[meteorite-list] NWA869

From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jul 14 05:33:31 2005
Message-ID: <20050714090800.28265.qmail_at_web31502.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

I had decided to not make more NWA869 postings but
since Jeff is asking I will set the record strait.
It is all one fall. It is very easy to tell them as no
other meteorite a similar outside colour. The cut
surface varies from almost yellowish to brown and
white and various degree of chondrules. But nothing
else is similar enough looking to get mixed up. Every
dealer can tell an 869 (even if they dont admit it)
A small amount of them has black inclusions that is
often marketed as possibly carbonaceous but I
understand that it is melt but I am not sure on this.
I have had brecciated pieces set aside to send to some
lab to get a proper classification but it is next to
impossible to get classifications nowadays and nobody
was interested. I still have the pieces but they are
in storage in 4 or 5 different places and I have no
plans of returning to canada anytime soon so I cant
send them anymore now.
My first experience with it was when I was sent 70
kilos and was told it was the complete fall of a
really nice new meteorite. Then more turns up (And it
kept coming). I learn that the previous munich a
dealer was selling 200 kilos as his own find (Also
being told it was the entire fall).
This might be the biggest chondrite fall known.
Personally I have gone through about 3000 kilos.
Another dealer in Ensisheim told me he went through
500 kilos and we all remember the 500 or more kilos
terry boswell had in Tucsom year before last.
Regularly the moroccan dealers had a hundred or more
kilos at a show (But almost none in munich last year
or in ensisheim and St Marie - I never made it to
tucson this year but was told no huge piles like
previous years was there).
So the strewnfield has been all hunted out. My best
guess is that there is between 6000 and 7000 kilos as
the total fall. I dont think you will get a better
guess than that. Unless some early finder is still
stockpiling thousands of kilos in secret this is the
total weight and the best one that you should use in
reporting it.
But it is certainly all one meteorite. Certain dealers
try and make you believe that a particularly nice
specimen that they have is not paired but pretty much
everybody who does this knows the difference. Its hard
to sell something this nice for 20 cents a gram.
My opinion is that it should be classified as a
brecciated L3.8-6 with impact melt. It would be hard
to get everything in one microscope sample for some
researcher to classify.
Possibly the largest ever chondrite fall is also one
of the nicest.
This is a very easy to sell meteorite. Much has been
sold to small show dealers who dont specialize in
meteorites. My betting is that this one is one that
you wont see really cheap much longer.
Cheers
DEAN




                
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Received on Thu 14 Jul 2005 05:07:59 AM PDT