[meteorite-list] sulphurous smell of meteorites (was Temperature of meteorites)

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:03:40 +0100
Message-ID: <4CECD4EC.7090803_at_wanadoo.nl>

Piper et al.,

Without implying that ALL reports of sulphurous smells are necessarily
unreliable, I do urge caution.

Over my career of checking alleged Dutch new meteorite falls (all meteorwrongs!)
there have been a number of cases where people reported to me "sulphurous
smells" when encountering the stone. Mind you: all of these were *not*
meteorites, but things ranging from flint to brick to slag.

Like "red glowing", the "sulphorous smells" are something that people apparently
expect with true meteorites. So they tend to "observe" it, even if the object
later turns out to be not a meteorite but an earthly object!

Never underestimate the power of suggestion.

The same goes for reports of "very hot" meteorites.

Concerning the latter: when a fall takes place in bright sunlight, be aware that
after the fall the stone will quickly get "hot" simply because the black fusion
crust absorbs warmth from sunlight, in the same way that tarmac or a dark
painted garden bench do. I 'discovered' this several years ago when placing a
few fragments of Mbale in sunlight for a few minutes for a photograph. When I
picked them up I almost dropped them again because of a sensation of them being
"hot" (on second inspection, they weren't actually that hot, but they did
clearly warm up in the sunlight enough for this initial sensation to occur).

In more speculative moments, I have pondered a few times whether the decay of
very shortlived radioisotopes in meteorites could play a role in reports of
"glowing" and "hot" fresh-fallen meteorites as well. That is pure speculation
that will probably not hold on closer scrutiny, however.

- Marco

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Dr Marco (asteroid 183294) Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: dms at marcolangbroek.nl
http://www.dmsweb.org
http://www.marcolangbroek.nl
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Received on Wed 24 Nov 2010 04:03:40 AM PST