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Meteorite-Times MagazineEnsisheim! The King of Meteoritesby Mart in Horejsi

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Updated: Martin Horejsi’s Meteorite Books Websiteiii

A November 1492 Witnessed Fall: Ensisheim, France

Ensisheim! The King of MeteoritesBorn in 1492. Christened in 1727. Baptized in 1881.

The part icular collect ing genera in which I haunt is the intersect ionbetween science, culture and the fall of a meteorite. Using thisepistemological t riangulat ion, no other meteorite is as important asEnsisheim, the King of Meteorites.

Ensisheim.

The name alone conjures up the immense depths that meteorites hold in our culture. For thosenew to the f ield of meteorit ics, the hamlet of Ensisheim, France is a spiritual almost mythical land.Ensisheim, both the stone and the town, are a physical connect ion with our past on earth and ourevolut ion in the Solar System. For me there is no greater t reasure within a meteorite collect ionthan Ensisheim.

The story as usually told is that short ly before noon on November 7, 1492, a meteorite fell in af ield just outside the walled cit y of Ensisheim in Alsace. The only witness was a young boy whosaw the single stone punch it self a meter deep into what is now the rich soil of the eastern Frenchcount ryside.

When the cit izens of Ensisheim learned of the fall, many people wanted their own souvenir of theevent in the form a f ragment chipped f rom the main mass. As the crowds descended on thehelpless stone, the Chief Magist rate took charge and stopped further dest ruct ion. The stone wasset at the door of the Ensisheim church where it s fame was soon magnif ied.

On November 26th, the “King of the Romans” King Maximilian arrived in Ensisheim to consultprivately with the stone. Several days later, Maximilian declared the meteorite to be a wonder ofGod, and then chipped of f two small pieces of wonder, one for himself and one for his f riendArchduke Sigismund of Aust ria.

King Maximilian gave the stone back to the good cit izens of Ensisheim stat ing that it should bepreserved in the parish church as evidence of God’s miracles. The stone was suspended f rom thechurch’s choir lof t along with an of f icial cit y record describing the event .

Then 500 years went by while other stuf f happened.

Today, in the Cit y Hall of Ensisheim, the 53.831kg main mass is protected by the Brotherhood ofSaint -Georges of the Guardians of the Meteorite of Ensisheim.

The rough edge of my slice, I like to believe, carries with it the dust ofages and maybe the f ingerprints of King Maximilian or Wolfgang vonGoethe or Ernst Florens Friedrich Chaldni in addit ion to those of mydaughter and son.

So much has happened to this meteorite for so many years, andgiven Ensisheim’s head start in the race through t ime is so great , noother thunderstone can ever catch it let alone surpass Ensisheim’sreign as the King of Meteorites.

It is easy to see that the global circulat ion of Ensisheim will never meet collect ing demands.However, we must remember that those who walked before us in the late 1400s, 1500s, 1600s,1700s, 1800s, and 1900s cared for the Ensisheim specimens allowing their cont inued collect iont ransit ions well into the 21st century. But will we do the same? The Brotherhood of Saint -Georgesof the Guardians of the Meteorite of Ensisheim can only do so much.

Every century and likely every year, specimens of Ensisheim have grown smaller and smaller,whether by intent , accident , or at t rit ion. Now 518 years into Ensisheim’s stay on earth, we are st illf ight ing the same human avarice that disgraced the init ial Ensisheim mass into half it s original size.

As an LL6 chondrite (I choked on the word ordinary) Ensisheim carrieswith it cosmic tales in addit ion to it s earthly ones.

For me, nothing says impact and melt as well as a brecciated river.

When the Ensisheim meteorite was lovingly bathed in warm soapy water in 1881, it was a turningpoint in meteorite science, meteorite culture, and essent ially was the symbolic bapt ism of ameteorite to save the soul of Ensisheim.

Although the cit y of Ensisheim was deep in debt through polit ical expenditures including thebuilding of a bridge, the wisdom of the ages held out and the main mass of Ensisheim was notsold of f to a museum collect ion. Not that museums aren’t appropriate places for such things, it ’sjust that once the pride and ident it y of an ent ire cit y and it s people are ref lected the preservat ion,at all costs, of a singular art ifact that can never have an equal, the polit icians bickering andposturing over a budget sheet must look elsewhere to f ill t heir cof fers.

For if it were not for the great people of Ensisheim, the King of Meteorites would, if just lucky,occupy it s own glass case in a museum somewhere. My guess is that if Ensisheim had been soldinto museum servitude, it would have been further violated into a display hemisphere devoid ofthe greatness it now possesses sit t ing atop it s throne just a stone’s toss f rom where it landedover half a millennium ago.

