[meteorite-list] Holbrook Tektites ( Heat Testing of Tektites)

From: Mark Bowling <minador_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:31:21 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <440672.31134.qm_at_web54506.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Bernd and all,

I have collected a few of the Arizonaites (Saffordites?) in the field and when I
first saw them, I was fooled into thinking they were tektites.? They?look to be
solution weathered?and I wonder if that in some way removed the water that
normally is in obsidian (?).

Thanks for the info!
Mark


----- Original Message ----
From: "bernd.pauli at paulinet.de" <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de>
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Fri, August 27, 2010 9:57:17 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Holbrook Tektites ( Heat Testing of Tektites)

Hello Brian, Dennis, Mark, Carl and List,

Brian wrote:

"Obsidian explodes when heated quickly. So - it is easy to eliminate
an Obsidian as a Tektite, just by throwing alot of heat at it quickly."

In May or June 2000, our late Jim Kriegh put his new welding torch
on an Apache Tear, and, ... ... it exploded!

Jim once had a chemist friend heat one of the numerous "Arizonaites"
he and Twink had collected (and that's probably what Carl is talking
about in his post to the List: "Years ago I found what I thought was
a strewnfield of tektites in Southern AZ") in an oven along with an
Apache tear.

The Apache Tear foamed as the water started coming out of it but the AZite
(Jim once called them "Arizona whatevers" :-) showed no signs of water.
The chemist friend then even raised the temperature another 500?F above
what the Apache Tear started foaming and all the Arizonaite did was glow
red. After cooling it looked the same as before.

Twink told me that during another heating experiment, "one of their AZites
turned bright red, fell into three pieces and then returned looking normal".

18 of these enigmatic "glasses" reside in my meteorite collection, and, yes,
their coloration in transmitted light is that of so-called "Columbianites".

Best wishes from rainy, thundery,
stormy Southern Germany,

Bernd

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Received on Fri 27 Aug 2010 01:31:21 PM PDT