[meteorite-list] report Munich show and AD

From: Dr. Svend Buhl <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 13:03:01 +0100
Message-ID: <004301c81eda$a611fe40$6501a8c0_at_HOME>

As Greg has already pointed out on the list earlier the Chergach/Erg Chech
or "Mali" material as it has been dubbed by sellers can be clearly
distinguished from e.g. Benguerir, Amgala, Bensour and Bassikounou by
comparing broken or cut surfaces.

"Mali" has a dark ash grey color with meandering unevenly distributed
blueish areas that often enclose dark grey patches, "Mali" is brecciated and
diplays clasts full of very small but distinct chondrules. "Mali" shows no
black shock veining as for example in Bassikounou. Unless the Bassikounou
fall did not drop a second hitherto unknown lithology these two are clearly
separate events. I will later post some comparison pictures on my website.

With completely crusted individuals separation is difficult. The genuine
"Mali" material I have seen however did not show any soil staining and was
completely lacking the red laterite dust that can be found on many of the
Bassikounou specimens. Differention by the grade of wheathering is not
possible. Both falls are to recent for that.

As to your question, I have the impression that the new material can safely
be ordered from several resellers in Morocco. Upon request I can recommend a
number uf reliable sources in Morocco to you.
All my Chergach ("Mali") material I have purchased directly from Morocco was
genuine material from a different event then the ones mentioned above. In
Munich I purchased a 125gm oriented fragment among some genuine "Mali"
stones and that particular specimen by close inspection turned out to be a
Bassikounou. The same seller also offered me a another piece as "Mali" that
I had already described in the Bassikounou catalog and that could clearly be
recognized by its bright red impact marks.

On the other hand this same seller had a number of splendid regmaglypted
individuals in the kg range on his table that could easily and without doubt
be recognized as from the Chergach strewfield by examining the broken
surfaces.

The cause of the confusion in my opinion has to do with the complete lack of
confirmed intelligence on the "Mali" event. The makeshift name "Mali"
already indicates the misery that neither an exact date nor exact
coordinates were available for this fall in the beginning when the
distribution started. The information provided by A. Habibi that the
distribution ellipse is located near Chergach in the Erg Chech did not yet
make it to most of the sellers offering the new material in Munich. At least
on request they could not tell you anything about the origin of their "Mali"
material.

I'll post any emerging insights on this on my page and I encourage everyone
to share their knowledge as well, as it would be a great loss if the
background of this beautiful meteorite remains a mystery.

Svend



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander Seidel" <gsac at gmx.net>
To: "Dr. Svend Buhl" <info at niger-meteorite-recon.de>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 1:18 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] report Munich show and AD


>> Among the few recent falls there seems to be a growing confusion among
>> the
>> Mahgreb sellers. Labels have obviously been accidentally misplaced and
>> meteorites ended up in the wrong boxes. I can only repeat to encourage
>> people to take but the geatest care in the assignment of the sample and
>> its documentation.
>
> Svend, you address "the few recent falls" here, so does your argument also
> apply to that new Mali meteorite at the moment, or is this new one under
> good control and can be clearly distinguished from all the others right
> now at the so-called marketplace...??
>
> Alex
> Berlin/Germany
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Received on Sun 04 Nov 2007 07:03:01 AM PST