[meteorite-list] Regmaglypts

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:53 2004
Message-ID: <3A5218EE.2EF9D9C6_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

> Donald Blakeslee inquired:

> I'm wondering about the two words used to name the depressions formed
> on the surfaces of meteorites during their passage through the atmosphere:
> regmaglypts and piezoglypts. Any difference in the exact meanings? And
> why piezo-, which also shows up in piezoelectric, referring to the kind
> of discharge one can produce in crystalline quartz.

Puzzled Dave responded :-)

> I give up, having never heard the word used with meteorites or
> seen it before what is and where was it used, this word piezoglypts.


Hello All - Puzzled or "Piezofied",

BUCHWALD V.F. (1975) Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Vol. 3, pp. 1001-1003:

Quesa, Valencia, Spain

The meteorite shows only few and indistinct regmaglypts, 1-3 cm across.
It was, however, in describing this somewhat atypical meteorite that
Berwerth (1909) introduced the expression "regmaglypts" to cover any
cavity or depression present on the meteorite surface before it landed
on Earth. For a generation another expression "piezoglypt" (from Greek:
to press or push + to cut or engrave) had been in general use. It had
been introduced by Daubrée to indicate his experimentally supported
belief that the cavities were produced by the erosive action of
turbulent compression-heated air masses that passed the meteorite in its
fall (see, e.g., Meunier 1884: 456).
Story-Maskelyne (1876) on the other hand, maintained that all
depressions were formed by spalling during the atmospheric flight.
Counter to this hypothesis, it may be said, among other things, that the
majority of iron meteorite falls do not produce a large number of small
fragments in addition to the major mass such as would be expected from
the gradual degradation of the surface.


Best 2001 wishes
from Germany,

Bernd
Received on Tue 02 Jan 2001 01:07:42 PM PST