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Meteorite Times Magazine

Juvinas: An Easily Distinguished Commune ContributionMart in Horejsi

We are just six short years from the bicentennial of the fall of the Juvinas, France meteorite.

Back in 1821, an enormously important meteorite contribut ion fell f rom the sky. As a 90kg eucrite achondirte, itbecame a staple in meteorite laboratories all over the world and throughout the past two centuries.

The story of the fall was detailed in the groundbreaking book Minerals From Earth And Sky, Part 1: The Story OfMeteorites by George P. Merrill. The 1929 tome contained important facts about Juvinas fall that st ill resonatetoday. Merrill reprinted the translated words about the fall f rom the Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy (Vol. 20, pp.73-74) that was published in 1822.

The well-known and now widely distributed Juvinas stone, which fell on June 15, 1821, has been the subjectof numerous notices, from among which the following is selected for reproduction.

We, Mayor of the Commune of Juvinas, Canton d’Antraigues, Arrondissement de Privas, departement de I’Ardeche,report, that on the 15th of this present June, warned by a frightful noise, which was heard in our commune, and thosewhich surround it, about three o’clock in the afternoon, we apprehended that some great and extraordinary eventwas about to effect a general destruction in nature, which obliged us successively to adopt regulations to satisfy usthat no one in our jurisdiction had been the victim of the phenomenon which at first appeared to be inexplicable.

At length, after some days had elapsed, we were informed that a meteor, of which history furnishes no similaraccount, had burst upon the mountain de I’Oulette, in the hamlet of Cros du Libonez, forming a part of our commune;and, according to Delmas, who is seventy years of age, its appearance was preceded and announced by two strongexplosions, occurring nearly together, resembling the discharges of two large cannons, and followed by a frightfulnoise, that continued for more than twenty minutes, which spread alarm and consternation amongst the inhabitants,who believed they should be immediately swallowed up by some abyss ready to open under their feet; the flocksfled, and the goats and sheep collected in groups.

H. A. Ward noted in an art icle about the “Values of Meteorites” published in 1904 that, “The meteorite of Juvinas,France, of which there was originally upwards of f if ty kilograms, has been broken up and distributed among sixty-two collect ions, of which three report one gram each and nineteen others less than ten grams each.”

Eucrite is a Greek word for “easily dist inguished.” While I don’t doubt that is an appropriate translat ion, I f indeucrites to often be less than “easily” dist inguished. If in a pile of chondrites, the eucrite might be easy to pick out,but in a pile of earth rocks, especially of the igneous type, with few exceptions, eucrites blend in like any othergeologic cit izen of this planet. Some eucrites including Chervonyi Kut and Millbillillie are exceptions with thesnowflake interiors, but most others are a fairly uniform crystalized grey.

As a meteorite collector who specializes in historic witnessed falls, it is especially enjoyable to skip back in t imeusing century-old texts as the stepping-stones. Arriving at the fall with crusted specimen in hand only makes thejourney more memorable.

As my specimen of Juvinas was marching through t ime to meet me, it picked up a souvenir along the way in theform of an original specimen card from the Museum National D’Historie Naturelle in Paris.

Although my specimen only represents about one-third of the mass listed on the card, I did acquire the sample fromthe research collect ion to which it was originally provided.

…Until next t ime.

Meteorite Times Magazine

The Meteorites of SummerJames Tobin

Summer 2014 is just about gone. I did not do any meteorite hunting yet this year. Astrophotography has been takingup most of my out of town t ime. But, I might try really hard to get one trip in to hunt in the fall if I can tear myselfaway from the scope and camera.

But, even though I did not get any hunting in this has been a great year for meteorites. I have cut enough to makeanother big bag of dust. I have organized what I have to st ill cut. Organizat ion not being one of my strongest suitsthat is saying something. Each individual stone in its own box. Wow.

I almost never cut any stones that are very beautiful on the outside. They are usually ugly broken jagged chunkswith lit t le fusion crust left . Or they are round lumps of rock best described by the term “space potato” with lit t legoing for them in appearance. But, as the old saying goes about judging books by their covers, never judge ameteorite from its old broken or worn later stage of terrestrializat ion. Each one is both a challenge and aopportunity. And this spring and summer have presented some great examples of both.

Most of the really attract ive stones just get a window lapped onto them or at most a single clean up cut and then alap. This does not give the same opportunity to see as much of the insides as cutt ing off many slices. I really like itwhen I f ind something truly interest ing and can see it in several slices. Start ing small and growing and thendiminishing back to small again. It is like what happens in a CAT scan. I get a lit t le glimpse into the way the extra

large chondrule or inclusion was situated in the stone.

Some stones are so oddly shaped that gett ing them lined up in a good way to cut them with the least waste and thefewest resets can take some t ime and effort . Some stones have cracks and you know before you start that it islikely that the stone will fall apart when the cracks are reached by the blade. So standing there ever vigilant for themoment when a chunk falls loose or worse shif ts posit ion makes cutt ing interest ing. I had a few of those thissummer.

Last week I cleaned iron meteorites for half a day. I can see the bottom of the box on those now after a few years.I doubt that there will be many more of that locat ion coming along. I have really enjoyed having them to work on butthat is the way of this business and hobby. We have a meteorite locat ion for a while and then the supply is absorbedinto the collect ions of the world. Then we offer another to bring more wonder and fascinat ion to collectors.

I cut into a few stones thus far this year that were ugly on the outside and extra wonderful inside. Most notably Iguess is NWA 8384 which was not attract ive in any way and had very lit t le fusion crust left . But, when I made thef irst cut and saw all the t ight packed prist ine chondrules it suddenly became one of those days that instant ly goesstellar. I cut a couple more slices and took one to the lap and smoothed it up. Washed this slice off in 99.9% alcoholand went inside to take some images to send to UCLA. I had two slices and a chunk in FedEx the next morning toget classif ied. This stone went from a formless chunk of unclassif ied meteorite to “wonderful best hope” for fulf illingmy goal of gett ing a beautiful type 3 classif ied. And it did all that in about two minutes of saw t ime.

