[meteorite-list] Ensisheim TKW

From: Zelimir Gabelica <Z.Gabelica_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:53:32 2004
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.20021202234248.007457a8_at_pop.univ-mulhouse.fr>

Hi Anne, Joseph, Charlie, Eric, Steven, Julien, Thomas, Russ and list,

I wrote a similar message a few days ago but it appears (at least to me)
that it was not dispatched. I am trying again today but with much more=
 updates.

Many thanks to all of you who started to report the amount of Ensisheim
meteorite that is resting in your collections.
 I especially appreciate when you tell me the source. The fact that, for
example, Eric's piece comes from the Vatican collection and was before in
that of the Marquis de Mauroy, is a nice story and a very interesting
filliation.=20
Knowing the former owners could perhaps soon result in a huge cobweb but
this could also possibly help me in resolving many cross cuts and try to
perhaps build one day a 510 years old family tree of the metorite. Nothing
to loose to try.

I was also impressed by the weight of the part slice owned by Joseph
Murakami. 45 grams would put him close to the top of the "hit parade" of the
meteorite lucky owners (excluding perhaps official museums that are by no
means far on top).
 But so far, as the compilation of even tiny fragments can proove
significant for the big total, may I suggest Joseph weighs his slice more
accurately as every further fraction of gram is significant for us (and for
him good to know). The milligrams of Charlie's or Steve's pieces mentioned
for their accurately weighed pieces are significant to us as well and so is
the 0.22 g fragment reported by Julien. Small gulches make big rivers.

I also had in mind compiling the weights of Ensisheim meteorites owned by
some official institutions and I'd appreciate curtators of these institutes
or owners of the related private collections bring me their weights,
corrections and/or additions.
 I was ready to start the official contacts but, in the meantime, Russ
Kempton provided me with an invaluable list of repositories and private
collection weights coming from his database.
I am very grateful to him, as his list is a compilation of several data
bases, probably recently updated. As many official data, it reflects only
reported weights.=20
At that stage, it is perhaps interesting to compare his data with those
officially published in two other serious references, namely:
=20
1) the BM. Catalog (M. Grady, Ed. 2000) and=20
2) our own "Red Book" archiving the History of Ensisheim ("ENSISHEIM, Son
Histoire =E0 travers les Pierres", edited by the Confr=E9rie St Georges des
Gardiens de la M=E9t=E9orite d'Ensisheim, Sept. 1993, 133 pp, Table p 25=
 (World
Distribution of the Ensisheim Meteorite Fragments, as compiled by J.
Schmutzer, Hamburg, Gremany), data that are probably fragmentary and that
need updating.

Here is the result of my preliminary comparison of these 3 series of data:

