[meteorite-list] Shirokovsky
From: Randy Mils <acculabs_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:37 2004 Message-ID: <BAY2-F117xpTljBOh8s00008dec_at_hotmail.com> <html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P>I think at this time I will just hold on to my piece of Shirokovsky. Seems like the smart thing to do while this all gets sorted out. A piece of Shirokovsky could be a very sought after sample in years to come, depending on the outcome of this controversy.<BR></P> <P>Randy<BR></P></DIV> <DIV></DIV>>From: "Laurie Kallis" <LAURIEKALLIS_at_HOTMAIL.COM> <DIV></DIV>>To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com <DIV></DIV>>Subject: [meteorite-list] Shirokovsky <DIV></DIV>>Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:38:49 -0400 <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>First, let me apologize for the length of this posting. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>We have been involved with the distribution of Shirokovsky Meteorite <DIV></DIV>>since family made the recovery last year. Shirokovskymeteorite.com <DIV></DIV>>is our website. <DIV></DIV>>Since questions of the meteorite's authenticity were raised we have <DIV></DIV>>refrained from making sales and have added a clause to that effect <DIV></DIV>>to our webiste. <DIV></DIV>>One of the members of the Russian group who made the recovery has <DIV></DIV>>written in response to the the questions of authenticity and the <DIV></DIV>>accusations. We have translated his response and pasted it into the <DIV></DIV>>body of this email. This same article will soon be added to the <DIV></DIV>>website. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Specimens, properly prepared specimens, are currently being retested <DIV></DIV>>in St. Petersburg. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Until then........ <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>So,what on Earth is it? <DIV></DIV>>Search Expeditions for the Ugleuralsky (Shirokovsky) Meteorite: <DIV></DIV>>2000-2003 <DIV></DIV>>What distinguished the search expeditions then known as the <DIV></DIV>>“Ugleuralsky” meteorite expeditions from other contemporary <DIV></DIV>>meteoritic expeditions was their official tone: the preparation <DIV></DIV>>under the auspices of the Russian Geographical Society and the <DIV></DIV>>involvement of mass media. Thirty people, not counting the local <DIV></DIV>>volunteers and Shirokovsky Power Station staff, participated in the <DIV></DIV>>four search expeditions that took place between 2000 and 2003. <DIV></DIV>>First hand witnesses of the meteorite fall who still live in the <DIV></DIV>>Shirokovsky village, those who came to the hole in the ice after <DIV></DIV>>experiencing the flash of light and the sound effect in 1956, were <DIV></DIV>>thoroughly questioned. Their recollections of the location of the <DIV></DIV>>point of impact coincided with the topographic tyings to the terrain <DIV></DIV>>reported by the USSR Sverdlovsk Academy of Science expedition <DIV></DIV>>carried out in 1956, immediately after the fall. <DIV></DIV>>A detailed relief map of the reservoir bottom supplied by the board <DIV></DIV>>of the Shirokovsky Power Station, in concordance with the opinions <DIV></DIV>>of specialists in ballistics, determined the extent of the search <DIV></DIV>>area. <DIV></DIV>>The search proved more difficult than expected because constant <DIV></DIV>>removal of sunken timber logs from the reservoir bottom over the <DIV></DIV>>years had dispersed the meteorite fragments over a much larger area <DIV></DIV>>than was originally anticipated. Eventually, with the help of a <DIV></DIV>>metal detector, our group recovered approximately 150 kg of samples. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Encountering Difficulties <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>The friendliness shown by the local population was inversely <DIV></DIV>>proportional to the growing awareness of the potential value of the <DIV></DIV>>possible find. A representative of the local ‘Family’, paid us a <DIV></DIV>>visit by jeep, showing a great but vaguely formulated interest in <DIV></DIV>>our diving activities. <DIV></DIV>>After our diving group departed in late spring, scientists from the <DIV></DIV>>city of Sverdlovsk, led by professor Grokhovsky, arrived with their <DIV></DIV>>own group of divers who risked their lives on weakened ice that had <DIV></DIV>>developed cracks and was no longer safe to walk on in the hope of <DIV></DIV>>locating any meteoritic substance missed by our group. <DIV></DIV>>We appealed to the Committee for Meteorites at the Vernadsky <DIV></DIV>>Institute to have samples of the Shirokovsky specimens tested. Our <DIV></DIV>>appeal was rejected on the grounds that they had no information <DIV></DIV>>about the Ugleuralsky meteorite fall, despite a number of scientific <DIV></DIV>>and media reports dating back to 1956. <DIV></DIV>>Sampling services and subsequent registration were offered by <DIV></DIV>>enthusiast A. Milanovsky (http://meteorites.narod.ru), but our group <DIV></DIV>>was not looking for easy ways. We planned to have the Shirokovsky <DIV></DIV>>samples tested and registered as a meteorite in another country. We <DIV></DIV>>sent a representative to the Girorne Meteoritic Fair in Germany <DIV></DIV>>where he met people from the same CMET who originally rejected our <DIV></DIV>>appeal to have the samples tested. This time, they convinced our <DIV></DIV>>representative that it would be patriotic to carry out the research <DIV></DIV>>and register the meteorite in Russia. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Defining a Meteorite <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Further developments in our quest to have Shirokovsky registered as <DIV></DIV>>a meteorite can serve as a precedent for future discussions on the <DIV></DIV>>topic ‘what should be considered a meteorite?’. <DIV></DIV>>Historically, the system of identification and registration of <DIV></DIV>>meteorites first presumes that a sample is either of terrestrial <DIV></DIV>>origin or artificial. To prevent the Committee on Meteorites from <DIV></DIV>>being transformed into the mining branch, they quickly sift out the <DIV></DIV>>‘rubbish’, by searching for specific features defined by a system of <DIV></DIV>>identification that follows existing theories of the formation of <DIV></DIV>>the universe. Logically, the samples treated most skeptically are <DIV></DIV>>those submitted without genealogy, those that have no testimonial <DIV></DIV>>evidence of their fall or the point of impact. <DIV></DIV>>In the case of Shirokovsky, not only is the area of the fall <DIV></DIV>>identified, but the actual point of impact was accurately located in <DIV></DIV>>the frozen reservoir. During the course of our four search <DIV></DIV>>expeditions, an area at the bottom of the reservoir with a radius of <DIV></DIV>>100m centered beneath the identified point of impact was literally <DIV></DIV>>scrutinized with magnifying glasses and pincers. We found no other <DIV></DIV>>stones capable of leaving the iron-nickel traces that were found on <DIV></DIV>>the walls of the ice hole where the meteorite entered the reservoir <DIV></DIV>>in 1956. Nor was anything found by our rivals, the alternative <DIV></DIV>>divers’ expedition from the city of Sverdlovsk. It is almost certain <DIV></DIV>>that what our divers lifted from the reservoir bottom is what fell <DIV></DIV>>from the sky, broke through the ice and left the iron nickel traces <DIV></DIV>>in 1956, simply because their was nothing else found on the <DIV></DIV>>reservoir bottom that could have left such traces. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Testing of Shirokovsky <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Recent testing of Shirokovsky has indicated that Shirokovsky is on <DIV></DIV>>the terrestrial oxygen isotope fractionation line. Experts of the <DIV></DIV>>Kurchatov Institute have questioned the purity of this testing <DIV></DIV>>because the sample specimen was not properly prepared by means of <DIV></DIV>>laser ablation for the mass spectrometry. Before it was tested, the <DIV></DIV>>sample underwent thermal, chemical and other influences that may <DIV></DIV>>have led to substitution of oxygen in the olivine. At this stage, <DIV></DIV>>the Saint Petersburgian Scientific Research Institute will provide <DIV></DIV>>some aid with VSEGEI (noble gases, lead) and GIPCH (oxygen) testing <DIV></DIV>>under the direction of the Russian Academy of Science Precambrian <DIV></DIV>>Institute Research