NWA 8384 as it became designated did turn out to be a LL3. That was another happy day for me when I got theemail of the classif icat ion. But, I cut into some other very nice stones in the last few months. One that has not beenclassif ied and that I began calling “metal rich black” was another nondescript, nothing special stone unt il theendpiece fell f ree after the f irst cut. The outside was smooth and there was no remaining fusion crust. There was novisible metal on the outside showing as shiny spots. Nothing to hint that inside it would be so rich in metal. Thematrix was black with some chondrules but the metal was fantast ic. After cutt ing a batch of slices I gave it a datenumber code to keep track of what was cut and what was not. Its another great meteorite to enhance collect ionsaround the world.

Just as you are thinking that you know what to expect with a part icular meteorite you will cut a slice that hassomething that is totally unexpected. I have many t imes looked at a slice I have just made and seen a strangemetal inclusion or a large seemingly out of place chondrule. Meteorites are always full of surprises. I think that ispart of what brings me back to the saw and keeps the work st ill f resh after several decades. Sometimes I have thet ime to photograph the unusual things, but often I do not. The slices get smoothed and maybe polished and then gooff to be sold. In the end I am really never more than one of the many pairs of hands that a specimen will passthrough in its hopefully very long t ime in collect ions.

Things have really changed over the years. There was a t ime in the past when you just did not see very manypallasites for sale and you never saw them etched. I used to do quite a bit of etching and I occasionally st ill do. But,the work done today is just remarkable by the specialists in meteorite etching. They etch pallasites andmesosiderites, as well as irons now. I remember a number a years ago when I saw for the f irst t ime an etched sliceof Mundribilla. I was just thrilled and thought to myself I have to etch one for myself or buy a nicely etched slice. Youknow that remains one of the specimens I have not gotten; it is st ill on the list . I did etch a few small Gibeonmeteorites during the summer. I had a large batch to clean and as I was working my way through the pile I pickedout a few that were nearly perfect ly f lat on one side. With really lit t le work and almost no loss of material Ismoothed those sides into mirror polished faces. Then the big decision. Do I use nitol or ferric chloride? I have usedboth but for the last decade or so I have found myself gravitat ing to ferric chloride. You have to watch it and stop atthe right moment and I f ind it works a lit t le faster than nitol. I get less of the staining and dullness that can happenwith nitric acid. A high perfect polish is the most important thing with it . I did those pieces and who knows it may be

another few years before I do any etching again.

There never seems to be any lack of work for either Paul or I with the meteorite part of our lives. Writ ing, cutt ing,polishing, imaging for me and plenty of imaging, packing, website maintenance and customer relat ions for him. But,we both st ill f ind it interest ing and fun and that is what keeps us at it . Far more important than the work are thefriends we have made. So summer is ending and we are st ill wait ing for Tucson to come around again so that wecan connect once more with all our too seldom seen friends.

We get out with our scopes and cameras a lit t le more often then we do with our magnets and metal detectors. But,I would guess there is a meteorite hunting trip out there in our future too. And who knows when a wanderer fromspace might come down and we would be packing stuff and jumping on the road to look for a piece or two.

Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Market Trendsby Michael Blood

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Meteorite Times Magazine

Novato – Collision History Revealed in California RockRobert Verish

The long anticipated paper by Peter Jenniskens and The Novato Meteorite Consortium hasfinally been published.

Novato (N04) – 4th stone recovered from the 4th California fall.

The meteorite that fell onto the roof of Lisa Webber’s house in Novato, California, on Oct. 17, 2012, has revealed adetailed picture of its origin and tumultuous journey through space and Earth’s atmosphere. Peter Jenniskens led aninternat ional consort ium of f if ty researchers that studied the recovered meteorite and published their f indings in theAugust issue of the journal Meteorit ics and Planetary Science.

Peter Jenniskens, who is a meteor astronomer and is the principal invest igator for the consort ium study, works forthe SETI Inst itute, Mountain View, California at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Herecently announced, “Our invest igat ion has revealed a long history that dates to when the moon formed from theEarth after a giant impact.”

The fall of the Novato meteorite was monitored by Peter Jenniskens’ astronomical surveillance network, CAMS(Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance), which gave researchers something of a guess about where the objectmay have came down. The early reports that it was somewhere near Mart inez, were unfounded. But days later,after hearing on the news that a meteorite fell (and remembering hearing a noise on the roof that same night),Novato resident Lisa Webber reported that she had recovered a rock that must have fallen on her roof. That stoneturned out to be the f irst of the (current ly 6) meteorite fragments to be recovered (and the reason these objects arenow called the Novato meteorite).

Over the next several weeks, f ive more stones, most of them are just a couple of centimeters across, turned upwithin a few kilometers of Lisa Webber’s home – - a story that is retold on the CAMS website. These rocks revealedthe evidence that allowed the scient ists to piece together what they call “the space rock’s tumultuous journey.”

Qing-zhu Yin, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California – Davis,said, “We determined that the meteorite likely got its black appearance from massive impact shocks causing acollisional resett ing event 4.472 billion years ago, roughly 64-126 million years after the formation of the solarsystem,” and added, “We now suspect that the moon-forming impact may have scattered debris all over the innersolar system and hit the parent body of the Novato meteorite.”

Jenniskens successfully measured the Novato approach orbit and confirmed that the Gefion asteroid family in themiddle of the main asteroid belt can be the source of the meteorites.

Kees Welten, a cosmochemist at UC Berkeley, said, “Novato broke from one of the Gefion family asteroids ninemillion years ago.”

Kunihiko Nishiizumi, a cosmochemist also of UC Berkeley, added, “But the rock that was to become Novato, mayhave been buried in a larger object unt il about one million years ago.”

Derek Sears, a meteorit icist working for the Bay Area Environmental Research Inst itute in Sonoma, California, atAmes said, “We can tell the rock was heated, but the cause of the heating is unclear. It seems that Novato was hitagain.”

The researchers have collaborated to produce this scenario of violent episodes dat ing back nearly 4.5 billion yearsand ending on Oct. 17, 2012, when the bolide broke up and fell on and around the Marin County suburb of Novato:

4.472 billion years ago (±31 million years): The Novato’s parent body is struck by debris from the same “GreatBombardment” that formed the Earth’s moon. 470 million years ago: Another large impact smashes theNovato’s parent body; it ’s now part of an asteroid in a belt of cosmic debris orbit ing between Mars and Jupiter.9 million years ago: The Novato port ion of the parent body breaks off , forming a meteoroid, but could st ill bethe interior port ion of a larger piece of space rock. 1 million years ago: The meteoroid that will become Novatocontinues to break apart. 100,000 years ago: Chemical studies suggest that the Novato meteoroid wasinvolved in one last collision. The Novato port ion of this meteoroid starts a slow spiral into the Sun. Oct. 17,2012, 7:45 P.M. PDT: The Novato meteoroid, now more than a foot across but weighing less than 200pounds,hits the Earth’s atmosphere at 9 miles per second, producing a f ireball-meteor, but soon breaks up over theNorth Bay, falling to the ground to produce the Novato meteorites.

