[meteorite-list] Lucerne Valley 028 pairing group

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 13 20:00:30 2006
Message-ID: <A8044CCD89B24B458AE36254DCA2BD0701DFBA90_at_0005-its-exmp01.us.saic.com>

RESEND -- first attempt didn't post...

-----Original Message-----
From: Matson, Robert
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:01 PM
To: 'Meteorite-list Meteoritecentral '
Subject: Lucerne Valley 028 pairing group


Thanks Bob, Sonny, Ruben and others who e-mailed me privately with
congrats on the new Lucerne Valley 028 CK4 pairing group. For my
part, I would like to sincerely thank not only Dr. Alan Rubin for
performing the classification work at UCLA, but also Dr. Rhian Jones
and Dr. Jeff Grossman for their extreme patience in walking me
through the complex approval process for a pairing group. If the
number of e-mails we exchanged on the subject over the last two
years is any indication, Jeff and Rhian each have quite a few
hours invested in getting the LV 028 group approved.

A search of the Meteoritical Bulletin Database reveals that this
is the first Karoonda-type carbonaceous chondrite find from the
western hemisphere. When I made the initial finds ~3 years ago,
it was not obvious that they were meteorites. While the fragments
are pretty strongly magnetic, there is no visible metal nor fusion
crust, and the dark grey color is a bit odd. If it weren't for
having spent years at Lucerne (thus becoming familiar with its
terrestrial rocks and pebbles), I doubt I would have recognized
them as being unusual.

And as long as I'm on the subject of rare meteorite types, I'd like
to publicly congratulate Sonny Clary for his recent rumurutiite
find! Sonny and I exchanged e-mails, images and phone calls in
the weeks leading up to the classification of his find, doing our
best to try to sleuth the identity of his odd meteorite. At first
we thought it was carbonaceous, but the weak magnetism and chondrule
size was making it difficult to come up with a match to CO, CM or
some other carbonaceous group. I finally cautioned Sonny that I
didn't want him to get his hopes up too much, but that I was
beginning to suspect he had an R-chondrite. I'm very happy for
Sonny that this turned out be the case! His find is also the first
of its type in the western hemisphere. Can a North American lunar
find be too far behind? ;-)

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Wed 13 Sep 2006 08:00:13 PM PDT