Ironically, it is to pay homage to the Great Ensisheim that many cross the bridge into the towncompletely unaware that the very over-water pathway t raveled on their pilgrimage could havebeen t raded for the King of Meteorites.

An odd scar is is visible on the smallest of the cut edges. I suspect itwas f rom an unpadded caliper stand where this slice lived for somet ime on display. And when talking about Ensisheim, “some t ime” couldbe centuries!

The longest cut edge of the slice shows more of the wonderful meltrivers meandering along this narrow piece of history with the samedignit y as if it were f lowing across a polished face.

Graphic used with permission.

At the spring 1881 meet ing of the Geological Society of the Upper Rhine, the stone of Ensisheimwas removed f rom the City Hall and brought to an Inn in Gebweiler named The Golden Angel. Themain mass was showing more it s neglect than it s age being “encrusted with a centuries-oldaccumulat ion of dust and dirt .” The geologists bathed the stone in warm, soapy water scrubbing itclean.

At a Society dinner served with the famous Alsat ian wine known as the Knight of Alsace, ProfessorKnop of Karlsruhe cont inued a t radit ion started by Sebast ian Brant by reading a poem aboutEnsisheim aloud to the group. The wonderful verses presented below chronicles the almost 400year history of the Ensisheim meteorite at that t ime.

The Meteorite of EnsisheimFallen on 7 November, 1492

Sonambulent is everlast ing space

There wanders t imelessly a meteorite,Planet -st ruck, in it s dreamsThe numbers of it s brothers pull it along.In the black-ref lected light ,It perceives in ult imate distanceThe wine-cheered face of earth.

It can no longer rest rain it self ,So long has been the wait ,In the cold of outer space,Already f rozen into crystals,Now it wishes to change it s place.Filled with great desireIt scents, and hesitates no longer,The Knight let of Elass.

The at t ract ion is t remendousAnd it speeds up in it s course;As soon as it enters the atmosphereIt is slowed with a thunderclap.Enveloped in heat and shockIn it s headlong f light , it plungedOne meter deep in the soil.

From Ensisheim to the VosgesThe message spread at onceThat a stony guest has arrivedWhich had fallen f rom the sky.Also Maximilian came,Accompanied by his advisorsFavorably disposed toward scienceHe discussed the meaning with his council.

Thereupon, he cut with mighty st rokesTwo pieces f rom the dark stoneAnd as t rue evidence of a sign f rom heavenHe coolly pockets them.He spoke: “You shall take good care of the stone,”To the burghers of Ensisheim,“It will bring luck and blessing,To your community.”

In memory of his wordsThey took the promising f indAnd hung it in the church of that placeAnd two hundred and sixty pounds.And there it hung along in pieceUnt il the priest , overwhelmed with fear,Saw in it here on this earth,The devil himself .

The stone, admired and chipped at ,Insulted and jeered at ,That had been diminished to half it s size,Was t ransported into the cit y hall;Here it lay in an alcoveSt ripped of the church’s blessing,An angel bound and imprisonedFor almost 400 years.

Unt il now a company of geologists

From here in the upper RhineCarried it to GebwilerAnd checked into the Golden Angel,They held a lecture and sessionOn the nature of the region,With research on the t ime scale,And on an excursion they went .

And when the ‘Cock’ crowedAbout the coral-meteorite of Hungary,Although with crying and bickeringThe one f rom Ensisheim was shown,Thus spake the stone: If EozoonHad not disappearedThe glorious Cock, who had found it ,Would have recovered it .

The geologist at once recognized,With their stone-f riendly eyeIn him a close relat iveAnd they mourned his hard fate.With water, with soap and brushes,They scrubbed him thoroughlyAnd restored to splendorThe “Prince of the Sky.”

Now the stone showed openly it s ident it y,As a brecciated chondrite;Pyrrhot it ie grains and nickel-ironOlivine and chrome-magnet iteAnd with metallic luster,The stone opened it s eyeAnd faced at the Round TableThe incomparable Knight let .

The stone would have loved to stay with usBut it had to be guarded very well,Torn f rom it s lover’s heartsIt was brought back to it s old imprisonment ;There it is st ill await ing salvat ionFor a call f rom Berlin-it would mean,In view of the public t reasury,For both a great prof it .

It would be released f rom it s misery,The injust ice of history revengedThe cit izen would be delivered f rom his debts;And Maximilian’s prophecy would be right .And the lit t le black fellowOnce banished as a devilWould be t ransformed as a Golden AngelFor the benef it of Ensisheim.

I’m looking forward to the day when another banquet celebrates the King of Meteorites and apoem is read to 21st century people. The poem, f illed with words f rom history as well as thosef rom our modern world, relives the elegance of the past while gracefully t ransit ioning to ourinternet -connected responsibilit ies to Ensisheim.

