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Meteorite Times Magazine
ContentsPaul Harris
Featured Articles
Accretion Desk by Martin HorejsiJim’s Fragments by Jim TobinMeteorite Market Trends by Michael BloodBob’s Findings by Robert VerishMicro Visions by John KashubaNorm’s Tektite Teasers by Norm LehrmanMr. Monning’s Collection by Anne BlackIMCA Insights by The IMCA TeamMeteorite of the Month by EditorTektite of the Month by Editor
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Meteorite Times Magazine
A Meteorite Field Trip To the Field MuseumMart in Horejsi
It has been many years since I last visited the Windy City so I jumped at the chance this spring when aconference presented just such an opportunity. While Chicago is not much more windy that New York City,and even less windy than Boston, it certainly didn’t disappoint, especially along the long waterf ront walkf rom downtown to the Field Museum.
Meteorites with Field Museum documentation are highly coveted by collectors including myself . One favorite Field Museum piece in my collection is Fukutomi, Japan. Another is Paragould, Arkansas.
The Field Museum began life back in 1893 with a generous one million dollar donation by Marshall Field, alocal prominent businessman. In that time, and many greats in the f ield of meteoritics passed through theField Museum doors, most notably Oliver C. Farrington.
The following photographs depict the large displays of meteorite, but fall short in sharing the real magic ofthe gallery. Enjoy the images, but don’t let them substitute for a in-person visit to the museum.
The Stannern Eucrite. Beautiful f lowing crust makes this stone an exceptional of a basaltic achondrite.However, unlike the complete stone my personal specimen, this one has a large cut face.
The Lafayette, Indiana Nakhlite. Found in 1931, this martian rock contains minerals formed, according to it’ssign, “f rom exposure to liquid water near the surface of Mars.”
The cut face of Stannern does highlight the contrasting interior common to calcium-rich achondrites, butalso is one less complete stone of Stannern on this planet.
This half -individual of the enstatite chondrite named Indarch fell in 1891, just two years before the museumit now calls home was founded.
A classic and large individual of Murchison, the CM2 that stunk up the down it landed in
A large Canyon Diablo iron for public inspection.
It’s always disappointing when something is missing f rom the display. However, meteorites have a toughtime here on earth and even the best curated pieces require a little personal attentional once in a while.
It wouldn’t be a visit to the Field Museum without stopping by for a talk with Sue, their residentTyrannosaurus rex. I remember the story of Sue’s out-of -ground troubles well having visited the Black HillsInstitute during the dispute. And then again teaching about Sue through a well-funded promotionalcampaign sponsored by McDonalds.
Until next time….
Meteorite Times Magazine
“I Just Know It Is A Meteorite”James Tobin
For once I have used the springtime for Spring Cleaning. Over the last couple years I have been doingproject af ter project non stop in the garage and it was really getting out of control. I had reduced myavailable work space down to the corner of one work table. So af ter two weeks of work and dozens of oldbusted cardboard boxes thrown out and replace with new boxes the garage is clean and vacuumed andready to go for meteorite work and astrophotography tech prototyping.
Paul and I usually get in our f irst big astrophotography trip in May but this year not until June. Before thattrip I build all the electronic accessories and experiment on improvements to my telescope rigs. But abouttwo days a week is still spent working on meteorites. I have a lot space for that again. I even have thescales out of the tiny corner I could barely get to. They are out where I can actually use them.
I weigh all the meteorites before I cut them just in case they turn out to be something that we decide tosend of f for classif ication. The total known weight is of course one of the questions that must beanswered when the meteorite is submitted to the Nomenclature Committee to get its of f icial name ordesignation. I am not going to f ind any Martian or Lunar meteorites in the boxes of unclassif ied materialbut it is surprising at how of ten I f ind something very interesting f rom the chondrite family.
I am so happy that I have a good working knowledge of what real meteorites look like. But even so I f ind afew stones that I am sure are meteorites but can not put into a group. So far they are a small pile ofindividual low weight stones. They all have something that identif ies them as meteorites but they areweird.
NWA 8384 was a pleasant surprise when I cut it open. I had longed to bring a type 3 chondrite to the worldfor years. Af ter a couple other tries came back as stage 4 NWA 8384 let me check of f that goal. Its an LL3and a beautiful meteorite we now have in our catalog for sale.
NWA 8008 is one of my submissions for classif ication that I thought was a type 3 and came back as apetrologic type 4 instead. But it is still a great looking chondrule rich meteorite.
