[meteorite-list] Announcing a New Planetary Find
From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 8 00:06:44 2004 Message-ID: <BD63D359.F404%mlblood_at_cox.net> Congratulations! TOTALLY COOL, Dudes! OK, I'm sold, send me a full slice and 5 various thin sections - you know I'm good for it. Kidding aside, this IS very far out! Best wishes, Michael on 9/7/04 12:57 PM, Adam Hupe at raremeteorites_at_comcast.net wrote: > Dear List, > > It is with great pleasure that we announce a unique and before now > undiscovered type of lunar meteorite called NWA 3136. > > NWA 3136 is a unique Lunar meteorite from the surface of the Lunar Mare > Basin. NWA 3136 is the only lunar meteorite in the world including those > found in Antarctica to be classified as a Mare Regolith Breccia. Only four > other Mare Basalt type Luniates have ever been found and they have been > classified as various types of basalt, some monomict, others polymict but > none a true regolith. In addition there are a few lunar meteorites that > are Mare-like but with some highland components. In our opinion and the > scientists who have looked at it, NWA 3136 the most important lunar > meteorite ever found. What makes this new meteorite so important is that > NWA 3136 has sampled several types of rocks and layers of the moon over > time, kind of like a Howardite is to an asteroid but with more gardening > (turning over of rocks). This complete meteorite weighed in at only 95.1 > grams and was a perfect oriented shield. This world-class specimen hosts > several interesting and unique features including the following: > > Vesiculated glass matrix > Trapped solar wind gases in vesicles > Very low Ti glass spherules of various colors > Agglutinates > Elemental metal easily visible to the naked eye > Minerals that have not been seen outside of the Apollo collection > No highland component > World's only oriented Mare Luniate > Greatest amount of different rock types sampled in a lunar meteorite > > Link to Main Mass Image: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136MainMass.jpg > > Link to Polished Surface Image Displaying Numerous Rock Types: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136PolishedSurface.jpg > > Link to False Colored BSE Image Showing Vesiculated Matrix: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136VesiculatedMatrix.jpg > > Link to False Colored BSE Image Showing Glass Spherules: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136GlassSpheres.jpg > > Link to False Colored BSE Image Showing Big Basalt Clast: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136BigBasaltClast.jpg > > Link to False Colored BSE Image Showing Melted Basalt Clast: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136MeltedBasaltClast.jpg > > Link to False Colored BSE Image Showing Big Granitic Clast: > http://www.lunarrock.com/nwa3136/NWA3136GranophyreBig.jpg > > NWA 3136 is currently being studied by no less than five laboratories with > more coming onboard. Two former NASA scientists who studied the Apollo > lunar samples are part of the collaborative effort to investigate this > meteorite. Old NASA research protocols for the studies of Apollo Lunar > Materials have been implemented and a search is under way for possible new > minerals. Mare Regoliths are the best candidates to search for new minerals > because every Apollo mission where a Mare Regolith was sampled a new mineral > was discovered. This polymict regolith breccia from the moon is the most > complicated yet found so it may take years to discover what secrets lay > within. > > With a Total Known Weight (TKW) of only 95.1 grams there is not much to work > with. The scientific community has been provided with a type specimen > deposit weighing 19 grams plus two thin-sections. In addition a 13 gram > complete slice has been provided for a long-term record setting Very Large > Scale Characterization. This is the largest surface area ever attempted on > any Mare Luniate. In order to preserve the orientation attribute, a Main > Mass of 41 grams has been set aside with no plans for further reduction. Add > in cutting loses and that leaves very little for private distribution. The > NWA3136 Mare main mass complements our NWA 482 Highlands main mass as both > are oriented and sample the two major classes of meteorites from the moon. > We are going to list 12 specimens totaling 2.2 grams of this exceedingly > rare material on ebay later this afternoon so keep an eye out if you are > interested. We would like to thank the University of Washington for > providing us with the False Colored SEM images. Please ask before utilizing > any of these images as the are copyrighted and we will gladly grant > permission. > > > Respectfully, > > > Adam and Greg Hupe > The Hupe Collection > Team LunarRock > IMCA2185 > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Wed 08 Sep 2004 12:06:33 AM PDT |
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