Daniel Glavin at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Maryland, led a team to search the Novatometeorites for amino acids – molecules present in and essential for life on Earth – and detected some unusual non-protein amino acids that are now very rare on Earth but indigenous to the Novato meteorite.

Researchers were surprised to f ind that all these impacts did not completely destroy the organic compounds in thismeteorite. Qinghao Wu and Richard Zare of Stanford University in California measured a rich array of polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbon compounds – complex, carbon-rich molecules that are both widespread and abundantthroughout the universe.

Jenniskens says that, “The quick recovery of the Novato meteorites made these studies possible.”

The research was supported by the NASA Near Earth Object Observat ion, Planetary Astronomy andCosmochemistry programs, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The following is the Abstract and the Table of Contents as published in:

Meteorit ics & Planetary Science | Volume 49, Issue 8, pages 1388–1425, August 2014[Copyright Clearance Center- License Number: 3462651289692 ]

The fragmentat ion of the Novato meteorite on Oct. 17, 2012, as depicted in ahorizontally mirrored image to show the progression of the event (from left to right).

(Credit : Robert P. Moreno Jr., Jim Albers and Peter Jenniskens/NASA-SETI)

Fall, Recovery, and Characterization of the Novato L6 Chondrite Breccia

(The Novato Meteorite Consort ium) :

Peter JENNISKENS (1,2), Alan E. RUBIN (3, Qing-Zhu YIN4, Derek W. G. SEARS (2,5,Scott A. SANDFORD (2), Michael E. ZOLENSKY (6), Alexander N. KROT (7), Leigh BLAIR (1),

Darci KANE (8), Jason UTAS (9), Robert VERISH (10), Jon M. FRIEDRICH (11,12),Josh WIMPENNY (4), Gary R. EPPICH (13), Karen ZIEGLER (14), Kenneth L. VEROSUB (4),

Douglas J. ROWLAND (15), Jim ALBERS (1), Peter S. GURAL (1), Bryant GRIGSBY (1),Marc D. FRIES (6), Robert MATSON (16), Malcolm JOHNSTON (17), Elizabeth SILBER (18), Peter BROWN (18),

Akane YAMAKAWA (4), Matthew E. SANBORN (4),Matthias LAUBENSTEIN (19), Kees C. WELTEN (20), Kunihiko NISHIIZUMI (20),

Matthias M. M. MEIER (21,22), Henner BUSEMANN (23), Patricia CLAY (23),Marc W. CAFFEE (24), Phillipe SCHMITT-KOPPLIN (25,26), Norbert HERTKORN (25), Daniel P. GLAVIN (27),

Michael P. CALLAHAN (27), Jason P. DWORKIN (27),Qinghao WU (28), Richard N. ZARE (28), Monica GRADY (29), Sasha VERCHOVSKY (29), Vacheslav

EMEL’YANENKO (30), Sergey NAROENKOV (30), David L. CLARK (18),Beverly GIRTEN (2), Peter S. WORDEN (2)

(The Novato Meteorite Consort ium) :

1 ) SETI Inst itute, Carl Sagan Center, Mountain View, California 94043, USA

2 ) NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA

3 ) Inst itute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095–1567, USA

4 ) Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616–8605,USA

5 ) BAER Inst itute, Mountain View, California 94043, USA

6 ) Astromaterials Research and Explorat ion Science, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77801, USA

7 ) Hawai‘i Inst itute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822, USA

8 ) Buck Inst itute, Novato, California 94945, USA

9 ) Inst itute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095–1567, USA

10) Meteorite Recovery Laboratory, P.O. Box 463084, Escondido, California 92046, USA

11) Department of Chemistry, Fordham University, Bronx, New York 10458, USA

12) Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York10024, USA

13) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Glenn Seaborg Inst itute, Livermore, California 94550, USA

14) Inst itute of Meteorit ics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131–0001, USA

15) Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA

16) S.A.I.C., San Diego, California 92121, USA

17) US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA

18) Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada

19) Lab. Naz. del Gran Sasso, Inst. Naz. di Fiscia Nucleare, I-67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy

20) Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

21) Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Z€urich, CH-8092 Z€urich, Switzerland

22) Department of Geology, Lund University, SE-22362 Lund, Sweden

23) School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (SEAES), University of Manchester, Manchester M139PL, UK

24) Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA

25) B.G.C., Helmholtz Zentrum M€unchen, D-85764 M€unchen, Germany 26) A.L.C., Technische Universit€atM€unchen-TUM, D-85354 Freising, Germany

27) Solar System Explorat ion Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt , Maryland 20771, USA

28) Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305–5080, USA

29) Planetary and Space Science Research Inst itute, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

30) Inst itute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INASAN), Moscow 119017, Russia

Abstract – The Novato L6 chondrite fragmental breccia fell in California on 17 October 2012, and wasrecovered after the Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) project determined the meteor’s

trajectory between 95 and 46 km altitude. The final fragmentation from 42 to 22 km altitude wasexceptionally well documented by digital photographs. The first sample was recovered before rain hit the

area. First results from a consortium study of the meteorite’s characterization, cosmogenic and radiogenicnuclides, origin, and conditions of the fall are presented. Some meteorites did not retain fusion crust and

show evidence of spallation. Before entry, the meteoroid was 35 ± 5 cm in diameter (mass 80 ± 35 kg) with acosmic-ray exposure age of 9 ± 1 Ma, if it had a one-stage exposure history. A two-stage exposure historyis more likely, with lower shielding in the last few Ma. Thermoluminescence data suggest a collision event

within the last ~0.1 Ma. Novato probably belonged to the class of shocked L chondrites that have acommon shock age of 470 Ma, based on the U,Th-He age of 420 ± 220 Ma. The measured orbits of Novato,Jesenice, and Innisfree are consistent with a proposed origin of these shocked L chondrites in the Gefionasteroid family, perhaps directly via the 5:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. Novato experienced a

stronger compaction than did other L6 chondrites ofshock-stage S4 Despite this, a freshly broken surface shows a wide range of organic compounds.

