[meteorite-list] Greg Hupé's gorgeous NWA 4883 eucrite ...

From: jbaxter112 at pol.net <jbaxter112_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:25:32 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <31149.10.250.10.1.1198160732.squirrel_at_webmail.medscape.com>

I second Berndt's opinion. I have never seen a eucrite like this. My slice
also captivated me under the microscope-amazing complexity and variety!
Easily an order of magnitude more beautiful under the microscope than any
other eucrite I've seen.

Jim Baxter

> .. arrived today and I must tell you that it is out-of-this-world! My
> 11.9-gram endcut can keep you busy for hours!!! Its dark-brown crust
> still shows traces of black, glossy fusion crust and the abundant
> colorless, pale bluish or even pale greenish but *limpid* maskelynite
> crystals clearly testify to its intense shock history.
>
> This complex, polymict eucrite breccia shows all kinds of clasts but the
> most exotic feature of my endcut is what only two of the pieces showed
> and what Stefan Brandes so aptly described as a "cosmic spider web":
>
> These elongated, acicular (augite?) crystals have an average length of
> 0.7 mm but some are longer than 1 mm and some are arranged in a
> star-like pattern with up to nine or ten elongate crystals radiating
> from a central point or "nucleus".
>
> Troilite is present in some places and this endcut also sports a
> medium-gray angular, lithic clast measuring a whopping 5.5 mm in longest
> dimension. Under the microscope it is "marbly" in appearance.
>
> Furthermore there are a few tiny specks of (Ni-free) metal and another
> oddity is this:
>
> One translucent maskelynite crystal measuring 0.9 mm contains numerous,
> milky-white very small (length ca. 0.05 mm) worm-like features (almost
> like rice grains) that are reminiscent of air bubbles caught in frozen
> water while trying to ascend to the surface!
>
> What a meteorite!
>
> Take care,
>
> Bernd
>
>
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Received on Thu 20 Dec 2007 09:25:32 AM PST