[meteorite-list] Portales Valley Crust

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:31 2004
Message-ID: <20020607023348.43695.qmail_at_web11607.mail.yahoo.com>

Hello Ron, Harlan, and list,

   I was fortunate enough to find the 34Kg main mass
of Portales Valley and will offer my observations on
the question about the crust.

   The appearance of the crust varies a fair amount
from spot to spot over the piece. In some areas,it is
fairly weak and very thin, and light grey in color.
But on other areas, it is much more developed. In
fact, it appears to me that the piece was at least
somewhat briefly oriented. On one side and the "back",
the fusion crust is very smooth and sculpted, and a
rich black in color. This "back" side also has the
adhesions of molten globules that are sometimes found
on the back sides of oriented meteorites. This "back"
side also has a large area of crust that exhibits
textbook contraction lines.

   My piece was very metal-rich, with large veins and
knobs of nickel-iron scattered throughout, and
protruding thru the crust. Even they vary from one to
another. Some are very black, while others are the
silvery color of fresh iron. There are some very
prominent flow lines visible on these metal knobs and
veins.

   I enjoyed reading the postings on the history of
formation, and the uniqueness of PV on the list
yesterday. In addition to PV being the first "stone"
meteorite to exhibit Widmanstatten figures in its
metal, I believe it is also interesting to note that
large, ~ 1 inch graphite nodules have been found
embedded in the metal veins of PV.

   Sincerely,

   Robert Woolard




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Received on Thu 06 Jun 2002 10:33:48 PM PDT