Source: Meteorit ics & Planetary Science 1–38 (2014) doi: 10.1111/maps.12323

The fragmentat ion of the Novato meteorite on Oct. 17, 2012, as depictedin a horizontally mirrored image to show the progression of the event (from left to right).

(Robert P. Moreno Jr., Jim Albers and Peter Jenniskens/NASA-SETI)

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION

MATERIALS AND METHODS

METEORITE PROPERTIES AND CLASSIFICATION

Mechanical Propert ies and Magnetic Susceptibility

Petrography and Mineralogy

Bulk Chemical Composit ion

Oxygen and Chromium Isotopes

CONDITIONS OF THE FALL AND PRE-ATMOSPHERIC ORBIT

Trajectory and Pre-Atmospheric Orbit

Light Curve and Init ial Mass

Dark Flight and Source Energy

Fragmentat ion

Ablat ion

Spallat ion

THE METEOROID IN SPACE

Meteoroid Diameter

Cosmic-Ray Exposure Age

Thermal Resett ing Events

More Recent Heating Events

Collisional Compaction

ORGANIC MATTER

Methanol Soluble Organics

Amino Acids

Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons

Macromolecular Carbon and Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes

DISCUSSION

Possible Source Region in the Asteroid Main Belt

Pre-Atmospheric Detect ion

CONCLUSIONS

Acknowledgments

Editorial Handling

REFERENCES

List of Figures (Fig.) :

Fig. 1. All recovered Novato meteorites, with sample identif icat ion chart for Novato N01 (scale in mm).

Fig. 2. Photographic images of cut Novato faces showing the brecciated chondrit ic texture…

Fig. 3. X-ray CT imagery of Novato N05 and N06…

Fig. 4. Backscattering electron (BSE) images of Novato N06.

Fig. 5. Mean CI-normalized abundances of lithophiles, siderophiles, and moderately volat ile elements in Novato…

Fig. 6. CI chondrite normalized rare earth element pattern of fragments of Novato N01, N05, and N06.

Fig. 7. Combined elemental maps of Novato N06…

Fig. 8. Combined elemental maps of Novato N06…

Fig. 9. Diagrams, showing Novato isotope data together with H, L, and LL chondrites…

Fig. 10. Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance detect ions of the November 17 f ireball…

Fig. 11. Trajectory solut ions derived from dif ferent combinations of cameras … and the stat ion locat ions…

Fig. 12. Observed minus calculated values for azimuth and elevat ion of the meteor in all video frames…

Fig. 13. Novato f ireball visual brightness as seen from a distance of 100 km, and the approximate decelerat ionprof ile.

Fig. 14. Doppler weather radar returns (KMUX 2:39:44 UT)…

Fig. 15. Fragmentat ion and relat ive decelerat ion at the end of the trajectory in a compilat ion of digitalphotographs…

Fig. 16. A, B) Details of the fusion crust of N01, and C, D) Evidence for spallat ion in Novato N03…

Fig. 17. Stereoplot of major axis orientat ions of all individual metal grains in two dif ferent stones of the Novato fall.

Fig. 18. Degree of compaction…

Fig. 19. Ion cyclotron resonance Fourier transform mass spectrometry (ICRFT/MS).

Fig. 20. One-dimensional 1H NMR spectra (800 MHz, CD3OD)…

Fig. 21. L2MS spectrum of Novato N01-1b.

Fig. 22. Data from stepped combustion-gas source-mass spectrometry of light and dark lithologies from Novato01-1e.

List of Tables:

Table 1. Overview of recovered meteorites.

Table 2. Summary of XRF-derived major elemental composit ion data for Novato N06 (slab)…

Table 3. Preliminary mean CI (Orgueil) weight normalized composit ions of lithophiles, siderophiles, etc. in Novato…

Table 4. Abundances of major, minor, and trace elements in the Novato L6 chondrite.

Table 5a. Summary of oxygen isotope values for Novato.

Table 5b. Summary of chromium isotope values for Novato, compared with mean values from other meteorites.

Table 6a. Novato trajectory from all Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS)…

Table 6b. Overview of Novato orbit determinations (Equinox J2000).

Table 7. Summary of the infrasound signal measurements…

Table 8a. Massic act ivit ies of cosmogenic radionuclides … measured by nondestruct ive gamma-ray spectroscopy.

Table 8b. Concentrat ions of U, Th, and K … measured by nondestruct ive gamma-ray spectroscopy.

Table 9a. Noble gas (He, Ne, Ar) analysis of two samples, 22.8 mg of N01-2b-7 and 47.8 mg of N01-2b-14.

Table 9b. Krypton abundances and isotope rat ios (84Kr = 100) in Novato samples.

Table 9c. Xenon abundances and isotope rat ios (132Xe = 100) in Novato samples.

Table 10. Thermoluminescence data for the light and dark lithologies of the Novato meteorite…

Table 11. Summary of 1H NMR sect ion integrals for light and dark lithology methanolic extracts.

Table 12. Summary of the amino acid analysis from methanol spray sampling for light and dark lithologies of NovatoN01-2a.

Table 13. Carbon and nitrogen stepped combustion data from Novato N01-1e.

Table 14a. Overview of other known L chondrite falls …

Table 14b. The calculated dynamical lifet ime for meteoroids…

This may be the most thoroughly studied L6-chondrite fall.

In closing, I would like to invite anyone who has an interest, and is in the San Diego area, to this years installment ofThe Meteorite & Tekt ite Party which has had a long tradit ion here in Southern California. It will be held on September14th. It was a lot of fun last year (where the main entertainment became an impromptu show & tell of meteorites),and I’m looking forward to seeing everyones latest acquist ions this year.

This small fete will, again, be held at the same venue as last year, as well as, where my 65th Birthday Party washeld two years ago, and is where I got the idea to resurrect the old Annual Tekt ite Party (hosted by Paul Harris andJim Tobin) that I used to attend 10 years ago in Torrance, California.

This year the “Meteorite & Tekt ite Party”, again, is an open event to anyone that will be “in the San Diego area” or iswilling to travel down the Interstates to San Marcos, California. The credit for actually organizing and running thisevent goes to my better-half , Monika Waiblinger. She suggested that we have another Party on her FacebookGroup called the “California Meteorite Club“. We have confirmation from people who live in Silicon Valley and LosAngeles that they will be attending the Party this year.

