[meteorite-list] Heating moldavites and tektite look-alikes

From: jambon <jambon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 22 03:08:59 2005
Message-ID: <a05010400bf06c9e02e05_at_[134.157.41.2]>

If a glass makes foam it is terrestrial. If it does not you don't
know. Actually the temperature at which it transforms depends on the
amount of water it contains. A low water obsidian (0.2 wt%) would
foam at 950?C not less.
Albert


>AL wrote:
>
>"Someone mentioned one time of putting tektites in a microwave oven for
>a bit (on high) to try to determine if it is an Earth based specimen or
>a possible tektite ... "
>
>
>Hello AL, Doug, Norm, and List,
>
>Back in the year 2000, Jim Kriegh experimented with Apache tears and those
>tektite look-alikes from Arizona that I chose to simply call Arizonaites
>(there are 18 of these in my collection which I got from Jim and Twink).
>Here is what Jim wrote:
>
>" ... Thought there is something you should know about the Arizona
>'whatevers'.
>I had a chemist friend (he also has studied geology) heat one of
>them in an oven
>along with an Apache tear. The Apache tear foamed as the water
>started coming out
>of it. The Arizonaite showed no signs of water. He even raised the temperature
>another 500 degrees F above what the Apache tear started foaming and all the
>Arizonaite did was glow red. After cooling it looked the same as
>before. I am going
>to test some more to see if any moisture shows up. Dr. Kring decided
>to look at some
>after I told him about no moisture in them but he said he still
>thinks they must be
>volcanic in source."
>
>This should also be applicable to "real", "genuine" tektites and
>moldavites, and those man-made glasses we are talking about.
>
>but, please, be careful in case anyone should try (safety goggles, etc.!)
>
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Bernd
>
>
>______________________________________________
>Meteorite-list mailing list
>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list

-- 
Albert JAMBON
Laboratoire Magie  46-0 4eme ?tage, Case 110
Universit? P et M Curie
4 place jussieu 75252 Paris Cedex O5 France
Tel: 33 (0) 144 27 51 35
FAX: 33 (0) 144 27 39 11

Received on Fri 22 Jul 2005 12:09:33 PM PDT