mm x 27mm x 8mm - $315
NWA (11761): Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found before June 2016. Tkw = 2258 grams.
This is an interesting meteorite I picked up at the Denver spring show. At first glance, all I saw was a beautiful fresh mesosiderite with a classic texture (silicate clasts of many sizes in a metal rich matrix). The lighting in the ballroom venue wasn’t real good but I swore I could see some light rusting (browning) of the metal on a bit closer look. Well, it has that look under brighter lighting as well. However it is NOT rusting! This brassy look is caused by the unusually high troilite content (13%) of this meteorite. As a consequence of this (as well as the unusually low Fe metal content of 22%) this is considered to an anomalous type 4 mesosiderite. Really pretty and, to me, really cheap for what it is (fresh, anomalous and well prepared).
1) Slices: a) 2.1 grams - 20mm x 11mm x 2mm - $21
b) 4.0 grams - 21mm x 20mm x 2mm - $40
c) 7.2 grams - 30mm x 25mm x 2mm - $70
d) 14.3 grams - 45mm x 36mm x 2mm - $140
e) 23.6 grams - 65mm x 37mm x 2mm - $225
f) 55.1 grams - 80mm x 75mm x 2mm - $500 – complete slice.
TRINITITE:
This is the glass that was formed by the melting of sand (and some supporting equipment) by the world’s first nuclear explosion (code named “trinity”). This explosion happened the morning of July 16, 1945 about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico. This 20 kiloton sized explosion sucked up sand (and the metal of the bomb’s supporting structure) and dropped it back as molten blobs into the nearly 1100 foot (335meter) wide crater that was formed by it. I constantly have people asking for this stuff at shows and lately all I could show them was pea-sized pieces (around 1cm and less maximum dimension, low tenths of a gram weights). I recently managed to trade for some nice larger pieces. Most of these have the typical shape: one surface smooth and rounded and the other generally rough with attached bits of rock and sand. Glad to have been able to get this lot, but have no idea where (or if) I’ll be able to replace it later.
1) Natural fragments:a) 1.0 grams - 16mm x 12mm x 5mm - $6
b) 2.0 grams - 22mm x 16mm x 7mm - $12
c) 3.3 grams - 23mm x 16mm x 11mm - $20
d) 4.7 grams - 37mm x 20mm x 7mm - $28
e) 7.7 grams - 30mm x 25mm x 10mm - sold
Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is fine. 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 $13 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $15.
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.
