[meteorite-list] Identification of 2 historical meteorites from S America

From: rm31 at free.fr <rm31_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:14:50 +0200
Message-ID: <1309130090.4e07bd6a8ca81_at_imp.free.fr>

Hi List,

I've been following the list for about a year now and this is my first post. I
must say I've learned a lot from you even, sometimes, in the middle of an heated
discussion. Meteorites definitely bring a lot of passions.

I'm a geologist, French and I live in Toulouse, a busy city of SW France -Airbus
main factory and office are here- but where people know how to relax. Toulouse
is also where the oldest western academy was founded, the "Academy of the Floral
Games" or "College of the Happy Science", in 1323!

I'm pursuing some historical researches about meteorites. I've collaborated
off-list with Mark Grossman (hello Mark!) on several issues -check his
"meteorite manuscripts" blog if you haven't already. Aside from my main study,
that I'll present later, I'm doing an history-focused catalogue of the
meteorites that are kept in Toulouse in 2 collections, University and Museum.
The Natural History Museum is a small but nice one and was entirely renovated a
few years ago. The meteorite collection is also small but we have here about a
half kg of Orgueil (located about 35 km N of Toulouse), two fist-sized Ausson
samples and the unique and 99% complete 14 kg stone of Saint Sauveur (EH5) that
fell a few days before the onset of WW1, in 1914, 15 km N of Toulouse:
http://www.museum.toulouse.fr/explorer_3/les_collections_20/roches_mineraux_80/meteorites_424/chondrite_enstatite_426/index.html?lang=fr

We have some trouble to identify 2 meteorites from the Museum, that's why I'm
calling for help. Many of you have seen lots of meteorites and you may
specifically recognize these stones before or have information that may lead to
their identification. I give below all the information I have (be careful, some
may be erroneous) and links to pictures.

#1: so called "Atacama", sometimes with "Perou" attached
 3 irons, 8,5+1,7+0,5 g
 acquired by the Museum possibly before 1842, certainly before 1866
 "Fragment of the mass kept in Vienna. Analyzed by Turner: Fe 93,40, Ni 6,62, Cr
0,54"
 http://i29.servimg.com/u/f29/10/09/49/44/atacam10.jpg

#2: so called "Perou"
 1 iron, possibly a weathered pallassite, 15 g
 acquired in 1958 or later
 http://i29.servimg.com/u/f29/10/09/49/44/parou10.jpg

Hope you can help!

Renaud
Received on Sun 26 Jun 2011 07:14:50 PM PDT