In the end, all we can do is say thank you cit izens of Ensisheim. Thank you for caring aboutgenerat ions you would never meet . Thank you for sharing your honest words without fear a more

scient if ically lit erate society would scorn your beliefs. And thank you for saving the King.

Unt il next t ime….

The Accretion Desk welcomes all comments and feedback. accretiondesk@gmail.com

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Meteorite-Times MagazineFranconia Vacation 2010by Jim Tobin

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I decided this year that I would not work right up to the day before we lef t for vacat ion. SoSaturday was my last day of work and I got to do some rest ing up and leisurely packing before weheaded to the desert on Wednesday morning. Paul arrived just about exact ly when we hadplanned and we started toward Franconia. We have hunted the south side of the Franconiast rewnf ield several t imes and never found a stone. We have had much bet ter luck on the Northside of the st rewnf ield each f inding several. But , as I indicated last month we were not going onvacat ion to really hunt hard. But to rest and recuperate f rom work , recline in lounge chairs andwatch the planes f ly over.

Picture shot facing east f rom our camp toward the hills ofPalo Verde Mine

Handheld photo at 18x with my Nikon of passenger jet .

We got some gas in Barstow and had lunch at the same t ime. Then it was a rout ine drive acrossthe Mohave Desert . We pulled of f the interstate at the Franconia of f ramp and intended to headover to the middle of the south side of the st rewnf ield where we usually have camped in the past .We got a ways down the dirt road and it was clear that they had considerable water come throughthe washes. There was fairly deep sand across the bot toms of some of the washes and wedecided that it was safer and smarter to just go back a lit t le and camp on the west side of thest rewnf ield instead. So we headed south down the main dirt road to a spot where there was alarge patch of desert pavement we could pull of f on and get pret t y far f rom the road. We wantedto avoid as much dust as we could since we were really focusing on ast ronomy this t ime out . Dirtand dust are bad on our equipment . We were able to get a couple hundred feet f rom the road andthere is so lit t le t raf f ic that it was a f ine spot to camp.

The weather the f irst night was great not a cloud in the sky. I had my camera adapter rig I hadworked up all ready to t ry out . The Moon was not yet f irst quarter so it was going to be good forphotograph all the nights we were there. Full Moon and near full are much less interest ing to viewand photograph since the light hit st raight on and lit t le detail is not iceable. But , I had a great craterrich edge to shoot each night .

Thursday morning it was up early and go hunt ing before it got really hot . We had expected thatthe temperature would be in the 80′s as it usually is in mid October. But it was going to be 100degrees and we decided to hunt just 3-4 hours. We knew our chances for Franconia meteoriteswas poor with all the work that has been done on the south side gridding every area. We werecamping south of the real st rewnf ield so we were really doing new exploring. One piece of desertto cold hunt is as good as another when it is the desert pavement t ype detect ing we were doing.We found our normal select ion of bullets and wire and bit s of lead and rusted manmade iron. Nometeorites were discovered. But , fun was had and we were not in the of f ice at work.

In the af ternoon clouds started to roll up around us. It is interest ing how the clouds form there inthe Franconia area. We have seen it many t imes. The clouds will circle the area hugging themountains all around and then as night comes they will move across over Franconia. We got to dono ast ronomy on Thursday night . We stayed inside watched a movie and had popcorn. We workedwith the pictures taken the night before. I am using on the telescope my older Nikon with a f ixedexternal lens. I have an afocal adapter that I made for connect ing and keeping the eyepiece of thescope and the camera lens aligned and centered over each other. I can st ill use the telephotorange of the camera to remove the darkening that shows in the corners of the f rame on wideangle set t ings. Neither Paul or I have equatorial mounts right now for our scopes so exposuret imes have to be short . And with this afocal arrangement the magnif icat ions used are signif icantand movement of the image across the f rame is very not iceable. Fortunately, the Moon shootsalmost like a daylight object as far as aperture and shut ter set t ing go. The sharpness is bet ter atthe fast shut ter of 1/15th second but the saturat ion and overall color of the shot is bet ter at 1/8th.It is sort of a balancing act . I actually went onto auto and used the program capacit y of thecamera to do most of the shots on Friday evening. But , I jump ahead a lit t le.

This is a 1/8 second exposure using an of f axis mask of 3inch diameter with no t racking and a very unstableatmosphere. I st ill like it .

