[meteorite-list] Your First Meteorite - When did you Get It

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:08:50 +0200
Message-ID: <4C248E42.1080408_at_wanadoo.nl>

It depends a bit if you regard iron shale as "meteorite" too - in that case, a
small piece of Canyon Diablo shale I got as a present from Peter Jenniskens in
1991 was my first.

My second then was a 75 grams individual of Mbale (in 5 fitting pieces, the
largest 45 grams) I got, again as a present, from Hans Betlem (who mapped the
strewnfield) in 1992.

I bought my first meteorites in 1999, a nice 134 grams Sikhote-Alin from Rob
Elliot; and a small 2.4 grams slice of Allende with a nice CAI and a fragment of
Vaca Muerta from Jawerbaum.

My initial goal was simply to have a sample of each main class of meteorite:
chondrite, achondrite, iron, and stony iron. That goal fulfilled, I started to
ad subclasses.

Noting that irons do not keep well in the Dutch climate, my main focus over the
years has been on stones. Criteria for buying are:

- a type I do not yet have, and/or;
- visual esthetics, and/or;
- it shows a petrological aspect very well

Currently, my display case is full so I seldom buy anymore (very occasionally, I
ad a small piece of a rare type, or can't resist a new L3 slice packed with
chondrules...). I have 57 different meteorites in my collection now, and in
addition tektites and impact glasses, and a couple of impact crater stone
samples (the latter are fascinating too, and remarkably cheap).

- Marco
Received on Fri 25 Jun 2010 07:08:50 AM PDT