[meteorite-list] Looks too weathered? (The "Neuschwanstein" Meteorite)

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:06 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E29E_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

Sent this out 4 hours ago, but it didn't show up. Trying again... --Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: Matson, Robert
Sent: Monday, August 05, 2002 11:07 AM
To: 'Mark Fox'; meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com; 'Bob Verish -
home'; 'Bob Verish - work'
Subject: Looks too weathered? (The "Neuschwanstein" Meteorite)

Hi Bob, Mark and List,

> My attention, too, was drawn to the rusting on an
> otherwise beautiful meteorite. Is that what becomes
> of them stranded in such a climate, or are we dealing
> with an extremely weather-challenged rock?

In southern Germany, it rains, rains, rains. (Thus the
beautiful Black Forest). So weathering is extremely
accelerated.

> Is there the slightest chance that possibly, just possibly,
> the "Neuschwanstein" space rock represents a different fall,
> not related to that of the famous early April fireball(s)?

Absolutely. In fact, I'd say it's more likely that it isn't
paired to Pribram since the putative pairing so far is based
only on computed orbital similiarty which in turn was based
on photographs. But it will be very exciting if it IS paired!

Over the weekend I decided to investigate other falls on or
around April 7th to see if there were any other H5's. There
are 11 other falls from April 6th - April 8th in the Catalogue,
but none are H5's, and only Doroninsk (4/6/1805) in an H
chondrite (H6). However, five of the falls are L6:

4/6/1885 Chandpur L6 Fa24
4/7/1887 Lalitpur L6
4/6/1914 Kuttippuram L6
4/8/1928 Narellan L6 Fa25
4/8/1971 Wethersfield (1971) L6 Fa25 CRE 3Ma

I note the curiosity that Chandpur and Narellan are separated by
43 years, as are Narellan and Wethersfield (whose fayalite %'s
also match). This got me to wondering if anything fell in
early April, 43 years before Chandpur (1842)? Interestingly,
there was just one fall in April of 1842, and it was an L6 (Fa 24)
on April 26th. (Of course, the earth moves quite a bit in its
orbit over the course of those 20 days -- nearly 20 degrees,
and since L6 is hardly a rare type I'm sure it's just coincidence.)

Has anyone searched for periodicities (triplets) in other fall
dates for some of the rarer types (or at least something more
rare than L6 or H5)?

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Mon 05 Aug 2002 05:48:24 PM PDT