Friday morning, we had breakfast and sat outside in the shade and worked hard on doing nothingt ill mid-morning. We read books. Paul had some computer programming books and I brought an old

book on stone rings of the Brit ish Isles. Paul got a lesson on plain and recumbent stone circles andbarrow mounds and he could probably have lived all the rest of his lif e with out learning aboutthem. But , they have been a fascinat ion for me for years. We moved our lounge chairs like theshadow of a sundial. When there was nowhere to be in shade anymore we went inside unt il t herewas shade on the other side of the motor home. We had some work to do and brainstorming to doso we took care of that while there was no shade. Then it was more veg t ime t ill evening and weset up for sunset shots again. I set up the telescope once more for more Moon pictures. We hadcaught a few pictures of Jupiter on Wednesday night and looked at all our regular favorites. A niceselect ion of galaxies, nebulas, clusters, and a comet rounded out the f irst night we were there.But , the big surprise was while we were looking at one satellit e go over we saw another on a near“collision” heading and that one f lared very bright ly for a couple seconds. I always forget to look upthe iridium f lare opportunit ies before going to the desert . We accidentally got to see a really niceone.

Af ter get t ing more Moon pictures I put the scope next to the motorhome and we watched anothermovie, with plans to turn in rather early so we could get up and hunt meteorites for a few hours inthe morning coolness. We decided pret t y early in the t rip that we would drive back to Bartow andstay at our favorite campground. It shortens the t rip back on Sunday, lets us take a shower, get ahot meal and have wif i to catch up on email and the meteorite list . So we were going to hunt t illaround 12 noon and then go get lunch at the t ruck stop near Franconia. We drove part way downthe road to as near as we could get to the west side of the st rewnf ield and planned to hike andhunt into the known meteorite yielding area. We actually had co-ordinates for the locat ion of JohnWolfe’s f irst f ind so I headed that way to stand on the very spot . I f igured there would be amonument of some kind and there was. We have GPS t racks for everywhere we have hunted anda small area of the west side of the st rewnf ield was st ill unhunted by us so we hunted north ofJohn’s f irst f ind and up toward the railroad t racks. We looped around and came back to the motorhome. No meteorites were recovered again, but another area is of f our list .

This is the lit t le monument of rocks at the locat ion of JohnWolfe's f irst f ind of a Franconia meteorite

As I was heading for the locat ion of John’s f irst f ine I passed some let ters made of rocks next tothe road. RM, I wonder who made them was it one of our meteorite f riends who has those init ials. Idon’t know I will ask him when I see him.

I picked up plenty of nice rocks for making jewelry. I have over the years been picking up the limegreen rock that is scat tered all over the south side. As I was walking back toward the motorhome Ifound one of the sources. There was a vein erupt ing to the surface of the green rock surroundedby a low mound of granite. I could not help myself and took a chunk of the rock. It should give me asupply of the pret t y green stuf f to last for a long t ime. Of course I also found a lot more 50 caliberbullets and other stuf f , and one mystery signal that I could not separate out in the f ield. I spentabout 10 minutes t rying to f ind what was making the detector go of f so st rongly. I f igured it was apiece of lead shot or casing brass. But I could not see it in the dirt . It was not magnet ic, and havingfound a lit t le gold in the past and knowing it is hard to recognize when covered in dirt I brought thewhole sample in a baggy back home. I washed it out a few minutes ago and though I knewFranconia was not really a gold detect ing area I had hoped it might be a small nugget . Well it wasa piece of lead just like one would expect . So old that it was really incrusted in white lead oxide. Itwas not gray anymore at all.

As always we f illed the week with lots of things to do and also had some great t ime out hunt ing

for meteorites. Can hardly wait for the next t ime we can get away for vacat ion. I guess that will beTucson in February, though that is a working t rip it is always fun too.

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Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Market Trendsby Michael Blood

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This Month’sMeteorite Market Trends

by Michael Blood

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Meteorite-Times MagazineIMCA Insights – November 2010by IMCA TEAM

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IMCA Insights – November 2010Munich Mineral Show 2010by Martin Altmann

Autumn – t ime for the big Munich Show.Together with Tucson the marker, the indicator for the meteorit ical course of the following year.

Warm fall winds bestowed days of sun and pushed the panorama of the Alps closer to the cit y. Fullof expectat ions and pleasant ant icipat ion, having 70 exhibitors listed with meteorites in mind, thevisitor entered the halls. Though the longer he walked through the rows of tables, the sharper hepressed together his pupils for his hunt ing scheme: dark, brown, black, amorphous, lumpy, notcolorful, not shiny – the more perplexit y crawled up his back. And the darker the clouds got overthe horizon.

