[meteorite-list] Good article from the Denver Post

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Dec 8 11:07:50 2005
Message-ID: <DIIE.000000210000407F_at_paulinet.de>

Darren inquired:

"Anyone know the name of the meteorite in the top photo?"

Hi Darren and List,

Assuming this is an iron from Colorado, there are only three possibilities:

Bear Creek - Guffey - Rifle

but as Mike just wrote: "That is a Canyon Diablo", let's settle for
Canyon Diablo, although there is a discrepancy between those
80 pounds in the caption of the photo and the 102.7 kg Buchwald
mentions (see below). So it could also be Bear Creek or Guffey,
or, the weight (80 pounds) is incorrect. Any comments, Mike?


Regards,

Bernd

Here is some background info from Buchwald:

Canyon Diablo (Rifle), Colorado, U.S.A. 39? 31' N / 107? 50' W

A mass of 102.7 kg was allegedly found in 1948 near Rifle, Garfield County, and was
described as the independent coarse octahedrite, Rifle. According to a note in the
Smithsonian Institution, the finder, Harry M. Morre of Rifle, maintained that the
specimen had been found about six miles from Rifle. However, Dr. E.P. Henderson
suspected it to be just another Canyon Diablo specimen ... Wasson (1970a) assumed
that Rifle was an independent meteorite ...

An examination of the specimens in Tempe, London and Washington, shows that the Rifle
material is a typical Canyon Diablo specimen of the plains type. There is no point in giving
a full description, since the structure corresponds in all details to what has already been
described under Canyon Diablo ...

It must be concluded that Rifle is another of those transported fragments from the Meteor
Crater field. However, it is not known when this occurred. The distance between Meteor
Crater and Rifle is 600 km as the crow flies, but Rifle is situated on Highway 70, and the
automobile was invented long before the 100 kg mass was "discovered."

Reference:

BUCHWALD V.F. (1975) Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Volume 2, pp. 406.
Received on Thu 08 Dec 2005 11:07:43 AM PST