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Nakhla SNC (Mars)

It seems this post of last week to the list was lost to most on the list when
the server went down. I feel it is important enough to re-send, so I hope any
that did receive it will accept my apologies for the repetition.

I received a note from Monica Grady on Wednesday (she's the curator of the
meteorites at the British Natural History Museum) of the results of her
planned donation of a Nakhla specimen to the scientific community.

Stone 1913.25, (640.8 grams, totally covered with fusion crust), presumably
one of three specimens given by the Egyptians in 1913, was broken in two at
the Johnson Space Center on March 12. (Broken is likely the accurate word here
as Nakhla is quite friable.  It takes a true artist to create a thin section
of this material.) About 300 grams were returned to the museum.  The rest is
scheduled for distribution to 37 research groups over the next few months.
Monica mentioned that SNC specialists Alan Treiman and Harry McSween were
among those chosen to receive this material.

Previously, Monica had written me that her main reason for the donation of
this rare material from the museum's collection is to again look for
fossilized Martian life forms as has been thoroughly, but inconclusively done
on ALH84001.  She's hoping that the fusion crust on this specimen has
minimized terrestrial contamination of the now freshly-cut interior.

Nakhla is composed of about 2.5% iddingsite, a sedimentary product of water
reacting with olivine. The world's finest meteoriticists will be seeking the
answer to the question- when Nakhla got wet, did anything go swimming.

Best regards to all,

Kevin Kichinka