[meteorite-list] West- Blue-Silvery Markings- Thanks and Thoughts

From: McCartney Taylor <mccartney_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:06:24 -0500
Message-ID: <f4c167351b8649e9951a2bec2bedba05_at_ucv1.vhostdns.com>

My picture of the silver is of fairly good quality. Its the bottom photo.
http://outofabluesky.com/index.php?option=com_jportfolio&cat=4&project=46&Itemid=58

You can see that the silverish area is fairly erratic, not clustered together in a single patch. I'm more inclined to believe a chemical reaction on the ground. Has anyone found a stone with silverish on BOTH sides?

I do want to note that the stone was found silver side down.
-mt

-------- Original Message --------
> From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:05 PM
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: [meteorite-list] West- Blue-Silvery Markings- Thanks and Thoughts
>
> Hello List, and Rubin,

>
> Third, there seems to be a wide range of theories at this point. It obviously MUST be emphasized that my photo has been the only source for most to base their opinions on, and a not-so-great photo at that, as it is too "washed out" ( the stone is much darker, much more black in real life, with the markings more pronounced and "shiny".)
>
> I have the permission from the respected meteorite researcher who performed the initial classification for this meteorite fall, Alan Rubin, to pass along a VERY PRELIMINARY supposition to the nature of these markings that he emailed to me. As stated above, he wants to emphasize that he too has only seen the photo, not the actual stone with the streaks in person. Here is what his initial thoughts are:
>
> "When one looks at a fusion crust of an ordinary chondrite in the microscope, one notices that there are numerous tiny magnetite grains there, formed by oxidation during atmospheric passage. It looks to me as if these silvery streaks are just places where the fusion crust has flaked off revealing the magnetite-rich layer underneath."
>
>
Received on Wed 11 Mar 2009 04:06:24 PM PDT