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The wonderfull new Monohans stony meteorites!



Hello all! I just walked in the door after a grueling trip to Monohans
Texas! Last evening I got the email on the list about the new meteorite
fall in Texas. As I am prone to do, I thought about it for all of five
minutes, packed the car with some junk and set out at 10:30 pm for
Texas! After seven and one half hours of driving I arrived in Monohans
(only 30 miles from Odessa!). I met the police chief at the station and
was immediately led into his offece where on his desk sat the most fresh
looking meteorites I have ever seen. They were absolutely beautiful
with  dark black/blue fusion crust and where they had chipped they were
as white as snow! I got to hold and ply with them for a while then was
taken to the impact site. They both impacted the road in a poor
neighborhood. The most interesting part is that one of them, only about
a kilo or so, made a crater in the asphalt which went clear through to
the dirt (about 3 inches!) The police had a large square cut out of the
road to preserve the crater and he had it on his desk with the
meteorites!  I photographed all of it and will try to publish an article
in Meteorite. I searched for about 3 hours to see if any other pieces
were in the vicinity but to no avail:(
The meteorites appear very similar to Hamada Du Draa and Heze. I am sure
they are likely an H5 or so. Anyway, someone from NASA flew in to pick
them up for study and will return them later to be placed in the town
museum! I will post more info after I sleep some!
thanks
Mike Farmer
http://www.concentric.net/~farmerm