Blaine Reed Meteorites List 136. Chelyabinsk and more

Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 136. Chelyabinsk and more

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………LIST 136
April 30, 2013

Dear Collectors,
Here is the e-mail version of my mailed list that many of you are just now receiving. As you can see, I was serious when I sent out the "have patience" note concerning the new Russian fall above one of my recent e-mail small lists. I had no idea how fast and how affordable I was going to be able to pick up Chelyabinsk. I had already had a full "mailed list" typed in and ready to go (had planned on having the envelopes stuffed and stamped before I left for Denver). Thankfully, I found out about the Cehlyabinsk's availability and delayed everything a few days. I have to admit that there is a chance that having yet further patience may mean you may be able to pick up a piece even a bit cheaper yet sometime down the road. However, the ones I have now are pristine as they were picked up right after the fall. Later pieces are likely to be quite rusty as there was a lot of snow in the area that has turned into small lakes and mud as things warmed up (Not good for meteorite preservation). Anyway, I worked pretty hard to have a selection of other interesting items so please do have a look at them as well. Enjoy!

BENDEGO, Brazil: Iron. Coarse octahedrite (IC). Found 1784. Tkw = over 5300 kilograms.
A single large mass was found near the rivulet called the Bendego. This was loaded up for a move to Rio de Janeiro, a move that took nearly 100 years as the meteorite (according some info I found on line) collapsed a bridge on the way and was left stuck in a stream bed for decades until it was retrieved. The piece ultimately made the some 900kilometer journey and is currently on display in Rio. Recently, some oxide fragments have turned up, presumably from the original find area of the meteorite. I have not seen much of this material available, so I don't think a lot was recovered. Most pieces are much like the fairly small flatish specimens I have here. One specimen I got though is really quite surprising for its size (I only have the one).
1) Oxide fragments as found:
a) 9.5 grams - 28mm x 25mm x 5mm - $20
b) 18.2 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 6mm - $36
c) 24.2 grams - 55mm x 23mm x 7mm - $48
d) 38.9 grams - 45mm x 40mm x 10mm - $75
e) 146.6 grams - 87mm x 50mm x 17mm - $275

CHELYABINSK, Russia: (LL5). Fell February 15, 2013.
Well, here it is! The new fall that created a 300 kilo- ton explosion that blew out windows, damaged buildings and injured over 1000 people. I recently made a yahoo groups e-mail comment saying "have patience" on this one (pieces of this were selling for low hundereds of dollars per gram at the time). I had no idea that I would be able to come up with pieces so quickly and at such a great price. These are all nice little individuals. They are stones as found. They are very fresh and have only moderate areas of chipping and broken areas that are mostly secondary crust. None are really absolutely complete (very few pieces from this fall are and those command a pretty large premium) but I guarantee you will really like these pieces.
1) Fresh individuals as found:
a) 1.4 grams - 11mm x 11mm x 5mm - $35
b) 2.7 grams - 14mm x 11mm x 9mm - $67
c) 5.1 grams - 20mm x 15mm x 9mm - $125
d) 10.8 grams - 25mm x 19mm x 11mm - $260
e) 25.0 grams - 45mm x 22mm x 17mm - $600
f) 48.6 grams - 35mm x 28mm x 27mm - $1070
g) 78.6 grams - 50mm x 33mm x 27mm - $1570

NWA (7046): Ordinary chondrite (H4), W2. Found before September 2011. Tkw = 1819 grams.
One stone that showed lots of chondrules on its surface was purchased at the 2011 Denver show. Cutting and analysis showed "a dense population of chondrules" inside. These features led both the buyer and researchers to believe that this was likely a type 3 stone. There was indeed a fair amount of spread in the iron contents of the olivine and pyroxene (as well as some residual glass) in this stone that tended to support the type 3 belief. Unfortunately, the Meteoritical Society Nomenclature Committee concluded that this meteorite was indeed not unequilibrated enough to qualify as a true H3. Regardless, the chondrules (and there are a lot of them) show very nicely in this stone (as good as any H3s I've had).
1) Slices, all have natural edges:
a) 8.3 grams - 32mm x 18mm x 5mm - $13
b) 14.2 grams - 35mm x 28mm x 4mm - $22
c) 30.5 grams - 52mm x 38mm x 4mm - $46
d) 47.0 grams - 60mm x 45mm x 4mm - $71
e) 73.1 grams - 70mm x 63mm x 5mm - $110
2)End piece: has 95mm x 35mm area of crust on back.
194.8 grams - 95mm x 73mm x 12mm - $290 – Main mass.