Moni will be sett ing up tables for meteorite displays, since it seemed that everyone brought a meteorite with themlast year. There’s a rumor that there will be a birthday cake this year for Boumdeid (2011). There will be somediscussion about having a “slab exchange” (trade specimens), or a “silent auct ion”, or even giving talks andpresentat ions at next years Meteorite Party.

Hope that you get this invitat ion in t ime and can make it . See you there.

REFERENCES:

— Meteorit ics & Planetary Science | Volume 49, Issue 8, pages 1388–1425, August 2014 –“Fall, recovery, and characterizat ion of the Novato L6 chondrite breccia” –Meteorit ics & Planetary Science 1–38 (2014) doi: 10.1111/maps.12323

— NASA Press Release – Ames Research Lab:“NASA, Partners Reveal California Meteorite’s Rough and Tumble Journey” –Published online 15 August 2014

— NATURE | RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS in Astronomy:“Collision history writ ten in rock ” Nature 512, 350 (28 August 2014) doi:10.1038/512350cPublished online 27 August 2014

For a “copy” of the published paper | click on REPRINT on the “Nature – Internat ional Weekly Journal of Science”website.

Search the Meteorit ical Bullet in Database for California meteorite fall with “name” : Novato

“Bob’s Findings” — An Art icle In Meteorite-Times Magazine by Robert Verish (November 1, 2012) –“The Recovery of the “Novato” Meteorite that Fell on 2012 October 18, 02:44 UT (Oct. 17, 19:44 PDT)” –A compilat ion of f ield reports – images – news items regarding this California meteorite fall.

My previous art icles can be found *HERE*

For more information, please contact me by email:

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Meteorite Times Magazine

Selma H4John Kashuba

The Selma meteorite was found near that Alabama city in 1906. At 310 pounds it was then the largest meteoritefound in the United States. It was purchased by the American Museum of Natural History (New York). The thinsect ion pictured here was deaccessioned by Arizona State University in early 2014 and is now in a private collect ionin France.

There is lit t le doubt that these two barred olivine chondrule segments are related. Their apparent size dif ference isdue to “vert ical” displacement after breaking. One scenario, for example, is that the plane of the thin sect ionpasses through the widest part of the right hand segment. The left hand segment had moved a lit t le lower (orhigher!) and thereby presented a smaller part of that segment through which the sect ion was cut.

A large porphyrit ic olivine chondrule with internal olivine displaying well def ined natural crystal faces, that is, thecrystals are euhedral.

http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2014/september/3 Selma H4 A-TS086.jpg

Relict grains with their characterist ic dusty appearance.

http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2014/september/5 Selma H4 A-TS086.jpg

A barred olivine chondrule with several sets of bars, each of which is in crytallographic continuity with part of thechondrule rim.

http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2014/september/7 Selma H4 A-TS086.jpg

A cluster of barred olivine chondrules apparently joined at a common point and possibly containing internalcrystallographic twins.

http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2014/september/9 Selma H4 A-TS086.jpg

A small complex compound chondrule.

Norm’s Tektite Teasers: A Splashform Muong-Nong Tektite??? ! By Norm Lehrman (www.tektitesource.com)

A couple of years ago, we picked out this unusual specimen while sorting through bulk Chinese tektites at the big Tucson show. It was only recently that I realized just how unusual it really is. A conspicuously layered tektite with unambiguous splash-form flight modifications??? This is an oxymoron. Most descriptions of Muong Nong-type tektites will mention their blocky character and complete lack of flight-related morphology.

In fact, it requires a feat of mental gymnastics to explain how such a specimen could fit into prevailing theories of the origin of Muong Nong layered tektites. I have always been attracted to the proposition that layered tektites are the product of "dunes" of condensate droplets or shards that settled and welded something like a welded ash flow tuff. But that doesn't explain specimens hundreds of miles from apparent ground zero. However they were propelled, it seems it happened after they were virtually always sufficiently solidified to resist plastic modifications in flight. Would this require a two-stage origin? An initial impact that formed the siliceous condensate droplets and their accumulations, followed by a second impact to eject these?

While generally held to be impact-proximal, the distribution of Australasian Muong Nongs is too great to deny flight. Some certainly flew hundreds of miles, but geometries like that shown here are characteristically lacking. Muong Nongs typically show lower temperatures of formation than common splashform tektites, and often include relict mineral grains and vesicular textures (which I take to be terrestrial dust incorporated into the condensate droplet dunes).

And now, if this specimen is truly a Muong Nong, we have an accumulation of layered material that remained sufficiently plastic at the time of the secondary ejection to accept flight-related modifications. In this are the seeds of two interesting thoughts: first, that there were at least two impactors in the Australasian event, and second, their relative timing involved just enough time for most of the Muong Nong material to have assumed a largely brittle state. This new exception puts the “just” in “just enough time”, as in at least this instance, a bit of the material remained significantly plastic.

I realize that this may be wringing a lot of conjecture from very limited evidence, but it remains the only scenario that accommodates what (I think) I know about Muong Nongs. I would be delighted to hear any other ideas that may occur to you.

A fundamental question underpinning this house of cards is quite obvious: Is this for sure a Muong Nong tektite?

To address this question, the specimen was submitted to Dr. Michael Zolensky at the NASA JSC ARES (Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science) directorate. Fine-scale compositional heterogeneity was measured utilizing their state-of-the-art electron probe micro-analyzer. Very significant variations in major-element chemistry were revealed in adjacent layers, which is the expected outcome for a Muong Nong , as opposed to viscous flow-banding and differential etching by soil acids which is sometimes seen in splashforms.

Unfortunately, at this point we reach a critical limitation of present research: while it is commonly reported that splashform tektites show a characteristically high level of internal chemical homogeneity and Muong Nongs, in contrast, of highly compositionally heterogeneous layering, there are actually insufficient published data at the level of detail of Dr. Zolensky’s work for conclusive comparisons.

Except for the splashform external morphology, this specimen looks like a Muong Nong to the naked eye, in optical thin-section, and chemically under the microprobe. If it is, it is utterly unique, the first of its kind ever described, and it may have important clues about the Australasian impact.

