[meteorite-list] Re: Moss Meteorite

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Aug 28 05:25:57 2006
Message-ID: <013801c6ca83$f45670b0$66578b90_at_mandin4f89ypwu>

Hi Robert,

As Mike mentioned, it is extremely fine-grained and not only difficult to
see 'in-person' but almost impossible to photograph too. Judging by some of
the other pics I've seen, I think some of the larger fragments with a larger
flat broken surface area tend to highlight the interior a little better.

The main problem with viewing this meteorite, is the fact that you can only
see so much from a broken fragment surface. It's impossible to see how
tightly packed the chondrules are and therefore how big and how many there
actually are. Obviously. the best way to see the interior would be with a
polished surface and I've been thinking about polishing the flat side of my
fragment. But I haven't quite talked myself into it yet! ;-) I'd be really
interested to see what Mike's polished piece is like.

As to the attraction to a magnet... well... there's HEAPS! I didn't want to
get a magnet to close to my fragment, so I left it in the membrane box in
the plastic bag. The 1.23g was enough to hold the fragment, box and bag with
a 25mm neodymium magnet disc. I'd say the attraction is like an LL or
possibly somewhere between an LL to L chondrite.

But like Mike, I'm just looking forward to the preliminary classification
results!

Cheers,

Jeff


----- Original Message -----
From: Matson, Robert
To: Jeff Kuyken ; Meteorite List
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 3:43 PM
Subject: Moss Meteorite


Thanks, Jeff, for posting images and observations of your 1.23-gram
crusted fragment of the Moss (prov.) meteorite. The interior color
still reminds me of a CK chondrite (more so than CO), but the smaller
chondrule size would seem to rule out CK. Your link says, in part:

"Chondrule size would be approximately <=0.5mm leaning towards a
lower range of about 0.25mm-0.3mm."

I mentioned before on the list that Mike's description of the
chondrule size (and now, with more specificity, yours) would favor
CM over CO. Mean chondrule size for CO is 0.15mm diameter, while
for CM it is twice this. Do you (or you, Mike) believe that if you
counted chondrules in your specimen that there would be more in the
0.3mm bin than in the 0.15mm bin, or is it a toss up?

Jeff also wrote:

"The meteorite also has a considerable attraction to a magnet."

And David Weir's image at http://meteoritestudies.com/MOSS.JPG
<http://meteoritestudies.com/MOSS.JPG>
shows numerous orange-colored stains that look very much like those
in a (fairly strongly magnetic) CK4 meteorite I have. CKs are
more magnetic than CO, CM or LL chondrites (but less than L
chondrites). For those that have a sample of Moss, can you
estimate where its magnetism falls compared to some other known
types?

Best,
Rob
Received on Mon 28 Aug 2006 05:25:47 AM PDT