[meteorite-list] Tata-Foumzgit Martian Fall. The most significant fall of this century?

From: Carl Agee <agee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:18:31 -0700
Message-ID: <CADYrzhqRDJ8+ntsaDkuWSWJAb+WPA_X793dB77scYwProqZgpQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Of course time will tell how significant. But here are a few reasons
why Tanzrou is important:

It's a different lithology from Zagami, Nakhla, Shergotty, Chassigny.
It has large olivine phenocrysts -- you don't even need a microscope
to see them. Zagami and Shergotty are pretty similar to reach other
from a petrologic perspective, so not just another one like those two.
There may or may not be a similar olivine-phyric SNC finds in the
world's collections.

It has glassy melt pockets, I'm not talking just maskelynite, which it
has plenty of too. You can see these glass pockets with the naked eye,
so they are big and plentiful, and are great for holding trapped gas
and other goodies from Mars, that don't end up in mineral crystal
lattices.

It is has minimal terrestrial weathering. This is great for these of
us who want to know something about martian volatiles, the martian
water cycle, knowing what you are measuring is real martian water--
not terrestrial -- that's important. Also the astrobiologists will be
drooling (hopefully not on the sample -- haha!) to look for organics,
knowing that anything thing they find is probably martian --
especially from the interior of a nice complete stone.

There is enough to go around (at least for right now). There is plenty
of material for destructive analyses, plenty for thin sections, plenty
for museum displays, and plenty for collectors. I will set aside some
of our Tanzrou for posterity in the IOM collection, not to be touched
or tampered with. Fifty or a hundred years from now it will be much
scarcer, and maybe someone will be happy that I did!

Carl Agee

-- 
Carl B. Agee
Director and Curator, Institute of Meteoritics
Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
MSC03 2050
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-1126
Tel: (505) 750-7172
Fax: (505) 277-3577
Email: agee at unm.edu
http://meteorite.unm.edu/people/carl_agee/
-------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:09:11 -0500
From: "Galactic Stone & Ironworks" <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
Subject: [meteorite-list] Tata-Foumzgit Martian Fall. The most
       significant     fall of this century?
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Message-ID:
       <CAKBPJW_ySvr8JZ7peH_BCC1AV0VgcJ9wUJnjUTYRT9DsRucbtw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi List,
Would it be safe to say, that the new Martian "Tata" fall is the most
significant meteorite fall of the 21st century, and perhaps of the
last 50+ years?
All things considered, this has the makings of a very significant
event for science.  This is the most pristine sample of Mars to arrive
in labs for a long time, if ever.  Even the freshest NWA finds cannot
compare to fresh stones collected less than a year after the fall.
The unbroken stones and larger fragments will supply science with
unaltered, unoxidixed material for research.  This new Martian is
going to be widely studied, so I hope everyone is getting their
microprobes warmed up in anticipation.
Word has it that institutions and museums have been allocated a
sizeable amount of material in terms of trades and donations, so there
appears to be plenty of it available for study.  It is safe to say
that this new meteorite (whatever the official name turns out to be)
will appear in a lot of papers and journals over time.
For science, this is the next best thing to a manned sample-return
mission.  For collectors this is best thing since sliced bread.  The
only thing that could have made this fall better, from a collector's
standpoint, is if a stone had bounced off a Bedouin tent and struck a
camel in the hump.  But, you can't have your cake and eat it too.  ;)
So, what is the going consensus on the details of this fall?
Nickname - Tata or Foumzgit (mostly "Tata")
TKW - several kilograms, probably less than 10kg.  Much of this is in
the form of large whole stones and large broken stones and that
material has been absorbed into collections and is not likely to
return to the market.  Ballpark figure of material to be available
eventually on the collector market is probably "a few kilos" (2-3kg?)
Date of fall - July of 2011 (certain), actual date - July 25, 2011?
Other reports say earlier in July (13-15?)
Time of fall - day or night?  (night?)
Type - Shergottite, shocked, silver-grey matrix with black shock
veins.  Glossy fresh black fusion crust.
Misc - witness reports include an audible explosion and popping sounds.
Does all of that sound about right?
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Received on Mon 16 Jan 2012 10:18:31 AM PST