[meteorite-list] Kalahari lunar meteorite stones - photos

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 16:49:01 -0500
Message-ID: <15a101c77bba$0d708580$0e2f4842_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Adam, Matteo, List

    It's a True Moon:
    "The regolith origin is also supported by the finding
of solar wind implanted rare gases (L. Schultz, Mainz)."

> No obvious crust

    It HAS a crust. A weird crust, but it's got one.
Now, I'm a petrologico-idiot, so all I looked at was
that weird crust. Look at the edges of the cut surfaces;
the crust is so thin as to not show in places and where
it does show on the edge, it is very thin, less than a
millimeter.
    The crust is not dark, but appears virtually translucent.
I would guess that it is entirely glassy. It's iron that makes
crust dark, but the iron content of these babies is only
3.5%. Fully one-third of the stone is 2 parts silicon to
1 part calcium. That's a good formula for glass (sand
and lime).
    My speculative nature also inclines me to think that
the re-entry may have been unusually slow. The heating
may have been "gentler" and the cooling more gradual.
I search in vain for any indication of flow lines. Nope.

> What makes this stone any different...?

    How many stones do you find that look like they
were dipped in molten glass? I exclude natural glasses.
Impactites are glasses themselves, although they're
rife with clasts and junk. This is an "ordinary" chunk of
apparently unremarkable basalt dipped in glass; you find
many of those? (And, can I have them?) 8=)

    And before geologists jump all over me, I also exclude
rocks found on the slopes of a volcano, in a limestone
dripping cave, maybe even in some stream washouts...
You're standing in a sand desert. There's a chuck of
basalt with a thin glassy coat. Well, I'm suspicious.

    I posted before about the discarding of apparently
valid meteorites that were sedimentary because they
were "unacceptable." A large French stone was thrown
away in the 1920's because it was "a basalt." There
should be Venusites on Earth, say the dynamic studies,
but would they too be passed by, ignored?

    Hunters! Get a big plastic garbage can, paint a "?"
on it, toss the throw-away oddities in it. Give it time...
Stack'em in the backyard in plastic milk crates. Use'em
to edge your garden. Something.


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "M come Meteorite Meteorites" <info at mcomemeteorite.it>
To: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites at yahoo.com>; "Adam"
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Kalahari lunar meteorite stones - photos


I agree with Adam, this material its many similar to a
Quartz nodule pass for a lunar meteorite I have here in my
meteorwrong collection...we are sure this 2 meteorites its
real meteorites?

Matteo

----- Original Message -----
Da : Adam Hupe <raremeteorites at yahoo.com>
A : Adam <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Oggetto : Re: [meteorite-list] Kalahari lunar meteorite
stones - photos
Data : Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:20:24 -0700 (PDT)


#1

> Wow,
>
> If I would have picked up these stones, I probably
> would have thrown them back. I cannot see a single
> indicator that these are planetary.
>
> No obvious crust
> No indications of shock
> No vesicles
> and what looks like quartz
>
> Thanks for the images although I have learned not to
> read too much from them. I normally do not comment on
> images because I have been wrong in the past but felt
> compelled in this case.
>
> All the Best,
>
> Adam
>
#2

> Maybe I should go through my meteorite-wrong pile
> again. I noticed they gave it a weathering grade of
> 1. I thought metal had to be present in order to
> qualify a weathering grade and that they are generally
> not assigned to achondrites. The CRE age seems to be
> no different than a rock that spent 300 years in the
> desert.

> What makes this stone any different than a terrestrial
> impactite?

Adam



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Received on Tue 10 Apr 2007 05:49:01 PM PDT