Count ryside near Munich, early morning Photo courtesyHanno St rufe

Where are the meteorites?!?With this outcry as t it le and as a résumé the Munich report 2010 would be completely done.To give any impressions, we have to take leave f rom comparing with the shows of the previousyears.So let ’s start with the irons.The veteran iron, the Campo of earlier decades, when “meteorite” was a synonym for Gibeon, hasaf ter 10 years of prohibit ion fully disappeared. The last small box of the world with a few roughspecimens was found at the table of Granddaddy Karl Sprich. Prices quadrupled f rom the t imes,Gibeon st ill was f ree.Sikhote-Alin is exhausted: 4-5 small f lats with small shrapnels, and prices higher than those earlyones, when you st ill could pick out handfuls of bullets, but tons, drops, propellers burst ing of f lowlines by the dozen f rom such boxes. Only three somewhat larger pieces on the whole show.The stalls of all our Russian f riends together shrunk to a combined length of 3 yards. On theirtables, as well as on Bohemian Simek’s, we missed almost all we always were used to seeing:Brahins, Chingas, Seymchans.

Hanno St rufe and Dima Sadilenko (Cometshop) Photocourtesy Hanno St rufe

Table of Viacheslav Kalachev Photo courtesy HannoSt rufe

Gebel Kamil – af ter the furious impact in Ensisheim, it seems fully volat ilized again. Only a fewspecimens here and there and a modest box under the table. As small comfort for thedisappointed collector, at least a few small etched slices at a very af fordable 2-3$/g wereavailable. Morasko? Nil return.The only constant – like on every show – was of course ever-smiling Hans Campo Koser with hishundredweights of Campo del Cielos in all sizes and shapes. While the visitor lost his smile, whenhe remembered that two, three years ago, st ill other prices were noted on the price tags.

Dieter Heinlein, Hans Koser, Hanno St rufe and Mike FarmerPhoto courtesy Hanno St rufe

The silicated NWA-iron wasn’t available anymore in ent ire pieces.Badly missed were all our Aust ralian f riends.The bright spot , the Davidssons with a set of exquisite Henburys with perfect pat ina and excellentshapes, some even resembling Sikhote-Alins. One has to go far back in t ime, to remember to haveseen, such an assemblage of such museum-qualit y Henbury.

The Davidssons had a lot of f irst class Henbury irons forsale Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

Iron of the season was, like last year too: Muonionalusta.All sizes, big, complete or etched. Cleaned or with yellow f ind pat ina. Cheap! Leprechaun DimaSadilenko took the collector by the hand to lead him to Koser’s stall, where he had to place aMuonionalusta, because it was larger than his table. A whopping 630kg, big enough to fulf ill t hedream of taking a ride on a meteorite.Let ’s get over and done with the most dismal chapter: The desert meteorites.Who would not dwell about the past years, where even two out of three fossils dealer hadn’tenough space on their tables to place their meteorites by the box – when he saw that disaster ofthat Munich weekend 2010. Nothing but perhaps 5 or 6 small shoe boxes, full of lousy f ragments.

Beat Booz f rom Switzerland visit ing Hanno St rufe atIsmaily's table Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

Ismaily and Eva Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

The best select ion of UNWA OCs was st ill on Ismaily’s table, he had also the only (!) useableoriented stone lef t of the whole show with it s 1250 exhibitors. He shared the table with HannoSt rufe, who presented a nice select ion of various desert t ypes and his LL-metachondrite there.Ahmed Pani belongs to the inventory of the show, although he’s specialized in hot desert , this t imehe had some fantast ic distorted Seymchan slices, as they would have been cut f rom a shrapnelwith olivines that popped in the eye of the visitor.Of course the Tomerellis where there too – this t ime displaying mainly pre-NWA-OCs of convincingqualit y, some of them shaped like art ifacts.

Table of Giorgio Tomelleri Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

But the award of the best desert assortment has to go this t ime def initely to Ali and MohammedHmani, comfort ing to see that the t radit ion is going f rom the father to the son to be cont inued.

Eva and Bernhard looking at Ali Hmani's table Photocourtesy Hanno St rufe

They brought the f ine main mass of the last years f ind NWA 5960, the green-skin shergot t itepaired to NWA 2990 to the show and placed it in the show case next to a 118g-lunar f rom the2995/2996er-series which is current ly under classif icat ion.

A new lunar f rom Ali Hmani Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

A 21 kilo large CV3 f rom NWA Photo courtesy HannoSt rufe

The 20kg-CV3, which we st ill know f rom Ensisheim was slumbering mighty on the table. A not yetident if ied larger iron f rom the Ziz-f ield built the counterpart . From their other delicacies, a f inef resh lunar-looking eucrite, coming in many individuals is to ment ion and three jewels f rom Wabar.The ladies of the harem must have a lot of sorrow – the tears they cried were large as grapes!Novelt ies f rom the hot deserts?No new unpaired Mart ians and Lunars at all. No new f inds f rom Oman at all.Only three larger HEDs, one 2kg f resh crusted eucrite with white interior, a f ragment of 4kg withoriented regmaglyptes of a HED and another polymict one. A small handful of other HEDs, dif f icultto say, which were really new or are later to pair to already known material.And – shocking – that was all.Prices? It ’s bet ter to remain silent , for not depressing the reader further.Now to give a posit ive turn: the of fers of historic f inds and falls were this year: excellent .Eisler junior, the only dealer aside Mike Farmer, who hadn’t shied away f rom the long journey f romU.S. this year, had a lot of pallasite slices and a good variety of known and not so known names –for every purse.

