[meteorite-list] Rare meteorite found near Lake Huron

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:33 2004
Message-ID: <20020612234010.41338.qmail_at_web10401.mail.yahoo.com>

Is there a problem with messages posted to the List?
Ron Baalke tried sending this, but it never made it to
the List Archives:

Rare meteorite found near Lake Huron
By CHRISTINE BOYD
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
June 12, 2002

One of the world's rarest meteorites has been
discovered by an amateur rock hound strolling along a
boulder-strewn shore of Lake Huron.

Carl Young, a London, Ont., resident, stumbled across
the 2.5-kilogram rock on a beach littered with granite
and limestone boulders in the Owen Sound area in
April, 2001.

Suspecting that the slightly flattened elliptoid was
something special - it is unusually heavy for its
20-centimetre width and, when cleaned up, shows bright
green crystals the size of a fingertip surrounded by
highly reflective metal - he lugged it home.

The rock sat in his carport for three weeks until Mr.
Young realized that it was magnetic, so he hauled it
to the University of Western Ontario in London for
positive identification.

"This is truly an incredible find," Neil MacRae, a
Western earth sciences professor, told
globeandmail.com. "This type of meteorite has only
been
found three times in Canada - that makes it quite
rare. I was delighted."

The meteorite is a pallasite, consisting of both
metals and silicate minerals, and the 52nd of its kind
ever found.

Researchers suspect that it is a remnant of debris
that scattered throughout space after two very large
bodies collided.

They hope it will help them learn more about how
planets develop in the asteroid belt, which should
also shed light on the composition of deeply buried
layers in Earth's core.

Scientists at Western first had to determine if the
meteorite had fallen elsewhere and had been
transported by humans - possibly as ballast from a
ship wrecked in Lake Huron - or if it was a new fall.
Mr. MacRae analyzed the chemical composition of the
silicate material in the meteorite, which turned out
to be similar to that of a famous Brenham pallasite
meteorite
that fell in Kansas in 1882 - but varied enough to
determine that it was from a different fall.

The researchers could not tell how old the meteorite
is or how long it has been sitting near Lake Huron.

"We haven't the vaguest idea," Mr. MacRae said. "If it
was in modern times, people would have seen and heard
it. This could have been sitting there for thousands
of years."

The researchers are now trying to officially register
the meteorite, nicknamed the "Southampton Pallasite,"
after the nearest post office, with the Meteoritical
Society Bulletin.

"I've been an amateur rock hound for about 25 years,
so this was pretty exciting," Mr. Young said.


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Received on Wed 12 Jun 2002 07:40:10 PM PDT