[meteorite-list] Amgala versus Zag

From: Adam Hupe <adamhupe_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:50 2004
Message-ID: <035501c409a4$50b767e0$62f61018_at_attbi.com>

Hello All,

At first glance Amgala is somewhat similar looking to Zag. I do not believe
it is going to classify as a regolith breccia but rather a polymict breccia.
Unlike Zag, no type 3 areas have been identified. Two laboratories are
currently studying Amgala and neither one has observed water bearing
minerals although some interesting clasts have been found which we will
report on later. Another party suggested halite because ~10% of the most
recently collected broken stones show some oxidation and this would help to
explain this. This was mentioned to a scientists who felt there maybe some
water bearing halite but none was found thus far.

As far as the price dropping into the $5.00 to $7.00 a gram range it is very
doubtful because there is less than 12 kilograms TKW, fully which half has
already been sold to collectors for between $7.50 a gram for fragments and
$12.00 a gram for fully crusted specimens. Add the fact the seventh and
final trip to the area by our Moroccan partners only produced five stones
making it less than cost effective to return to the region. The last trip
did not produce enough material to cover the rental rig or diesel costs.
All indications are that this is a very small fall with precious little more
material coming out. After all, nomads avoid this area and soldiers have
been methodically searching it for four months now. Only the soldiers know
which areas are safe and which are not and they are done searching because
of the lack of new finds associated with this fall.

We incurred communication, transportation, purchase material, sample
material, supplies, shipping and lab fee costs making this a very expensive
undertaking. The fact that 26% of the recovered stones which we paid the
high field price for turned out to be a black chondrite not related to this
fall increased our acquisition costs by nearly the same percentage. Add all
of this together and it was a costly ordeal chasing this one down.

We will update as lab results come in which promise to be interesting.

All the best,

Adam


----- Original Message -----
From: <j.divelbiss_at_att.net>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 6:23 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Amgala versus Zag


> Hello All,
>
> Yesterday I received a small individual of Amgala from the Hupes that was
probably an individual broken in half. While most of the piece has a
beautiful black crust, the broken face was quite oxidized, so I decided to
cut that end off today to see the inside. As stated by Mike and Adam, Amgala
is a nice breccia with lots of metal. To me it looks a lot like a fresh
piece of Zag with it's lightened H6 areas in contrast with the darker veined
H4 +/- areas. The darker areas have that same blueish grey look to it as Zag
does with lighter chunks and chondrules mixed in. Is Amgala a water bearing
meteorite too? The metal I've seen in Zag is more homogeneous, while the
piece of Amgala I have has more patches of metal in it, especially in the
lighter H6 like parts. Amgala's crust is little better than the nicer
pieces of Zag I have.
>
> The amazing thing to me is that they fell in the exact same region of
Africa... and look very similar...IMHO.
>
> All in all Amgala is very nice, but I can see this meteorite eventually
falling into the $5 to $7 range like most other falls these days...except
Park Forest that is. The present pricing of $8 to 12/g seems too high to
me...but then again I bought a piece for $10/g while it is still new to us
all. :)
>
> Reporting in on Amgala,
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Sun 14 Mar 2004 04:11:19 AM PST