[meteorite-list] Introducing a new lunar meteorite - NWA 4483

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 22 17:06:42 2006
Message-ID: <002001c6f61d$f7a09aa0$4f41fea9_at_name86d88d87e2>

Dear collectors,

the first official entry of Chladni?s Heirs in the meteoritical theatre has
to be accompanied with a lush flourish,
hence we are pleased to announce here the discovery of our newest and
uncommon lunaite NWA 4483.

Earlier this year we were able to acquire a bunch of remarkable stones in
Morocco, which we supposed to be parts of an already known outstanding lunar
find.
Well it wasn?t a hard task to come to our suspect, as the stones were
covered by a striking greenish thin crust and after a first cut, revealing
the unaltered fresh interior,
we were almost sure to have a pairing of a very prominent, but until then
lonely member of the lunar family on our table ? siblings of the mafic
granulite NWA 3163.
Meanwhile samples are under analyses by Dr. Korotev and Dr. Irving, who
confirmed the pairing and assigned a provisional number:

NWA 4483
Tkw 208g
Purchased 2006
Morocco

All in all we acquired 12 fragments, all but one had parts of a thicker
fusion crust and all were entirely covered by the funny green sugar icing.
The first recovery, the 1,634g stone of NWA 3163 was detailed described by
Greg&Adam Hup? and appreciated in extenso here on the list last November,
and if you remember back, together with the great new main mass of Brenham
propagated in Tucson as the Million-$-finds of 2005,
so we can lean back and don?t have to repeat the fascinating aspects of this
Moon and can refer to the comprehensive, illustrated abstract by Anthony
Irving on NWA 3163:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1365.pdf

Meanwhile another abstract with new data by Randy Korotev is available,
comparing some until then not well characterized lunaites,
with some plots, underlining the the exceptional position of NWA 3163/4483:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1404.pdf


Some short basics about NWA 3163/4483:
This lunaite stems from the deeper lunar crust, therefore it isn?t so
disturbed and mixed like the breccias from the regolithic debris blanket.
It?s a fine-grained breccia consisting mainly of maskelynite, converted from
the plagioclase of the old highland rocks by probably ancient impact events.
Other main components are grains of pyroxene and olivine.
Cut surfaces display thin glassy shock veins ? note the cool almost regular
grid of veins in some of our slices.
Striking is the contrast of the green external coating to the fresh,
un-weathered light-grey interior.
Similar crustal rocks weren?t sampled by the Apollo-missions (only some
minor clasts in a few samples are of the same lithology), therefore our Moon
owns certainly a scientific relevance.
There are only two other granulitic breccias known ? Dho 733 and Dho
026&pairings and NWA 3163/4483 is by far the freshest among them.

Now we want to give to the list members the opportunity to acquire your
collection piece.
Two thirds of the tkw already found the way to private and institutional
collections,
in two weeks we will present NWA 4483 on the Munich show, so we can?t
promise, that specimens will be available still for a longer period.
We cut some fullslices from the main mass
and set up a website for this special sale:

http://www.chladnis-heirs.com/special.html

We are able to offer to the list members for exactly one week a reduced
introductory price of 1200$ per gram.
Later the standard price for NWA 4483 will be 1500$/g.

Available furthermore are an endcut from the main mass ? 21grams
and the most pretty entire stone from this number, where it would be a
really pity to cut it.
For both we are awaiting your price suggestions.
Finally, because of the recent discussions on the list, expressing well the
demand also for meteoritic samples affordable for the collector with a more
limited budget,
we invented some special items, nicely boxed smaller specimens with a fine
design ? a kind of Pok?moon

We?re offering them with three specimen sizes: Small, Medium, Large ? and
for those, intrigued by the design, also some larger ones priced by weight.
We will issue additional series with different themes and other lunaites in
future.
Only missing is still a handy name for that boxes. Something like
Chladni-Casket.
Let?s take the opportunity for a little competition. The most striking term
will be awarded with a box in seize M, additionally we?ll raffle a box S and
XS amongst all replying listees.

Best wishes!
Chladni?s Heirs
are
Andi Gren
Stefan Ralew
Martin Altmann

PS: Visit us on the Munich Show, first hall, at stall B1.643 ? there another
planetary surprise will wait for you!!
Received on Sun 22 Oct 2006 05:06:38 PM PDT