So with all that said I guess it is time for my current irritation. My social media activity has been trimmeddown to working on what Paul and I do ourselves along with Facebook and Google+. I have dropped outof sight on all the rest. It just takes too much time to look at that mass of stuf f two or more times a day.So when my time looking at meteorite related social media is wasted with one non meteorite af ter another,and wild claim af ter wild claim of how wonderful a total fake stone is, I sometimes feel like cutting myfriends list to just a few people and withdrawing f rom all the groups that are not regulated against suchposts. I don’t have the time or desire to become one of the meteorite sherif fs. But I appreciate theindividuals that attempt to point out the fakes being sold and promoted. Especially those who of fer someinsight and knowledge as they do their policing.
There have always been false meteorites around. Sometimes it was just a lack of knowledge by the seller.It used to be the seller’s belief in a story they had been told about how grandpa found the stone over thehill af ter seeing a bright meteor. But more of ten now the stones are pure attempts to cheat buyers whoalso don’t know what meteorites are really like.
I have not mentioned it in a long while. But a couple years ago I wrote a book for the business to sell onmeteorite identif ication entitled “Meteorites – How To Recognize Visitors From Space”. It is an ebook. Wewere interested is giving hunters and collectors who were learning a tool with simple tests and lots ofpictures that could be used to identify real meteorites.
The world of meteorites never ceases to provide a wild variety of views into the human psyche. Thereseems to be more individuals all the time that have no knowledge of real meteorites, but have found a newnever before seen type. It is of course always priceless and made of something exotic. But these stonesalmost never have any characteristics of real meteorites. They never have fusion crusts and thethumbprints are just breaks on the surface. They are usually porous just full of bubbles, and they neverhave anything simple to identify like a chondrule or two. They are of ten made of something that sciencehas never seen before. And here is the part that really gets me interested as an observer of humanactivities. The f inders of these phenomenal rocks even af ter several labs have told them they are slag orbasalt or rusted mill balls or something else earthly will reject those determinations and maintain their beliefthat they have found the secretto the universe. Of ten clutching upon the notion there is a conspiracy to keep the information away f romthe public. They go on a crusade to f ind someone that will say they are meteorites. They generally movefrom meteorite labs to commercial material testing facilities that have never seen a meteorite. They f indplaces with tools not designed for meteorites which are used in testing their rocks. Producing of courseglorious results in rare elements, noble metals, new minerals and precious gemstones.
What are the results for us in the meteorite world that are interested in real meteorites? Well one of theresults is less laboratories that will work on our genuine meteorites. Part of the process is to accept stonesand sort the real meteorites f rom the non meteorites. It is a thankless job too; with thousands of regularearth rocks for every meteorite that is sent in. The sorting is important work and the individuals doing itknow what meteorites look like. It is the arguments that come af ter the sorting f rom a few individuals whichhave been told they had slag or basalt or magnetite. The debates become discouraging to classif iers. Ihave seen several individuals and a few facilities stop taking specimens. Repeatedly the workers at thelabs still accepting samples have told me they don’t have time or energy to argue with people they arebasically doing a favor for.
NWA 7347 is maybe my favorite meteorite. It looked like slag a little and a meteorite more. Worried about itfor a couple days and then solved the question with the f irst test. Just a small spot ground of f was all ittook. But I did not know it would be as cool as it is until I cut it open.
We don’t send a lot of specimens of f to be classif ied. But when I do want to send one of f I f ind myselfapproaching scientists with sort of a hat-in-hand already apologetic attitude. I send a message to see ifthey are willing to classify one along with an image showing the type stone it is. I know that they are busyand have had a few irate people since my last request. It causes me to feel like I only want to send themeteorites that are super special for classif ication. This means that many other nice meteorites will neverbecome classif ied. I have this feeling whether justif ied or not that I don’t want to use up what I feel arelimited opportunities for lab time. I realize that some of this may be only real between my ears; that thereality is that I could actually get many more classif ied if I just sent them in. Especially now that some labsare happier to do classif ications since they get paid a fee.
So I got this little pile of weird meteorites in the garage. I guess for the time being they will sit right wherethey are. But sometime I will get invited to an activity where someone I know f rom a lab will be inattendance. It is pretty out of character for me but I might just put a few of those stones into my pocketand take them with me for show and tell.
Every time I start a cut on a new stone I have a passing thought “maybe this will be something really cooland interesting.” Funny thing is that I like meteorites so much that no matter what the stone looks like af terit is cut, it always seem to be really interesting. And they continue to be fascinating even without havinggold and silver or kryptonite in them. So it is actually of f to the garage to do some cutting as I f inish typingthis. Then maybe tonight it will be time for me to watch “Enemy f rom Space” a classic old sci-f i movie aboutmeteorites that are f illed with death for mankind. And meteorites don’t ever get any stranger than that.