Table of Bud Eisler Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

The palm, Achim & Morit z Karl took it , with adjacent Mike Farmer, who made up a museum out oftheir row. The Karls, when asked “what ’s new?”, modest as they are, answered: “Nothing”. But theslices of the historics you saw there and the names, drove tears in the eyes of the veterancollectors, let the beginners hect ically search in the Blue Book, and the mid-term collector pause,to doubt in their belief that such names would be available only in molecular sized microspecks.Impressively the Karls cemented once again their posit ion as dealers #1 of historic pieces. MikeFarmer’s best new goodies were some Springwaters f rom his new f inds, among them a really cuteperfect individual.

Morten Billet at the table of Achim Karl Photo courtesyHanno St rufe

Achim and Morit z Karl's meteorites Photo courtesy HannoSt rufe

The same line of remarkable historical locales followed as always Sergey Vasiliev. His advantageis, that he has always many budget -sizes too. Remarkable this t ime, a well-sized fusion-crustedIvuna, usually horribly dif f icult to get .

Table of Sergey and Elena Vasiliev Photo courtesy HannoSt rufe

Posit ively to remark, was this years enlarged availabilit y of Impact ites and tekt ites. Finally againblack indochinites of all sizes and shapes were basket -wise of fered (<30$/kg). And also the choiceof moldavites was bet ter than ever. Here to ment ion expert Thomas Dehner, who also just hasedited a new book about moldavites. Good larger quant it ies, just like last year, of Libyan desertglass were of fered too.No good show without out a novelt y.So as poor as Munich was, at least veteran dealer Uwe Eger rescued the event in this respect thisyear. He displayed ext remely thin slices of a new pallasite f rom Indonesia. With st rangely smallorange olivines and almost no metal in between. A f ind of reportedly 750kgs – under classif icat ion.

The new Pallasite f rom Indonesia presented by Uwe EgerPhoto courtesy Hanno St rufe

The character of Munich 2010 wasn’t only the lack of meteorites, but also the absence of manymeteorite dealers. Only two dealers came f rom USA, the meteorite of ferers of Aust ralia andPoland stayed completely home, and a lot of the sounding European names were missing: ErichHaiderer, Alain Carion, Chladni’s Heirs, Siegf ried Haberer, Bruno Fectay, Luc Labenne, Andi Gren…Af ter the Fliegerbräu surprisingly had shut down, Andi Koppelt organized the Friday Evening Come-together in the t ime-honored inn, the Fraunhofer, with rust ic t radit ional food, Munich beer, anatmosphere of Gemuet lichkeit (and with a much bet ter service and prices). It was nice there,about 20 meteorite people tested it and were so content , that this new locat ion will be f rom nowon the new Jour f ix for the Munich show.

Francesco Moser, Beat Booz, Peter Marmet Photocourtesy Hanno St rufe

Andreas Koppelt , Jürgen Nauber, Mary and John Kashuba,Mark Vornhusen Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe

All in all Munich 2010 was for the meteorite collector a t rue shock. By far the poorest show formeteorites of the last 10 years. Nevertheless, Munich, Ensisheim, Tucson remain the three largeMET -events where those interested in those guests f rom space, will get so many meteorites intheir hands like nowhere else. Therefore these three Shows will always be worth the visit .

Skol.

Martin AltmannIMCA Director

This art icle has been edited by Anne Black and Norbert Classen

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Meteorite-Times MagazineNWA 4657 CK4by John Kashuba

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I don’t think CK meteorites are much to look at except those rare slices with huge, gnarly CAI. Youpret t y much get dark chondrules in dark mat rix. I have one fairly dense slice that someonepolished which made features essent ially disappear. Thankfully that wasn’t done to this slice.

Since this is a CK4 chondrules are easy to see scat ted in the mat rix. This view is aninch wide. NWA 4657.

We see a lot more in thin sect ion under a ‘scope. This is an odd shot I made withref lected light plus some light coming through the sect ion f rom below. It shows quite amix of textures and materials in a port ion of a large chondrule. This picture and thenext show layering f rom mult iple accret ion and heat ing events.

Large grains are in the interior of the chondrule, around them (below) is a rim formed

f rom melt . It is peppered with opaque blebs. Further out (yet lower) are a couple layersof f ine mineral grains then a jacket of dust .

Evidence of turbulent t imes - f ragments of broken chondrules.