Place NEMS BM
Catalog "Red Book" =20
             =20
Ensisheim, Mus=E9e de la R=E9gence 54.51 kg 55.75kg
55.75kg =20
Paris, Mus. d'Hist. Nat 10.2 kg
9.79 kg 9.79kg
London; Nat. Hist. Mus. 911g
911.2g 689g (!)
Berlin, Mus. Naturk., Humboldt Univ. 906g 905g
905g
Vienna, Naturhist. Mus. 660g 588g
(!) 660g=20
Washington, U.S. Nat. Mus. 235g 258g
(!) 458g (!!)
T=FCbingen, Min.-Petrogr. Inst. 220g 316g
(!) 316g (!)
Uppsala Univ. Mus. -
- 210g (?) =20
Malta, Montana, Marlin Cilz Colln. - -
504g (?)=20
Tempe, Arizona State Univ. 155g 209g
(!) 209.5g (!)
Brussels, Inst. Roy. Sci. Mus. 191g -
191.4g
Z=FCrich, ETH 189g
- -
Modena, Min. Inst. Univ. 177g -
177g
Tucson, Haag Colln. 176g
- 176g
Cambridge, Univ.(GB) 133g -
147g
Chicago, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. 115g 109g
110g
New York, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 112g 111g
127g
G=F6ttingen, Min. Inst. Univ. 111g =
 -
158.6g (!)
Karlsruhe Univ. -
- 142.0g (?)
Stockholm, Naturhist. Riksmus. 80g -
51.0g (!)
Troyes, Mus. d'Hist. Nat. 79.1 -
82.0g (!)
Calcutta, Mus. Geol. Surv. India 77g 77g
76.9g
Copenhagen, Univ. Geol. Mus. 77g -
77.0g
Rome, Vatican Observatory Colln. 77g 76g
77g =20
Basel, Naturhist. Mus. 76g
- -
Strasbourg, Min. Mus 74g
- 73.5g
Dresden, Min. Geol. Mus. 73.4
- 73.0g
Oxford, Univ. Mus. 71g
- - =20
Kankakee, Illinois, J.Schwade Colln. 66g -
105.0g (!)
Buenos Aires, Asoc. H. Pampa 63g -
-=20
Prague, Nat. Mus. 51.5g
- 51.5g =20
Stockholm Mus. -
- 51.0g
Fischerhude, Koblitz Colln 42.3
- -
Oeschgen, Beat Booz Colln. 38.5g -
- =20
Paris, =C9cole des Mines 38g
- 38.0g
Hamburg, Mus. Min.-Petrogr. Inst. 36.1g -
27.5g
Moscow, Acad. Sci. 34g
33.52g 33.5g
Turin Univ. -
- 32.0g
Harvard Univ. Min. Mus. -
- 27.0
Massachusetts, NEMS Reference Col. 29.4g -
-
Freiberg, S=E4chs. Bergakad. 28g
- 28g
Hamburg Miner. Inst. Mus. -
- 27.5g
Bonn, Min. Mus. Univ. 26.9g
- 22.2g
Augsburg, D. Heinlein Colln. 26.5g
- 26.5g
Bern, Phys. Inst. Univ. 24.5g
- -
Gifhorn, Bartoschewitz Colln. 24.3g
24.3g 24.3g =20
Aachen Mus. -
- 24.0g
Cambridge, Harvard Univ. 21g
- 27.0g =20
New Haven, Yale Univ., Peabody Mus. 18g -
18.0g =20
Budapest, Nat. Mus. 17.5g
17.5g 17.5g =20
Z=FCrich, J.Nauber Colln. 14.3g
- -
Greifswald, Geol. Dept. Univ. 14g
- 14.0g
Ottawa, Mus. Geol. Surv. Canada 14g
15.1g 14.0g =20
Braunschweig, Techn. Univ. 12.5g
- 22.2g (!)
Canberra, Austr. Nat. Univ. 12.5g
- 12.5g
Kazan, Geol.-Min. Mus., Ulyanov Univ. 11.7g -
- =20
Tallinn, Geol. Inst. Acad. Sci. 11g
- 17.8g (!) =20
Moscow, Geol. Mus., Acad. Rural Econ. 11g -
-
Belgrade Nat. Hist. Mus. -
- 11.0g
Cluj, Min. Mus. Univ. 10.5g
- -
M=FCnster, Min. Mus. Univ. 10g
- -
Gotha, Mus. Naturk. 9g
- 9.0g
Sch=F6nenwerd, Bally-Prior Mus. 9g
- 9.0g
Los Angeles, Univ. of Calif. 8.8g
8.8g 8.8g
Grenchen, T.Stuedi Colln. 8.5g
- -
Algonquin, DuPont Colln. 8.0g
8g 7.8g
Freiburg, Min.-Petrogr. Inst. 7g
- -
Machecoul, Guibert Colln. 7g
- -
Rome, Inst. Min. Mus. 7.0g
- -
Bologna, Min. Mus. Univ. 6.5g
- 6.5g =20
Moscow, Min. Mus. Geol. Inst. 26g
- -
Wroclaw, Dept. Min. Petrol., Univ. 6g
- 5.0g =20
Heidelberg, Min. Inst. Univ. 5.9g
- -
Wroclaw Univ. -
- 5.0g
Philadelphia Acad. Sci. -
- 4.9g
San Ramon, T.Toffoli Colln. 4.9g
- -
Fort Worth, TCU., Monnig Colln. 4.3g
8g (!) - =20
Heidelberg, Max-Planck-Inst. 4g
- 4.1g =20
Helsinki, Geol. Mus. Univ. 4g
- 4.0g =20
Jena, Min. Inst. Univ. 4g
- 4.0g =20
St. Petersburg, Mining Mus. 4g
- - =20
Stuttgart, Staatl. Mus. Naturk. 3.2g
- 3.2g =20
Bern, Naturhist. Mus. 3.1g
- -
Paris, A.Carion Colln. 3.1g
- - =20
Tokyo, NIPR 2.3g
- 2.3g =20
Weimar, Goethe Mus. [J.W.v.Goethe Coll.] 2g -
2.0g
Freiburg, J.Otto Colln 1.7g
- 1.7g =20
Bologna, Astron. Observatory 1.6g
- 6.5g (!) =20
Utrecht, Lab. Geofis. Geochem. 1.5g
- 1.5g
Li=E8ge, Univ. 1.4g
- -
Stade, A.Seidel Colln. 0.8g
- -
Gloggnitz, Franger Colln. 0.5g
- - =20
Leonding, Raab Colln. 0.3g
- - =20
-----------------------------
And from the first answers to my call, from the list:

