[meteorite-list] RE: The Other Mars Meteorite - LafayetteMeteorite

From: Marc D. Fries <m.fries_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 16 10:50:47 2004
Message-ID: <2787.10.17.14.1.1095344552.squirrel_at_webmail.ciw.edu>

I don't recall if Lafayette is actually on display right now, but the
Smithsonian folks have an outstanding picture of it among the pics they
keep in their office hallways. It is the most beautiful meteorite I've
seen. The flow lines are pristine and damn near radially symmetric, with
a high gloss even now. The story I heard was that it was found an unknown
number of years ago in an unknown location, but turned up in a rock
collection owned by the U of Illinois in Lafayette. It was originally
labeled as a rock that had been transported by glaciers during the last
ice age and had been scoured by passing ice. It was subsequently
identified for what it is, and was broken in half for analysis.

Cheers,
MDF


>
>>The reference that I forward to you (Jull, 1997) calls
>>out a terrestrial age for Lafayette as being ~9kya.
>>I still haven't found the reference that brings that
>>age down to the "2,900 years ago" that Astrobiology
>>Magazine staffwriter, Dr. David Noever, wrote about in
>>his article.
>
>
> correct me if i'm wrong, but isnt (wasnt) lafayette on display in the
> smithsonian? granted i'm working on a 15 year old memory here, but wasnt
> the
> stone perfectly crusted with glossy black crust and flowlines? my memory
> of
> the stone is that it was more attractive in tewrms of crust than
> millbillillie or camel donga - comperable to that of zagami. how is this
> possible if the stone is 3 to 9 kya old? or is my memory just failing me
> in
> my old age?
>
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---
Marc D. Fries, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Geophysical Laboratory
5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW
Washington, DC 20015
PH:  202 478 7970
FAX: 202 478 8901

Received on Thu 16 Sep 2004 10:22:32 AM PDT