Laboratory of U. A. (Shukulukov and L. K. <DIV></DIV>>Levsky), where the samples are currently being prepared. We expect <DIV></DIV>>that the tests results will show either the shifting of isotopic <DIV></DIV>>ratio relative to the line of terrestrial rocks or they will ascribe <DIV></DIV>>the sample to the anomalous group - lunar, Martian, aubrita, etc - <DIV></DIV>>that contradicts the homogeneous picture of the origin of the <DIV></DIV>>terrestrial rocks. <DIV></DIV>>Radiogenic argon was found in the Shirokovsky specimens, although in <DIV></DIV>>smaller quantities than expected. We hope that the figures will be <DIV></DIV>>more in line after a properly prepared sample is tested at the <DIV></DIV>>above-mentioned institutions. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Making a Meteorite <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>When the test results, results from testing conducted on an <DIV></DIV>>improperly prepared Shirokovsky specimen, favored a terrestrial <DIV></DIV>>origin, some speculated that the specimen was an artificially <DIV></DIV>>produced ‘false meteorite’ - similar to a product produced through <DIV></DIV>>blast furnace casting in the former USSR. <DIV></DIV>>In response to this speculation, we turned to the staff of different <DIV></DIV>>scientific and metallurgical institutions, questioning the <DIV></DIV>>possibility of using existing technologies to create an object with <DIV></DIV>>a composition similar to that of Shirokovsky. The metallurgists gave <DIV></DIV>>quite an irrefutable answer. <DIV></DIV>>Only three ways of forming metal are known: <DIV></DIV>>1. forging <DIV></DIV>>2. casting <DIV></DIV>>3. sintering (powder metallurgy) <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Forging: <DIV></DIV>>Forging, where metal is heated to a high temperature, then hammered <DIV></DIV>>into shape, is obviously out of the question. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Casting <DIV></DIV>>Casting an object with a composition similar to that of Shirokovsky <DIV></DIV>>is possible only under zero gravity conditions, since Archimedean <DIV></DIV>>force would instantly eject the lighter minerals to the surface. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Sintering (Powder Metallurgy) <DIV></DIV>>Sintering would allow minerals to disperse inside the mould. But no <DIV></DIV>>mould could cast a stone with surface protrusions that jut out at <DIV></DIV>>opposing angles. The extraction of the object from the mould would <DIV></DIV>>inevitably lead to its destruction. Moreover, the outside cavities <DIV></DIV>>of the mould would tend to fill with the smaller particles of powder <DIV></DIV>>instead of the larger mineral crystals. Shirokovsky has surface <DIV></DIV>>protrusions that jut out at opposing angles. These protrusions are <DIV></DIV>>filled with larger pieces of olivine and metallic matrix. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>What is Shirokovsky? <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>Thus, in summary, Shirokovsky can be described as: <DIV></DIV>>“something found at the point of impact of a celestial body and <DIV></DIV>>something impossible to produce with methods currently known to <DIV></DIV>>science”. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>A. Alexeyevich <DIV></DIV>>Full Member of the Russian Geographical Society. <DIV></DIV>>Participant of the search expedition for the Ugleuralsky <DIV></DIV>>(Shirokovsky) meteorite. <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>_________________________________________________________________ <DIV></DIV>>MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* <DIV></DIV>>http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>> <DIV></DIV>>______________________________________________ <DIV></DIV>>Meteorite-list mailing list <DIV></DIV>>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com <DIV></DIV>>http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list <DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>MSN 8 helps <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMCENUS/2743??PS=">ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. </a> Get 2 months FREE*.</html> Received on Thu 12 Jun 2003 11:56:19 AM PDT |
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