[meteorite-list] looking for classification advice for fresh find

From: Rob Lenssen <rlenssen_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:43:10 +0200
Message-ID: <1AC8F6B47093440189EAB8F189427782_at_EIGENAARNJEQJY>

Dear List,

I received a new meteorite directly from a Moroccan dealer last week, that
looks remarkably fresh.

The dealer told me the 314g stone was broken in (three) fragments by the
nomad who found it. Also the name of the town of find was provided.

My first thought was that it would be one of recent years falls.
The dealer insists it's not.
As I thought the price to be OK, I decided to buy.

I "studied" the pieces, and compared them to my Bassikounou:
The material looks whiter than Bassikounou (that again looks whiter (less
grey) than Chergach to me).
It has a lot of free iron (more than visible in the photographs) and few
visible larger chondrules.
Based on the free iron, I would not expect it to be LL like Bensour.
Tested with a magnet, it is attracted strongly, but slightly less than
Bassikounou an H-type chondrite.
And last, the crust has almost no dust (fine sand) contamination, like
Bassikounou typically has.

My question is how to deal with this stone, with respect to classification.
Does this stone deserve more than the standard NWA classification?
Should for instance terrestrial age be determined?
I would appreciate some guidance from List members who are (professionally)
involved in meteorite research.

http://home.planet.nl/~rlenssen/314g/314g-NWA.html

Kind regards,
Rob Lenssen
Received on Tue 18 Aug 2009 02:43:10 PM PDT