[meteorite-list] Dhofar 979 ureilite

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Oct 15 06:19:33 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000002100002A42_at_paulinet.de>

David Weir wrote:

> I for one am struck by the texture of this new ureilite, and I can't
> really figure out what I'm seeing. Under a scope with incident light
> my 19mm x 14mm x 2mm, 2.03 gram part slice is composed of virtually
> 100 % clear to yellowish, translucent to glassy, sub-mm to mm-sized
> silicates, which allow for an almost see-thru quality.

A 1.71-gram slice of Dhofar 979 is on its way to me and Mike will
send it from Frankfurt on his way to Munich. I am really looking
forward to holding this "gem" in my hands and letting my eyes wander
over it with my microscope - especially after seeing John Kashuba's
excellent pics that even reveal several triple junctions of 120?.

> I can't really figure out what I'm seeing.

I think we are looking at several golden-brown, translucent
olivine crystals. A thin section would be very helpful here.

> I don't observe any matrix or opaque
> veins that are typical in most ureilites.

John's pic that has a field of view of 3.4 mm shows
some interstitial opaque material ... at least I think so.

Best regards,

Bernd
Received on Fri 15 Oct 2004 06:19:31 AM PDT