[meteorite-list] lunar/martian magnetism

From: rochette <rochette_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:21 2004
Message-ID: <v03007801b8cdf36fcd4f_at_[80.12.143.63]>

Hello list

as argued in preceeding post the answer "is it magnetic" cannot be answered
by yes or no. With a strong magnet the most magnetic Martian, Los Angeles,
can be weakly attracted, due to its content of magnetite (1-2%), may be
NWA817 also. Al the others are too weak (half a percent of magnetite or
magnetic sulfide).
For lunar I have no personal experience but regolith breccia can contain up
to 2% of metallic iron, while maria basalt has one per mil at most.
Therefore some lunar should be (weakly) attracted by NdFeB magnets. However
this metal is heterogeneously distributed so some fragments will be
attracted, some not.
I have a quantitative magnetic chart for all meteorite types; ask me for
the file off list.

Michael Groetz <mpg444_at_yahoo.com> wrote:

> Am a little afraid to try it on the purchased
> specimens I own as I may loose them.... :-)

What do you mean? As for the harm done by magnet on samples and the dubious
utility of this test please refer to my February 16 post and subsequent
discussion!

Joyeuses Paques

Pierre
Received on Mon 01 Apr 2002 04:42:34 AM PST