In this port rait the BO chondrule at the right is missing it s lower right side. The curved

f ragment in the picture above is a perfect match in size, shape and even orientat ion.But it ’s hard to believe they are mates that got separated, stayed close during f inalparent body assembly and were sect ioned perfect ly in this slice. It is even harder tobelieve that they are not related.

This is the object in the lef t of the port rait above, a granular olivine chondrule. Itcontains blebs of opaque material and has a rim of coarse grains.

This large dif fuse feature contains a couple round dark areas surrounded by brightgrains.

It would be interest ing to know what mechanisms were at work here.

The bars in this chondrule are the same color as the rim where they join it . That is,those bars and that port ion of the rim are in opt ical cont inuit y, the crystal st ructuresare aligned. For example the bars that reach the rim f rom the noon posit ion to oneo’clock are light orange and so is the rim. To the right , the bars that touch the rim attwo o’clock are green as is the rim. This cont inuit y is common. The fun thing here isthat this crystalline orientat ion extends beyond the igneous rim. We see that themineral grains that were forming f rom the surrounding dust or mat rix grew,“recrystallized”, with their crystal mat rix in the same orientat ion as the nearby rim andthe bars on the other side. This is seen best when the polarizing f ilt ers are rotatedand, for example, the green bars, green rim and green speckles beyond go in and outof opt ical ext inct ion together.

Speaking of rotat ing f ilt ers, this animated GIF steps through four pictures to emphasisthe dif ferent crystal domains in this sharp chondrule through ninety degrees ofrotat ion. The horizontal slide remained stat ionary and a horizontal polarizing f ilt erabove it and a horizontal polarizing f ilt er below it were moved in unison. The f ilt ersbegan and remained with their direct ion of polarizat ion in a crossed orientat ion toeach other. Consider the bright , completely illuminated shot as zero degrees. The nextpicture was taken with the f ilt ers rotated (about a vert ical axis) approximately 23degrees. The next picture is af ter another 23 degrees. And the fourth af ter a total ofabout 68 degrees. At 90 degrees the view is the same as the f irst picture, which isdisplayed again.

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Meteorite-Times MagazineThe Perils of Meteorite Type Collecting, A Guide.by Michael Gilmer

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This art icle is directed at the silent newbie or befuddle beginner who is sort ing through theconfusing groups of meteorite t ypes and t rying to f ind their way around the world of space rocks.

Many new collectors of ten want one of each type of meteorite. Many veteran collectors abandonthis pursuit because the task is quite daunt ing. So when you hear talk about “t ype collect ing”, orbuilding a “t ype collect ion”, what exact ly does that mean?

I hope the following brief art icle will answer those quest ions, or at least point the reader in the rightgeneral direct ion. Note, I gleaned much of this t ype informat ion f rom David Weir’s authoritat ivewebsite “Meteorite Studies” and f rom the Meteorit ical Bullet in. I do not claim that this list is 100%complete or without error, so if the reader spots an error or omission, please reply and correct it .

I started out collect ing meteorites with a small sample of NWA 4293 – an ordinary high ironchondrite of the H6 type. It was about the size of a dog-food kibble and it looked like one. But Iwas instant ly hooked, and I wanted to have one each of the dif ferent t ypes of meteorite. This isknown as “t ype collect ing” or building a “t ype collect ion”.

The danger of t ype collect ing (besides the damage to one’s checking account ) is that the variouspet rologic t ypes are subdivided into various grades according to metamorphism.

For example, take the H chondrite group that my NWA 4293 sample belonged to.

There are H3 chondrites, H4 chondrites, H5 chondrites, and H6 chondrites. Did I really need oneeach of these subtypes? Well, it depends on how deep a collector wants to go into the rabbit hole.There are dist inct dif ferences between the various H types.

The number at tached to each is more than just a simple weathering grade or shock grade. Itrepresents a progession in the H-chondrite family f rom least altered to most altered. H3chondrites are loaded with chondrules, H4 have some chondrules, H5 has few chondrules, and H6has virtually no visible chondrules. A new grade of H7 has been added as well. So, a collector couldsimply have a single Hx chondrite and say that the H-chondrites are represented. Or, the collectorcould have one each of the dif ferent subtypes f rom 3 to 7.

Another peril is the changing of nomenclature. For example, the K-subgroup of carbonaceouschondrites was only recognized and designated in 1990. Up unt il t hen, Karoonda was considered aCV4 meteorite of the Vigarano family. Now Karoonda is recognized as dist inct ly dif ferent t ype ofcarbonaceous chondrite, so it was made into it ’s own group. Now we have CK4, CK5, and CK6meteorites – all represent a progression in metamorphism and have visible (and chemical)dif ferences f rom other grades. There are standout members of each subgroup, so where doesone draw the line?

