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

From: Michael Farmer <mike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:52:21 -0700
Message-ID: <F017F40A-35D6-4E61-A991-7505B41D59FA_at_meteoriteguy.com>

Not to mention the fact that Zagami and the other Martian meteorites were not treated properly, cut in water or oil, highly contaminated for decades etc. This one is pristine, though touched by people in the field, in the lab simple sectioning of larger pieces to get to the pristine interior of a months old fall will provide endless research specimens.
I can't wait to read the papers on this one.
 This meteorite will be a great gift to science and collectors, and to the museums to take advantage of the cheapest Martian fall ever, a boon for curation for centuries.


Michael Farmer

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 16, 2012, at 8:18 AM, Carl Agee <agee at unm.edu> wrote:

> 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?
>
>
> *************************************************
>
> Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Meteorites & Amber (Michael Gilmer)
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Received on Mon 16 Jan 2012 10:52:21 AM PST