NWA (7428): Ordinary chondrite (L6), W2, melt breccia. Found before February 2012. Tkw = 1380 grams.
The Meteoritcal Bulletin has this as 1830 grams total, but all of Matt's records (I got this from him) show it as 1380 grams. Obviously, a digit got swapped somewhere along the line. Anyway, when I first saw this I was certain that it was an H melt as it looks very much like one I had years ago. This has large (up to 5cm wide) dark melt veins containing partially melted oval shaped chondritic fragments all set in an L-chondrite matrix. What made me think that this was an H melt is that this meteorite is mostly light tan to brown with dark gray melt veins whereas pretty much all of the other L-melts I have seen are green.
1) Slices, all have natural edges:
a) 3.8 grams - 20mm x 20mm x 3mm - 19
b) 8.2 grams - 30mm x 19mm x 4mm - $40
c) 13.1 grams - 32mm x 22mm x 5mm - $60
d) 22.1 grams - 55mm x 28mm x 4mm - $100
e) 56.1 grams - 80mm x 48mm x 5mm - $250

UVALDE, Texas: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 1915. Tkw = 8.2 kilograms.
I got a handful of slices from TCU just before Tucson. I didn't show them there as I wanted to put them on this list (it has been a number of years since I have had any of this material, there is not a lot of this available). According to the Catalog of Meteorites (yep, I still have and use the old book version from time to time) this was originally reported by Nininger as one mass and fragments totaling 7.5kg in 1939 (Monig likely got this material from Nininger). This is a fairly weathered stone (as
many Texas finds are) showing little metal in a mostly brown matrix on cut surfaces. These pieces are all slices and cut fragments and each comes with a TCU Monig Collection label.
1) Slices:
a) 18.3 grams - 33mm x 28mm x 6mm - $55
b) 33.1 grams - 60mm x 35mm x 5mm - $100
2) Cut fragments:
a) 6.2 grams - 28mm x 18mm x 4mm - $19
b) 13.5 grams - 25mm x 25mm x 9mm - $41
c) 48.0 grams - 65mm x 40mm x 8mm - $140

NWA (7397): Martian meteorite (Shegottite). Found before June 2012. Tkw = 2130+ grams.
A 2130 gram individual was found near Smara, Morocco (I had a huge 48g slice of this piece for $16k in Tucson. I likely can get it back if anyone is interested). Intense fieldwork recovered numerous additional small fragments (it is these I have here). The interior of this meteorite shows large ovoid crystals of low Ca pyroxene (surrounded by a rim of olivine and chromite) in a matrix that is primarily pyroxene (both low and high Ca), maskleynite and olivine. These ovoids don't show all that well in these natural fragments. None the less this is interesting stuff and, by far the cheapest Mars rock that I am aware of.
1) Fragments as found:
a) .20 grams - 8mm x 5mm x 3mm - $50
b) .38 grams - 9mm x 6mm x 4mm - $95
c) .53 grams - 9mm x 7mm x 5mm - $135 - has some crust.
d) .83 grams - 12mm x 7mm x 6mm - $205
e) 1.30 grams - 14mm x 10mm x 5mm - $320
f) 2.24 grams - 13mm x 10mm x 8mm - $545
g) 6.32 grams - 25mm x 13mm x 11mm - $1500

AUSTRALITES: Tektites from Australia.
I generally don't like to offer something that I have offered so recently (I had the partial flanged buttons on my October 2012 list). However, these are really neat and I am certain that they would sell out rapidly before they made it to a list if I showed them around much (I sold a number of them in Tucson already). These are not fancy pieces, just nice intact (no fresh chipping) natural round and elongate "cores" (sorry no flanges on these pieces). These are quite unusual in their size. I don't recall having (or really ever seeing any quantity of) Australites this size before (the rest of mine are the typical 2 to 4 or 5g size range). Better yet, these actually have some locality info with them (fairly rare for tektites, generally).
1) Kalgoorlie, Western Australia:
a) 10.7 grams - 25mm x 23mm x 13mm - $50
b) 12.7 grams - 22mm x 21mm x 20mm - $60
c) 15.4 grams - 28mm x 25mm x 17mm - $100 – only one this size.
d) 32.3 grams - 50mm x 23mm x 17mm - $300 – my largest and only this size.
2) Finke River, South Australia:
a) 10.7 grams - 22mm x 22mm x 18mm - $50
b) 15.2 grams - 25mm x 24mm x 18mm - $100
c) 19.3 grams - 30mm x 27mm x 16mm - $145

Please note:
The post office drastically increased most shipping rates since my last list. 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 (even Canada) shipping. These prices pretty much doubled and more from what they were before (and they say we have no inflation). 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 lose 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.