Should the collector acquire a sample of Karoonda and be done with it? Or should one go out andt rack down CK4, CK5 and CK6 meteorites? Again, it depends on how extensive and exhaust ive acollector wants to be with their t ype collect ion. Budget will also play a role as well, because anexhaust ive t ype collect ion is a daunt ing project .

Last ly, one must consider the ungrouped meteorites. These are oddball meteorites that do notneat ly f it into the pre-exist ing meteorite t ypes. There are ungrouped chondrites, ungroupedachondrites, and ungrouped irons. No type collect ion can overlook these meteorites becausesome of them are t ypes unto themselves with unique qualit ies.

For those who want to build a def init ive and complete t ype collect ion, here is a list of every knowntype and subtype of meteorite. This list was culled f rom other sources, including David Weir’sauthoritat ive “Meteorite Studies” website linked at the end of this post .

Carbonaceous Chondrites :

CI (Ivuna)CM1 (Murchison)CM2 (subdivided into CM2.0 to CM2.6)CM3CO3 (Ornans) (subdivided into CO3.03 to CO3.7)CV (Vigarano) (also CV2 and CV3)CK (Karoonda) (CK4, CK5, CK6)CR (Renazzo) (CR1, CR2, CR3)CB (Bencubbin)CHCR ungroupedC4 ungroupedC ungrouped (Tagish Lake, others)

Ordinary Chondrites :

Rumurut i R3 (subdivided into R3.5-6 to R3.9)R4R5R6

LL (subdivided into LL3.0 to LL3.9)LL4LL5LL5/6LL6LL6/7LL7LL impact melt

LL t ransit ional (L/LL3 to L/LL6)L (subdivided into L3.0 to L3.9)L4L5L6L6/7L7L impact melt

H/L t ransit ional (H/L3 to H/L6 IMB, H/L3.6 to H/L3-4)H (subdivided into H3.0 to H3.9)H4H5H6H7H impact meltungrouped ordinary chondrites

Enstatite Chondrites :

EL (EL3 to EL7)EL impact meltEH/LEH (EH3 to EH7)EH impact melt

ungrouped enstat ite chondrites

K (Kakangari)

Meta-chondrites (M-CV, M-CR, M-H, M-LL)

Primitive Chondrites :

AcapulcoiteLodraniteWinonaitesungrouped primit ive chondrites

Achondrites :

Howardite (subdivided into f ragmental breccia and regolith breccia)Eucrite (monomict and polymict with each having subclasses)Diogenite (monomict and polymict )Olivine DiogeniteDuniteUreilit e (monomict and polymict )

Martian achondrites :

Shergot t itePyroxene-phyric basalt ic shergot t iteOlivine-phyric basalt ic shergot t iteOlivine-orthopyroxene-phyric basalt ic shergot t itePyroxene-peridot it ic (Wehrlit ic) shergot t iteLherzolit ic shergot t iteDiabasic shergot t ite

NakhliteChassigniteOrthopyroxenite (ALH 84001)

Lunar Achondrites :

Feldspathic brecciasRegolith brecciaFragmental brecciaImpact melt brecciaGranulit ic brecciaMaf ic-richThorium-richKREEP-rich

Mingled BrecciaMare Basalt

Other Achondrites :

Angrites (Plutonic and Basalt ic)BrachiniteAubriteungrouped achondrites (Ibit ira, Pasamonte, etc)

Stony-Irons :

Mesosiderites (1A,1B,2A,2B,2C,3A,3B,4A,4B)ungrouped mesosiderites

Pallasites (Main Group, Eagle Stat ion group, Pyroxene group)

Pallasite-am (anomalous, PMG-am, PMG-as)ungrouped pallasites

Iron meteorites :

Note, iron meteorites are a can of worms. I will only focus on the main chemical groups, and notthe various grouplets and sub-types of each main chemical group. Also note that many of thesetypes include silicated varit ies. List ing all of the known sub-types of irons would require a LONGlist resembling a f low-chart .

IABICIIABIICIIDIIEIIFIIGIIIABIIIEIIIFIVAIVBungrouped irons

I think that is all of them – as current ly recognized by the Meteorit ical Society NomenclatureCommit tee. If anyone can think of some I missed, please add them to this list .

David Weir’s Meteorite Studies website – ht tp://www.meteoritestudies.com/

Best regards and happy collect ing!

© Copyright 2010, Michael Gilmer. (www.galact ic-stone.com)

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Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Calendar – November 2010by Anne Black

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Meteorite-Times MagazineWold Cottage Meteoriteby Editor

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Fell December 13, 1795 Wold Newton, Yorkshire UK

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Meteorite-Times MagazineGeorgiaite Tektiteby Editor

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FG1 Georgiaite specimen f rom the Darryl Fut rell Collect ion of Tekt ites

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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