Adding more meteorites to my collection

davenn said:

my heart attack

Is that what you described in the solar photography post as "a major health hassle"? Glad you're still in one piece.

Ibix said:

Is that what you described in the solar photography post as "a major health hassle"? Glad you're still in one piece.

yes, it is ....thanks mate, it was a close call. After a week at home, am feeling much better

davenn said:

Always feel free to ask questions about any I post or just about meteorites in general.
I would appreciate it if the thread has some good discussion rather than just a show and tell

I'm currently considering purchasing a 'thin section' to try imaging through crossed polarizers- most of the samples on eBay seem to be chondrite (for example, this one). Not sure what I am looking for, to be honest- the chondrules appear to give nice colorful images, but....

The site you mentioned earlier www.meteorites-for-sale.com was very useful to parse some of the identifying lingo, but I'm no geologist..... "H5"? "CR2"? Thin section slides aren't cheap, exactly. A polished slab of an iron meteorite would also (likely) give great results in reflected light, but no nice colorful view through crossed polars.

Thoughts?

Andy Resnick said:

but I'm no geologist.....

Hmmm...is there even a word? Geologist seems not quite right, since these rocks aren't from "geo". Meteorologist is clearly wrong. Petrologist?

Vanadium 50 said:

Hmmm...is there even a word? Geologist seems not quite right, since these rocks aren't from "geo". Meteorologist is clearly wrong. Petrologist?

Meteoriticist…

Apparently

@davenn is a meteoriticst? If not then he is definitely a meteorphile!

Andy Resnick said:

I'm currently considering purchasing a 'thin section' to try imaging through crossed polarizers- most of the samples on eBay seem to be chondrite (for example, this one). Not sure what I am looking for, to be honest- the chondrules appear to give nice colorful images, but....

Hi Andy, sorry for the delay, just home from 2 weeks on your side of the planet. 3 nites in London, 2 nites in Paris and 7 nites in Iceland

A beautiful chondrite not one I have in my collection ... US$89 isnt too bad for the work required to produce a thin section
I see it is still available

I used to do thin sections when I was doing my geology degree at uni. it's a lot of messy fun

That sample is a LL3....
LL = Low iron, low metal and the 3 indicates the amount of metamorphism of the chondrules

The 3 main groups are ....
LL = Low iron, low metal
L = Low iron
H = High iron

Then the different grades of metamorphism 0 to 5 and of weathering = W0 to W5

Andy Resnick said:

but I'm no geologist..... "H5"? "CR2"?

H = high iron as above
C is for the carbonaceous chondrites and there is quite a range of them .....
The C = Carbonaceous and the following letter denotes the location of the first identified sample of that group ( what we call a type name)
CI = Ivuna
CM = Murchison (Victoria state, Australia)
CO = Ornans
CR = Renazzo
CH = (ALH) = Allen Hills, Antarctica
CB = Bencubbin = Western Australia state, Australia
CV = Vigarano
CK = Karoonda = South Australia state, Australia

for your fun, I will let you look up the locations of the others

Andy Resnick said:

A polished slab of an iron meteorite would also (likely) give great results in reflected light, but no nice colorful view through crossed polars.

Yes, polished AND etched brings out the Widmanstätten pattern ( also called the Thompson Structure) of the iron and nickel crystals


from my collection ... Seymchan, Russia

cheers
Dave

pinball1970 said:

is a meteoriticist ?

yup, that's the one and a lay geologist and astronomer and ..... hahaha

I love the geology of Iceland so amazing with all the new and old volcanics ohhh and the spectacular aurora
Will do a holiday thread in general discussion section

Vanadium 50 said:

Petrologist?

petrology covers the composition etc of both earth rocks and meteorites

davenn said:

Hi Andy, sorry for the delay, just home from 2 weeks on your side of the planet. 3 nites in London, 2 nites in Paris and 7 nites in Iceland

A beautiful chondrite not one I have in my collection ... US$89 isnt too bad for the work required to produce a thin section
I see it is still available

I used to do thin sections when I was doing my geology degree at uni. it's a lot of messy fun

That sample is a LL3....
LL = Low iron, low metal and the 3 indicates the amount of metamorphism of the chondrules

