[meteorite-list] Meteorite trip - story part 1

From: ted brattstrom <volcanoted_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:41:31 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <20070410214131.80710.qmail_at_web53606.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

I had a nice spring break - visited Meteor Crater, Holbrook, Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, and Gold Basin - found some meteorwrongs, took pictures of meteorite location signs (where do I e-mail those???) and here is part 1 of the story:


Pallasite
   It was one of those interesting days... I had arrived after two long days drive from northern California to my fathers house in Arizona, While sitting enjoying an iced tea, my father comes over and says: "You can't have it, but the guy who owns it thinks it's a meteorite"... and hands me a nice chunk of heavy rock.
                What a thing to be handed....
                We started talking, and I got more of the story, the guy who owned it, got it 17-18 years ago from another guy who said he got it from "near Wickenburg" (west-central Arizona). One of the two tried to pry out some of the green crystals, and then took a saw to it to see what was inside. Obviously he hadn't gotten all that far! However, it probably made it the easiest meteorite to identify without resorting to any tests other than simple observation.
        The saw cut shows off nice shiny metal, and the green of the olivine is stunning. As I continued to look at it, I realized that the brown stained pits were where olivines had "burned" out during it's descent..And what a great shape!
                We put it on a scale the next day and it is in the vicinity of 9 pounds (4+ kg). Cool!!!
                A few days later I was at NAU and had a chance to chat with Dr. Wittke and then check the NHM database - no pallasites listed from Arizona, and the closest ones are over in New Mexico. Several hundreds of miles away. So, is it a "new find" or did someome bring it over from New Mexico a number of years ago. Anyone familiar with the morphology of the NM pallasites?
                Before you ask, my understanding is that the owner is not interested in selling. If you really must, I can probably get offers to him, however I make no guarantee. He was interested in donating it to the appropriate institution at an appropriate time. (ASU - send me an e-mail :-) )

        If you want better quality/more pictures - I've got 38 images at 4-6MB each :-)
                Now, what do I do to get this official ???
Pictures at:

www.k12.hi.us/~tbrattst/Pallasite/arizona_pallasite.htm




Cheers - ted




        
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Received on Tue 10 Apr 2007 05:41:31 PM PDT