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

From: Zelimir.Gabelica at uha.fr <Zelimir.Gabelica_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:07:41 +0200
Message-ID: <20110627160741.p767ylirlixw0gko_at_www.mail.uha.fr>

Hi Arnaud,

"Atacama" is the current synonym of Imilac (London NHM Catalog- Grady et al).

See:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=12025

Look at the end of the writeup for all other synonyms of Imilac.
"Perou" is not mentioned...(see below)

Note that Copiapo is another meteorite having the same synonym "Atacama".

See, e.g.: G. Watson, 1938:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1077155/pdf/pnas01800-0010.pdf

However, Copiapo is an IAB iron (silicated) and its recognized synonym
is rather "Atacama Desert" or "Desert of Atacama" (Grady, op. cit.).
Also, Copiapo (20 kg chunk) was discovered in 1863 (thus after 1842
but before 1866....)

For other Imilac synonym possibilities and variants, see:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php

On your picture 1, the three iron samples as shown neither resemble a
pallasite in general nor imilac in particular. But you should better
know, by perhaps better examining these specimans and/or searching for
some olivine remanents.

Now against "Imilac" is the analysis repoprted by Wasson (THE world
iron meteorite specialist): Fe: 90%; Ni: 9.9%; Ga: 21.1 ppm; Ge: 46
ppm and Ir: 0.071 ppm (and NO chromium mentioned) which is definitely
different from the analysis you are mentioning (Turner)....

Regarding "Perou", this name was never reported for Imilac, though the
3 pictures you show in link 2 are by all means Imilac (very typical!).

I tried to find out a meteorite having as synonym "Perou" (or P?rou,
or Peru...) but failed (would need more time and patience)

In conclusion, after this 15-20 min searching the literature I have
here on hand (Mulhouse), it seems that the "Perou" (link 2) is most
probably Imilac (but only from visual comparison) while the "Atacama"
(link 1), although official synonym of Imilac, neither corresponds
from pics comparison (though your pics are not fully clear as prints),
nor regarding its Ni analysis....

I hope this helps to promote to some extent the "schmilblick"....

Bonne chance....

Zelimir

(Note: after writing this, I noticed a few other replies. Seems link
N?2 is well confirmed as Imilac. However, part of the mystery remains
ragarding samples from link 1 ....)


rm31 at free.fr a ??crit??:

>
> 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
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Received on Mon 27 Jun 2011 10:07:41 AM PDT