[meteorite-list] Apology to the list from India

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:26 2004
Message-ID: <20031012160937.81782.qmail_at_web20903.mail.yahoo.com>

Ok, it was another hard day in the trenched/sewers
here. I went back to the fall site, trying to find
anyone who knew where a specimen was, to no avail.
So I just get back to the hotel and read the emails,
and finally realized what a mess this has become.
I want to apologize to all on the list, for once again
allowing my short fuse to be lit. All of you who know
me, know that I am very easily provoked, that is my
worst weakness, and some have used it against me,
taunting me and causing me to erupt, making me look
bad. Well, I do try, but it is a character flaw, which
is so easily exploited. So I say I am sorry that I
allowed myself to sink down to that level.

I wanted nothing more than to come here and of course
do another succesful meteorite fall chase, and tell
everyone about it. Things turned out poorly, the
floods covered the meteorites, the rest are locked up
or lost. I am thrilled to have acqired a tiny piece of
this meteorite, one which I will look at from time to
time and remember the beauty and horror of the place
it fell. That is what meteorites are to me. I really
could care less about type, i am more interested in
the story behind each piece. I am preparing to start a
book about my adventures, of course it will be full of
stories of the places I have gone, the people behind
the meteorites. The pink man in Bilanga-Yanga, lying
in hotel bed puking my guts out in Ouagadougou while
Bob Haag wanted to go party!, the large piece of
Ourique that I haggled for 2 hours to get from an old
man who owned a bar, then his exasperated wife
grabbing the money and shoving the stone in my hand,
disbeleiving that her husband would not take my money!
Nearly stepping on the piece of Portales Valley that I
found, while Devon Schrader stepped right over it.
Those are the things that make my meteorites worth
collecting.
India will have the top spot, if only I have the small
13 gram fragment, without even fusion crust that I
love so much:(

I do not want to see myself tricked into these
absolutely useless barroom brawls. It was fun with
Casper, but this is not fun anymore.


Anyway, I will write again should something change,
and to tell what treasures I see in Calcutta.
I will see many of you in Gifhorn in less than two
weeks, and Munich in 3 weeks. All of you Germans know
that I have a fond taste for Bratwurst, if not German
beer. I cant wait to savor another Kraut and
wurstschen at Hannover Hauptbahnhof.

By the way, someone asked me to describe the
meteorite, and it got lost in the other garbage
spewing from my and others mouths.
Well here goes.

The Meteorite is a chondrite, almost certainly H5,
looks identical to Zag inside, large veins and
brecciation, lots of slickensides. The fusion crust is
where it differs from Zag. It is very thick, solid
fusion crust, whereas Zag has thick crust, but not
solid, as in many bumps and vesicle-like holes. This
meteorite has very solid thick crust, smooth though,
and the large piece has contraction cracks similar to
Nuevo Mercurio. It clearly broke up extensively very
high, there are deep regmaglypts all over the stone,
and grooves. I did not see any flow lines. I almost
drooled on the large stone it was so beautiful. I
would love to see that piece in my collection.
The other stone which fell nearby was smashed up, and
the 500 gram fragment that the police still had, was
covered in deep regmaglypts like the large stone.
When the police re-sealed the metal box where they are
being held, they wrapped it in cord (the box) and then
used the old wax seal method to melt wax on the cord
and stamped it so that it can not be opened without
seeing that the seal is broken.
The meteorite is also severly suffering from the
hostile climate here, 90 degrees, and 100% humidity
are taking it's toll already, two weeks after the fall
it is covered in rust on the broken sides.

any other questions regarding the meteorite? Of course
I will publish a webpage for this fall, with too many
photos for all to see. We all know how rare for us to
see any Indian meteorite fall.

Mike Farmer
Received on Sun 12 Oct 2003 12:09:37 PM PDT