A brief description of this specimen and Zolensky’s findings has been accepted for a poster session at the upcoming 77th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2014) in Casablanca, Morocco. An abstract (#5342) can be located at the MAPS website. The 44 gram specimen remains in the author’s private collection.

Meteorite Times Magazine

Dr. Arthur EhlmannAnne Black

Personally,

I have known Dr. Ehlmann a long t ime. How long exact ly? Since I received a quest ion through EBay… It must havebeen early in 2001. I had posted a small f ragment of NWA 753 Rumurut ite and this person was asking if I had amuch larger piece available,—perfect spelling, perfect grammar and punctuat ion, unusual on EBay, the name at thebottom of the post: Dr. A. Ehlmann. I was stunned! The Curator of the Monnig Collect ion was actually surf ing EBay.Oh yes! I did have a much larger piece of NWA 753, but I did run my answer through spellcheck twice beforesending it .

Please allow me to introduce Dr. Ehlmann to those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting him. He is avery kind and very tall gentleman, and everybody’s favorite expert in meteorites. Born in Saint Charles, Missouri in1928, he st ill calls himself a Missourian after all these years. His original f ield of expert ise was clay mineralogy andhe even worked for Shell Co. for a couple years before discovering his real calling: teaching. He joined TexasChrist ian University in Fort Worth Texas in 1958. That was the beginning of a very busy career, including traveling:

(Newspaper clipping dated August 27, 1968, courtesy of Dr. Arthur Busbey, TCU)

And taking the students on f ield trips, even if that meant extra work for the professor:

(Undated picture, courtesy of Dr. ArthurBusbey, TCU)

But Art always dominated the situat ion:

(Undated picture, courtesy of Dr. Arthur Busbey, TCU)

(Undated picture, Courtesy of Dr. Arthur Busbey, TCU)

Something his students knew quite well:

(Undated picture, courtesy of Dr. Arthur Busbey, TCU)

But then on a bright day in the early 1960s, as he was mowing his lawn, he was visited by a person who wouldchange his life: Oscar Monnig. And together they would build the collect ion of meteorites that O. Monnig eventuallydonated to TCU. When Art ret ired from teaching in 1993, a new job was wait ing for him: curat ing that collect ion. Hedid an exemplary job. The collect ion originally consisted of 392 dif ferent meteorites and a great many duplicates.Art managed to parlay those duplicates into well over 1000 new ones, and the collect ion now includes some 1700dif ferent meteorites. I st ill remember when Art told me that he would make me a great deal if I could help him sellseveral large masses of Travis, just so he could at last put his feet under his desk. Oscar Monnig had left funds tohelp manage the collect ion, but he did not want it to stay hidden in boxes. That was taken care of on February 1,2003 when the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Collect ion was opened to the public. And I had the pleasure of visit ing itwith Art a few months later.

(Photo by the author, 2003)

(Photo by the Author, 2003)

(Unknown photographer, Feb. 2010)

As curator of a large collect ion Art often visited the yearly Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, where he was seenwheeling, dealing, selling duplicates and buying great new specimens.In May 2008, Texas Christ ian University decided to recognize and celebrate Art ’s long tenure, and long presence oncampus. The whole thing was prepared behind his back and was a huge surprise to him. After a lavish dinner andseveral speeches, Art was off icially crowned King Arthur, and his career was reviewed by his peers.

(Photo by the Author, May 2008)

Early in 2012, Art and his wife Carol announced to me that they had f inally decided to come to the yearly MeteoriteShow and get-together in Ensisheim, France. I contacted some friends there, part icularly Zelimir Gabelica, theinventor and organizer of this show, and gave them the good news. It was promptly decided that Art would be madea member of the “Confrerie Saint Georges des Guardiens de la Meteorite de Ensisheim”. And that too was asurprise to Art, since Carol and I somehow forgot to tell him. Come to think of it , he does not know about this art icleeither. Good thing Art has a great sense of humor.

(Photo by Hanno Strufe, June 2012)

And now that Art has decided to really ret ire, he will no longer ride his bicycle from his home to his off ice on campusas he had done for so long. But our loss will be others’ gain, because Art is not going to sit home watching TV, no,not Art! He is already tutoring kids in math and sciences, kids who did not have a very good start in life. And he isenjoying it !

Dr. Arthur Ehlmann and “his bride” Carol. Undated picture, courtesy of Dr. ArthurBusbey.

Meteorite Times Magazine

Mendy Ouzillou InterviewPaul Harris

This feature is devoted to one of the personalit ies within the meteorite community. This month we are delighted toshare an interview we had with Mendy Ouzillou.

(MT) What or who got you interested in meteorites?

(MO) I will be forever grateful to the Meteorite Men for bringing me into this hobby turned obsession. I was channelsurf ing one day and stumbled onto a typical episode where Geoff and Steve were gallivant ing around the globehaving a blast hunting these elusive rocks from space. Needless to say, it only took one episode and I was hooked.I always collected “things” as I was growing up including rocks, minerals, fossils, stamps, coins and comic books. AsI got older and started my professional career, my tastes changed and I began collect ing art and sculpture. SeeingMeteorite Men rekindled my love of collect ing rocks but in a more sophist icated way that also drew on my love ofart , science and history.

(MT) What was your f irst meteorite and when did you get it?

(MO) I bought two meteorites from Geoff Notkin and Aerolite Meteorites on Oct. 25, 2011 and both were SikhoteAlins. I have always been a collector that focused on quality rather than quantity and chose the two best pieces Icould afford. One was an oriented shield with a complete rollover lip (http://bit .ly/1mYu4c8) and the other anindividual with two holes that Geoff had dubbed “The Mask” (http://bit .ly/1zSlot3).

(MT) Do you st ill have it?

(MO) I st ill have both pieces and st ill enjoy them.

(MT) Do you have special areas of interest that you focus on in regards to meteorites (thin sect ions, photography,chemistry, age dat ing.. etc)?

(MO) As my collect ion grew, I t ried taking pictures to post on Facebook and eBay, and was always dissat isf ied withthe results. Prior to last year, I knew next to nothing about photography much less about macro photography, so Idecided to teach myself . I had many failed experiments, but eventually my results improved. However, it was notunt il I designed my own custom light box that I f inally got the results I was really looking for. As a recoveringperfect ionist, I’ll probably never be “done” with opt imizing, but I now feel that when someone sees pictures of myspecimens, it is pretty close to what it will look like in their hands.

