[meteorite-list] NWA 3119 (LL4)

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Aug 12 04:23:31 2006
Message-ID: <006901c6bde7$9373e960$e7578b90_at_mandin4f89ypwu>

Hi Bernd, Jerry & List,

NWA 3119 is a great meteorite and one of my favourites! I would have to
agree with Bernd's comments that it is probably a type-3 (breccia?). The
problem is that it seems to be a fairly heterogenous meteorite which
probably makes classification very type specimen dependent. A bit like the
problems faced with some of the NWA Eucrite vs Howardite.

The 4th image shows a field of chondrules (on left) which generally appear
much more primitive; a little like the NWA 2892 / NWA 2748 chondrule
conglomerate. It's funny you mention the bleached chondrules Bernd, because
the larger one is probably my favourite example that I have.

http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/BleachedChondrules.html

There's a higher resolution on the NWA 3119 slice here:
http://www.meteorites.com.au/media/

Cheers,

Jeff


----- Original Message -----
From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de
To: Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 4:50 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] NWA 3119 (LL4)


Hi Jeff, Jerry, and List,

"Man! That's an incredible individual.
Everything's in such outlandish focus."

If that remark refers to NWA 3119, I whole-heartedly agree.
It's really hard to believe we are "only" looking at an LL4
chondrite. If I had to judge from the overall density and
frequency of well-developed chondrules (especially in the
seven o'clock position of Jeff's image #3), I'd probably call
it an L3.x or an LL3.x but other areas are definitely more
highly metamorphosed. Moreover, the olivine Fa-value (28.4)
and the pyroxene Fs-value (23.6) clearly place it in the
field of the LL4, LL5, LL6 chondrites.

My 0.65-gram and 1.95-gram slices of this beautiful LL4 chondrite
are from Rob Wesel. The smaller piece has chondrules sitting so
tightly packed together that there is hardly any matrix material
to be found. The larger piece is less chondrule-laden but sports
a gorgeous, large pyroxene chondrule measuring 5 mm in diameter
and close to the latter, there is one of those bull's-eye chondrules
(bleached chondrules) that seem to be fairly abundant in NWA 3119.
Jeff's images also show some of these bleached chondrules!

Pictures of my two pieces go to Jeff and to Jerry!

Cheers,

Bernd

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Received on Sat 12 Aug 2006 04:16:06 AM PDT