Honolulu (Hi), Joseph Murakami 45.??g
Waldkirch (D), Renate & Michael Buckler 16.1g
Oleye (B), Zelimir Gabelica Colln. 15.82g
NEMS reserve about 9g
......, Eric Olson Coll. =
 2.05g
......, Thomas Webb Coll. 1.3885g
......, Charlie Devine Coll. 1.346g
......, Steven Drummond Coll. 1.342g
......, Julien Courtois Coll. 0.22g

----------------
I did not made any total yet, for obvious reasons, essentially because
nothing is complete and also because of some important discrepancies that
appear from the 3 main compilations.The reasons for these discrepancies are
various and I hope they will disappear progressively as my quest would
progress. I also speculate that the values as compiled by Russ from recent
data could be the most reliable so far, because the most recent. While the
BM catalog is not complete by purpose, some data that appear in the "Red
Book" are not on NEMS list. I'd appreciate Russel checking that point.

 It is also possible that the main weight held in some important museums was
not checked accurately (Paris ?), as it was the case with the remaining
piece held in Ensisheim.=20
This latter must now be officially considered as 53.831 kg (see my preceding
message).=20
It is actually curious that, although this weight was only roughly estimated
to be "about" 55 kg through ages, the officially reported weights from the
above lists are quite accurate (54.51 kg and 55.75 kg). It should be funny
to know who ever invented these numbres...

However, from a first glance of a rough total in this preliminary
compilation, it appears (so far, in the beginning of this quest) that we are
far from being atteining the missing mass (between the initial 127 kg and
the today total preserved), suggesting that there are far more pieces to be
found to match that difference. In other words, it appears that there should
be less frauds (false Ensisheim pieces) offered on the web, than suspected
by Harlan Trammell.=20
We have some ideas here where such missing pieces could be or on how they
disappeared with time. But this is another story that I may write later.

I am now looking to hearing from more of you, known, renown or unknown
collectors and/or museum curators for your weight of your Ensisheim
meteorite(s) or your comments on these data that I hope you are able to
correct or complete.

I warmly thank everybody in advance for that and for keeping me (and the
list) in close touch. I will do the same by making the point from time to
time, as per your suggestions.

All the best to all and happy hunting!

Zelimir
******************************************************
Prof. Zelimir Gabelica
Groupe S=E9curit=E9 et Ecologie Chimiques (GSEC) - ENSCMu
3, rue A. Werner
F-68093 MULHOUSE Cedex, FRANCE
Tel: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 94
FAX: +33 (0)3 89 33 68 15
e-Mail: Z.Gabelica_at_uha.fr
******************************************************
Received on Mon 02 Dec 2002 06:42:48 PM PST