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Meteorite Times Magazine
Crystalline Lunar SpherulesJohn Kashuba
It’s a harsh place, the surface of the moon. NWA 8010 is a lunar regolith breccia meteorite that bearswitness to this.
Melt veins are formed by large impacts. The veins in NWA 8010 did not cool instantly into glass. They hadtime to nucleate along wall rock and crystallize into feathery tuf ts of very f ine laths that grew to meet inthe center of the veins.
Apollo 14 and 16 returned with crystalline lunar spherules similar to those in NWA 8010. Researchersbelieve a large impact was necessary to form not only melt droplets but also a cloud of dust and gas thatinsulated the molten material f rom the cold of space and allowed time for crystals to form. Long f light timeis inferred by the time needed for solidif ication and, in the case of Apollo 14, the composition of thespherules dif fers f rom the rock in which they are found.
All these photos were taken f rom the single thin section shown last.
A one millimeter thick melt vein runs between the lef t and right edges of this 4.5 mm wide view. Finecrystalline laths grew in bundles f rom the edges of the melt inwardly toward the center of the vein. Cross-polarized light. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Large chondrule-like spherule. Apparent length is 0.9 mm (900 μm). XPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathicbreccia).
A pair of lunar crystalline spherules. Diameters are 200 μm and 65 μm. Plane polarized light. NWA 8010Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Plane polarized light. Plane polarized light.
Two lunar crystalline spherules. The smaller is 240 μm in diameter. The larger has two lithologies. The coreis 170 μm in diameter and the overall spherule has an length of 370 μm. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathicbreccia).
Partial lunar crystalline spherule 90 μm in diameter. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Lunar crystalline spherule 80 μm in diameter. PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Dark lunar crystalline spherule 60 μm in diameter. What is the small red spherule? A glassy impact droplet?Red volcanic f ire fountain glass? PPL. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Sample thin section, 15 mm wide. Transmitted white light. NWA 8010 Lunar (feldspathic breccia).
Norm’s Tektite Teasers: Moldavite Rain!
by Norm Lehrman (www.TektiteSource.com)
There are all sorts of collections, but a collection of like objects offers the simple pleasure of side-by-side
comparison and contrast. It offers training in the range of variations on a theme, and it begs you to
select your favorites. Collections are meant to be felt.
We have been running low on Moldavite teardrops and for several years they have been high on our
shopping list. Last year we bought what we found offered, but it was only two or three. This year we
scored this stunning assortment. When I find one of these, I rarely ask the price. The decision is already
made.
I have been struggling to get them pictured, described, and posted to the website, but they exhibit
separation anxiety whenever I approach. To really be appreciated, they need to be viewed as a
collection. So, here they are, perhaps for the last time all together. I get emotional just writing that.
I don’t know what percentage of all Moldavites are teardrops. They are not by any means rare, but I
would guess that they may be something like one in five hundred. A grouping like this represents a very
select population drawn from thousands of Moldavites painstakingly collected one by one. I would
imagine it is a real thrill to pull a nice teardrop from the sand!
Conventional wisdom, oft repeated, holds that teardrops are the end product of dumbbells that were
spinning like propellers until they stretched and parted in the middle. I don’t question that that
sometimes happened, particularly with Indochinites, but I’ve never been fully satisfied with that
explanation as the whole story. Moldavite teardrops have something to say on this subject.
If these all began as parted dumbbells, there should’ve been quite a lot of dumbbells. But good
Moldavite dumbbells are extremely rare. Only 3 or 4 have passed through our business, and there is
only one in that group that was truly a classic dumbbell form. The others qualified, but only because
there isn’t much competition in that particular collection.
I see no reason at all that teardrops cannot be a primary form, a blob of glass squirting out of the impact
with an aerodynamic form dictated by forward flight, its tail streaming out behind, no spinning motion
required.
As a scientist, I can’t escape that sort of analysis. But as an artist, poet, and romantic lover of beauty,
my mind lingers on the picture of a monster meteorite impact that melted the face of the earth and
showered a rainstorm of glorious green glass on the Czech Republic. It happened about 15 million years
ago and lasted only a few minutes. This is a collection of Moldavite raindrops from that storm. Just how
cool can it get?
Words fail me. Just look at the picture and try to imagine. Moldavite rain!
Meteorite Times Magazine
Millbillillie Meteorite SlicePaul Harris
Our Meteorite of the Month is kindly provided by Tucson Meteorites who hostsThe Meteorite Picture of the Day.
Millbillillie 1.8 gram part slice Eucrite-mmict contributed by Paul Swartz, IMCA 5204
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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