[meteorite-list] Esterville ?????

From: LabNEMS <staff_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:24 2004
Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.2.20030202213834.0215db00_at_popmail.xensei.com>

Mark / Anyone interested:

I don't believe this to be a sample of the Estherville mesosiderite.

The metal distribution is wrong, the vugs are large and round while specimens
of Estherville display small (1 to 4mm) angular cavities and a bi-modal
distribution of metal.

Additionally please note the smooth, fine-grained matrix or groundmass of
the specimen in question. Estherville's is coarser, granulated and not smooth.

The exterior surfaces of every piece of Estherville that I've ever seen
have small bits/blebs of exposed metal visible.

One "Hallmark" characteristic of Estherville is it's dark,
gray-black-bluish exterior.
I see none of this in the hand-samples displayed.

I know that we're only working with images here but in my opinion
this specimen appears more like an igneous artifact than a meteorite.

Russ Kempton, NEMS
www.meteorlab.com
Received on Sun 02 Feb 2003 09:40:04 PM PST