The 3 main groups are ....
LL = Low iron, low metal
L = Low iron
H = High iron

Then the different grades of metamorphism 0 to 5 and of weathering = W0 to W5
H = high iron as above
C is for the carbonaceous chondrites and there is quite a range of them .....
The C = Carbonaceous and the following letter denotes the location of the first identified sample of that group ( what we call a type name)
CI = Ivuna
CM = Murchison (Victoria state, Australia)
CO = Ornans
CR = Renazzo
CH = (ALH) = Allen Hills, Antarctica
CB = Bencubbin = Western Australia state, Australia
CV = Vigarano
CK = Karoonda = South Australia state, Australia

for your fun, I will let you look up the locations of the others
Yes, polished AND etched brings out the Widmanstätten pattern ( also called the Thompson Structure) of the iron and nickel crystals

View attachment 323816
from my collection ... Seymchan, Russia

cheers
Dave

This is extremely helpful and informative- many thanks!!!!

It's been a while, but I am starting to wonder - why are linar meteorites so rare?

• The moon is big. Much more mass than the entire asteroid belt.
• The moon has had the snot pounded out of it - just look at it.
• The earth is close by - not just physically, but gravitationally. It's easy for a bit of moon to get kicked up and fall to earth,
• Moon rocks are easy to distinguish from earth rocks. No quartz. No water. We have 800 pounds of rocks to compare them against.

So why are they rare? We should be hip deep in them.

Here is a rare one.

https://www.universetoday.com/16562...ave-been-recovered-and-theyre-really-special/

@davenn

Thanks @pinball1970

I havent scored a bit of that one yet .... the $$/gram is very high.
Maybe one day I will get a small piece like I did with the asteroid fall in France last year

This latest one that fell near Berlin, generated a lot of talk amongst us meteorite collectors
that had gathered in Tucson, AZ, for the monster annual mineral and gem show.
I am only a couple of days home from the USA after 2 weeks over there - mostly in Tucson.
I came home with $1000's worth of meteorites and fluorescent minerals and a couple of fossils

I need to go through them all and do photos, but will add pic's to this thread as time goes by

cheers
Dave

davenn said:

I need to go through them all and do photos, but will add pic's to this thread as time goes by

Yes please do! We have learned a lot from your posts on this subject.

davenn said:

Thanks @pinball1970

I havent scored a bit of that one yet .... the $$/gram is very high.
Maybe one day I will get a small piece like I did with the asteroid fall in France last year

Well, in the weekend I scored a tiny piece, around 0.3g for US$100 from a fellow collector in Poland
Yipeeeeee hahaha

Another fall meteorite for the collection

Picked up a few other fall meteorites during my Tucson, AZ, trip over the last couple of weeks

davenn said:

Picked up a few other fall meteorites during my Tucson, AZ, trip over the last couple of weeks

It's Fall in Australia. Here in the US, it's Spring.

(yes, yes, I know...)

I'm still curious as to why we don't see more lunar origin meteorites. The ratio of Mars: Moon: All Stony is approximately 1:15:1000. Not what I would have guessed.

pinball1970 said:

Here is a rare one.

https://www.universetoday.com/16562...ave-been-recovered-and-theyre-really-special/

@davenn

davenn said:

Well, in the weekend I scored a tiny piece, around 0.3g for US$100 from a fellow collector in Poland
Yipeeeeee hahaha

Well my micro piece is even smaller than 0.3g it's only about 0.05g.
my piece arrived in the post today.





It's official name is Ribbeck, after the area it fell and was found, around 50km W of Berlin.
The meteorite type is an Aubrite which is an achondrite ( no chondrules).
An Aubrite is a "Type Name" after the location in France - Aubres - when the first identification of
this type was found after a fall in 1836.

They have a reasonably complex petrography and geochemistry as listed on the Metbull page
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=Ribbeck&sfor=names&ants=&nwas=&falls=&valids=&stype=contains&lrec=50&map=ge&browse=&country=All&srt=name&categ=All&mblist=All&rect=&phot=&strewn=&snew=0&pnt=Normal table&code=81447

Anyone interested can go have a look :)
Only about 983g have been found making the fall relatively rare and the rarity by the Aubrite type.
This has pushed price through the roof which range from around US1500 - 1800 a gram.

Like the French meteorite fall around the same time in 2023, this small asteroid was radar tracked in space,
visually seen/photographed in the atmosphere and then was found on the ground.
Pretty awesome

I am pretty sure this is my first German meteorite


cheers
Dave