I love to learn about meteorites. I am an avid reader and continually try to increase my knowledge andunderstanding. One of the joys about collect ing meteorites is learning about where they came from and how theywere created. And, as a bonus, I f inally get to make use of the AP Chemistry classes I took in high school. I alsohave a passion for helping and teaching others and do my best to help our small community grow in whatever ways Ican.

I have been tempted by thin sect ions, but have resisted that siren song so far.

(MT) Does your Family share in your interest in meteorites?

(MO) My family shares my interest, just not my obsession. I have some of my big irons displayed on the coffee tablein the living room and my wife, Crystal, has grown very fond of the 13kg Canyon Diablo we have. She has not namedit yet, but it is clearly a part of the family. The CD has special meaning to her because even before I becameinvolved with meteorites, she had visited the Barringer Meteor Crater and was awed by its size and stark beauty.My son, Jacob, thinks meteorites are pretty cool, but prefers video games. I’m hoping to get him roped ineventually.

(MT) Do you have any special approaches to collect ing? (Type collect ion, only stones, only irons, only byaesthet ics, etc. or any and all that you like.)

(MO) Yes, I drive a cheap old car so I can buy the best specimens possible. All kidding aside (and not really kidding),I had to have a strategy to start my collect ion and decided I wanted to build a type collect ion. However, I keptbeing drawn to specimens that fell into four basic categories:1) Sculptural irons

Agoudal (Individual Iron IIAB, 153g)

2) Specimens with unusual features (e.g. exceptionally large chondrules and weird inclusions)

Moorabie 35.19g

3) Rare specimens (e.g. low TKW of an unusual type)

Almahata Sit ta 2.29g Bencubbinite

4) Historical falls especially with old specimen cards or unusual provenance.

As all collect ions mature they evolve and transform in dif ferent and unexpected direct ions. My collect ion has beenno dif ferent and I’ve decided to simply enjoy the journey since choosing a dest inat ion implies an end to the road.

(MT) Do you mind saying how many locat ions your collect ion represents?

(MO) I do not collect locat ions, though certainly understand the allure. I t ried for a very short amount of t ime tocollect all the Texas meteorites, but one can only have so many olivine bronzites in their collect ion. My favoritelocat ion will always be Antact ica and am happy to have nice specimens of Thiel Mountains and ALH 76001 that arepart of my permanent collect ion … unless I can f ind an even bigger and better pieces.

Thiel Mountains 23.3g, Pallasite, PMG (Antarct ic)

(MT) Is your collect ion displayed or kept in a dry box or both?

(MO) Dif ferent meteorites require dif ferent solut ions. I would love to display all of them but that is neither pract icalnor wise in many cases due to their susceptibility to our unfriendly atmosphere. Many of my meteorites are stored inacrylic display boxes with desiccant inside in the same way as many European dealers.

Larger specimens are stored in baggies with desiccant, dry boxes with desiccant, membranes boxes inside baggieswith desiccant, … The common theme is, no surprise, desiccant. We spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on ourspecimens and ensuring their long-term stability is key to enjoying them.

(MT) In what ways do you use your computer for meteorites? (met-list , social media, meteorite research, shopping,etc)

(MO) The computer is indispensable for me and use it for all the act ivit ies listed above. However, the one act ivity Inever ant icipated was how it would enable me to establish exceptional friendships and relat ionships with people allaround the world – most of whom I have never met in person. Luckily, I do travel often as part of my professionalcareer, and have made it my mission to meet in person as many of my virtual friends as possible.

(MT) Do you ever hunt for meteorites?

(MO) I do and I love doing so for what would appear to be contradictory reasons. I love the solitude and thecamaraderie, as well as the long quiet moments occasionally interrupted by the thrill of the f ind. I think manymeteorite enthusiasts are adventurers and explorers at heart and anyt ime we can get the chance to go on a hunt,we do so.

An important aspect of hunting meteorites is gett ing to appreciate how terribly hard they are to f ind. I huntedHolbrook, Sutter’s Mill, Novato, Franconia and various California dry lakes and the one thing they have in common isthat there is never a guarantee of making a f ind. If you are out there to make money, and some are quite successfuldoing so, realize that it can easily be a money losing proposit ion. So, never be disappointed and enjoy the hunt forthe sake of the hunt.

The results of an ent ire week of hunting dif ferent locat ions … 0.6g ofSAW 005 iron and I was thrilled.

(MT) What is your favorite meteorite in your collect ion?

(MO) That quest ion is like asking what my favorite food is. How do you choose among so many worthy candidateswhen it comes to meteorites? Well, like choosing my favorite food, it depends on my mood and circumstances.Planetaries are great because I enjoy watching people’s react ions when I put a piece of the moon in one of theirhands and a piece of Mars in the other.

I was fortunate to be able to buy a large percentage of Ron Hartman’s collect ion and he clearly had his favorites aswell. I really wish I could have met him as our collect ing styles were so similar and based on all I have heard, he wassuch a gentleman. So, one of my favorite meteorites is a slice of the Antarct ic meteorite, Thiel Mountains, that hemade part of his “Ron Hartman Collect ion” pieces. See the picture above.

In one of the f irst trades that I did, I was able to get a 500g+ slice of the Bondoc pyroxenite nodule from ASU.There is only one other slice in private hands and though Bondoc is plent iful, there is precious lit t le of the pyroxenitenodule to go around. There is an interest ing paper writ ten about this nodule that can be found athttp://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2010/pdf/1386.pdf. That interact ion led to my being able to acquire the 2ndlargest Bondoc iron nodule weighing in at 2.6kg. And before anyone says anything, this nodule has been stable sinceI acquired it .

Then again, how could I forget f inding my 1.6g of Sutter’s Mill – that was an experience I will never forget and onethat allowed me to meet so many of the people that have helped inf luence and shape my collect ion as well asbecome friends.

This list would not be complete if I did not mention one of the highlights of my very short collect ing life and that ispartnering with Adam Bates on the classif icat ion and sale of NWA 8276, one of only three 3.00 meteorites in theworld.

(MT) What is your favorite overall if it is not the one above?

(MO) The next one I buy or f ind for my collect ion …

(MT) What makes these of special interest?

(MO) The thrill of the hunt whether on eBay, ferret ing out an old collect ion or f inding it in the f ield. As a collector,there are few things more grat ifying than making that next acquisit ion especially if it was tough to get.

