[meteorite-list] Images of Strange Achondrite Found In the Sahara

From: Adam Hupe <adamhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:02 2004
Message-ID: <009a01c3dbc6$29869800$d2dbe60c_at_attbi.com>

Dear List Members,

We promised to provide images of the strange stone that was acquired on our
December 2003 Sahara expedition. Sorry for the delay but it took time
distribute the material to three laboratories and several team members. We
wanted to give them a chance to savor the oddness of this piece for
themselves before making images public.

In the first image you can see what appears to be a lip-over rim,
contraction-cracks and flow lines on jet black glassy crust covering 70% of
the specimen.

Two thirds stone image link:
http://www.lunarrock.com/NewStone/achondrite2.jpg

The second image displays several perfectly spherical vesicles and multiple
colored crystals in a fragmental breccia.

Close up of broken surface link:
http://www.lunarrock.com/NewStone/achondrite1.jpg

Several oddities have been observed in the initial study including the
following:

Elongated multi-colored glass objects that look like Pele's hairs imbedded
in the matrix.
Perfectly spherical vesicles present in matrix
2mm weathering rind under a very thin glass crust on the side with lip-over.
Contain several highly refractive minerals never before observed in any
meteorite.
Is more friable than a Nahklite meaning it did not lay in the desert very
long.
Is definitely not related to the HED group judging from ratios measured in
the minerals.

We do not want to speculate about its origin until more testing is done.

All the best,

Adam and Greg Hupe
The Hupe Collection
IMCA 2185
Received on Thu 15 Jan 2004 07:17:43 PM PST