(MT) What meteorites are current ly on your wish list?

(MO) Ibit ira, Sera de Mage, Pasamonte, Puerto Lapice, a large uncleaned Sikhote Alin with great crust and Russianmuseum label, a really sculptural Gibeon, a large oriented NWA with deep f lut ing and a good crust, and anymeteorite that allows me to make new friends and ponder my place in the universe.

(MT) What methods have been most successful in building your collect ion? (Buying at shows, from dealers by mail,auct ions on the web, trading… etc)

(MO) As you may have guessed from my earlier responses, I put a great deal of importance on buildingrelat ionships. Even in this day of computers, cell phones and Facebook – nothing beats a personal relat ionshipbased on mutual trust and respect. I strive towards clear and transparent communicat ions, and set clearexpectat ions. Then I keep my word. In my 25 years in high tech and the last 15 in semiconductor market ing, thoseguiding principles have always served me well and expect them to do so as well in our community.

(MT) Which Shows do you attend?

(MO) I have attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show the last two years and really enjoyed it . I will t ry to get tothe Denver show this year and am really hoping to go to Ensisheim in 2015.

(MT) Do you also collect related materials like impact glasses, breccias, melts, tekt ites, shocked fossils, nat ive ironrocks etc?

(MO) I did not plan to, but when I was in Tuscon earlier this year (Feb. 2014), I purchased a perfect 4.55g IvoryCoast tekt ite from Alain Carion. When I hear the word “rare”, I can’t help but become interested and decided thatwas a worthy specimen to start my tekt ite collect ion.

I then followed up that purchase by adding 2 beautiful and fully f langed Australites to my collect ion – again qualityover quantity.

Flanged Australite Button – 4.2g Found in Pine Dam, Australia in early1970s (pictures taken using my custom made light box).

So, it looks like the tekt ite siren successfully lured me into that abyss – but I went willingly. I also now collect impactglasses like Darwin glass and when interest ing specimens come up, I’ll even collect breccias. I am wait ing to add areally large and f inely featured shatter cone.

(MT) Do you prepare any of your own specimens? (cut, polish, etch, etc.)

(MO) I do prepare my own specimens with a focus for now on etching of irons. No surprise to anyone that even withthe best curat ion and preservat ion techniques some irons will rust (short of storing them in a big bin of ATF f luid). Sowhen I started not icing some rust on specimens and bought specimens that needed to be re-etched, I decided toembark on that journey. I mean, how hard could it be? Well it is hard – very hard because the real art comes in notjust the etching itself but making sure that the etch will remain bright and rust-free for a long t ime.

One of the clear art ists in this area is Mirko Graul. His work is amazing and he has clearly perfected his techniquesover many years. He keeps his trade-secrets very secret and rightfully so. After doing my own experimentat ion, andcomparing etching results among many other dealers and preparers, I realized there is a big range in quality. So, if Iwas going to set a goal, that goal would be to become “almost” as good as Mirko – and other European masters.Through intensive research, experimentat ion and some private advice from some of my friends, I am making goodprogress and have achieved some beautiful results – but I st ill have a long way to go!

Later this year, I hope to start slicing my own meteorites and that will open up a whole new world of challenges.

(MT) Have you had to take any special measures to protect them from the environment?

(MO) Protect ion and proper curat ion of meteorites are crucial to maintaining a collect ion. Unfortunately, I think somenew collectors are not aware of these requirements and are rightfully disappointed when their specimensdeteriorate. Dif ferent measures are required depending on the climate in your area, but I t reat all my meteorites asif they were going to spend the rest of their existence in Houston, TX for example. As described earlier, I t ry toreduce exposure to the outside world as much as possible and use desiccant liberally.

(MT) How have meteorites enriched my life?

(MO) There are people in our community that have taken the t ime and effort to mentor me. They have helped meunderstand meteorites and the business of meteorites. They have opened doors for me that would never have beenavailable to me like a private tour of the Mona Kea observatory and seeing the non-public meteorite collect ion at theBrit ish Museum. I am very happy to say that through meteorites I have made connections that allowed us tobecome friends and even best of friends – even though some I have never met personally but hope to do soon.

(MT) Do you have any f inal thoughts?

(MO) As my interest in meteorites has grown, so has my desire to become more involved. As such, when TomaszJakubowski approached me to become a nat ive English reviewer for the open access journal “Meteorites”, I jumpedat the opportunity and act ively part icipated in the latest issue to be found on the websitehttp://meteorites.pwr.wroc.pl/).

I also spend a great deal of t ime administrat ing two Facebook pages including “Meteorites”(www.facebook.com/groups/spacerocks/) and “Is It a Meteorite?” (www.facebook.com/groups/isitameteorite/). TheMeteorites page recently exceeded 2,000 members and each member is personally reviewed by either me or by theother admin, Ben de la Vega. Both of these pages strive to educate potent ial new collectors and engage theirimaginat ion. I encourage readers to “friend” me on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/SkyFallMeteorites.MendyOuzillou

As I mentioned before, I personally want to expand the number of collectors in our community and provide a trustedonline resource for people at all levels of education and interest. I am presently in the process of developing my newwebsite, www.skyfallmeteorites.com, which serve as both a commercial and educational portal. For now, otherspecimens I have can be found at www.meteoritesusa.com. You can also see my offerings on eBay:http://www.ebay.com/sch/skyfallmeteorites/m.html? where I have listed some really spectacular specimens.

My next goal is to become an IMCA board member. I am working on my platform and preparing for the elect ion. Isee so much opportunity for the IMCA to spread the excitement we all share in meteorites, and I want to contributetowards that goal.

I’ll sign off with the lit t le sign that my son Jacob made for me:

Meteorite Times Magazine

Meteorite of the Month: Choteau PallasitePaul Harris

Our Meteorite of the Month is kindly provided by Tucson Meteorites who hostsThe Meteorite Picture of the Day.

Copyright Jim Strope.

86 gram full slice. 93 x 81 x 2.9 mm. Pallasite, ungroupedTKW 8.47 kg. Fall not observed.Contributed by Jim Strope, IMCA 9001

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Once a few decades ago this opening

was a framed window in the wall

of H. H. Nininger's Home and

Museum building. From this

window he must have many times

pondered the mysteries of

Meteor Crater seen in the distance.

Photo by © 2010 James Tobin