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Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi

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Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish

IMCA Insights by The IMCA Team

Micro Visions by John Kashuba

Galactic Lore by Mike Gilmer

Meteorite Calendar by Anne Black

Meteorite of the Month by Michael Johnson

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Meteorite-Times MagazineWitnessed Fall: Vernon County, Wisconsin, USAby Mart in Horejsi

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An March 1865 Witnessed Fall: Vernon County, Wisconsin, USA

Foreshadowed the Death of a President

Posing with an faux ant ique scale cube, Vernon County rests pat ient lyas it has in collect ions for almost 150 years. It is writ ten that it s fallat t racted lit t le at tent ion, but today meteorite collectors worldwidecovet such historic witnessed falls of small TKWs.

For the f ledgling United States, the year 1865 is the dividing line between the Civil War andReconst ruct ion, and during that year only a single meteorite was witnessed to fall within the youngborders of the US. The meteorite fell just 20 days before the assassinat ion of President AbrahamLincoln. Coincidence or fate?

Does a foreshadowing seem a st retch? Well, some Chinese think that Communist Party ChairmanDeng Xiao Peng’s death on February 19th was foreshadowed by the February 15 fall of theJuancheng meteorites. Then why not Vernon County and Abraham Lincoln?

Vernon County is classif ied as a veined H6 chondrite. About 1500grams of Vernon County was recovered in the form of two stones;one weighing 800g and the other 700g.

Sadly the 800g stone was lost within a few years of it s fall.

The dist ribut ion of Vernon County according to the Catalogue ofMeteorites is as follows:

123g in the Harvard Collect ion

65g in the Paris Museum of Natural History

37g in Natural History Museum in London

28g in the Vienna Museum

22g in the Field Museum in Chicago

18g in Universit y Geological Museum in Copenhagen

8g in the MtN in Berlin

7g in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

2g in the collect ion of the Max Planck Inst itute

2g in the American Museum of Natural History in New York

1.5g in the Collect ion of the Universit y of New Mexico

My specimen f it s nicely between Berlin and Copenhagen.

The following excerpt is f rom the 1884 book Original Researches inMineralogy and Chemistry by John Lawrence Smith and JosephBenson Marvin.

This feast for the eyes has an ext ra helping of crust along it s twooriginal edges. Smith and Marvin described Vernon County as beingcovered with “a thick, black, dull crust .” They get no argument f romme.

Another small patch of crust spilled over onto this face cont rast ingcolorfully with the iron oxide that H6 specimens are famous for.

The lone cut face on my specimen show classic H6 texture. Muchmetal is visible, and although expressed as a rusty orange on brokenfaces, shows a shiny steely white when sliced.

While the connect ion to President Lincoln is a st retch, it does place the fall of Vernon County intoa familiar t ime f rame in American history. Lucky for the Vernon County meteorite that just 17 yearsearlier Wisconsin became a state. Otherwise this orphaned t reasure might have joined it s long lostsibling.

Unt il next t ime…

The Accretion Desk welcomes all comments and feedback. accretiondesk@gmail.com

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Meteorite-Times MagazineYou Can Never Go Backby Jim Tobin

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Times change and they say that you can never go back to the way it was in the past . That iscertainly t rue about meteorite collect ing. There are a few of us out in the world that rememberhaving to be on wait ing list s with dealers. We would tell them what we wanted and hope in the nextfew months or years that a piece of the meteorite would turn up for sell. It may be that methodthat led me away f rom type collect ing to a more unfocused style of collect ing. There was a t ime inthe recent past when there was just one diogenite and it was $25 a gram. That was a lot of moneyfor a stone but , at least you could f ill t hat category. However, if you wanted a howardite you werepret t y much out of luck. There was one but you could not have any of it .

Today, if you have the money and the t ime I would guess that you could click a mouse and nearlyf ill a t ype collect ion. I suppose that makes this the best of t imes for meteorite collect ing. Thoughit has created a dif ferent atmosphere for both the dealers and collectors. The quest ion that isconstant ly asked now is “how much does the piece cost?’

Cost was always a concern of course. But , today the economics of meteorite collect ing haveshif ted a lit t le. There are lots of dealers, many selling the same material with prices of ten all overthe place. And you can have any classif icat ion of meteorite you want . Lunars were unheard of onlya few years ago now you can choose between many dif ferent classif icat ion of meteorites f romthe Moon. Mart ians the same thing many available even a chassignite. Something that is reallydif ferent f rom the past is the unclassif ied meteorites we all have in our collect ions. There was nosuch thing as an unclassif ied meteorite. In fact it was not a meteorite of f icially unt il it wasclassif ied. Now and forever more there will be thousands of unclassif ied stones f loat ing aroundcollect ions of meteorites.

Box of f resh crusted unclassif ied meteorites bought in Tucson 2010

So here is the topic of my art icle this month. What makes a part icular meteorite specimen worththe price that is asked? What factors make a collector decide what price they will pay?

My f irst thought is Name Recognit ion. There are some meteorites that I just want to have in mycollect ion. They are historic falls f rom the very early years of meteorite study and they rarelycome up for sell. Per gram price can fade into the background a lit t le as we just suck it up and buy

the price. So is an L6 f rom the 1700’s worth that much more than a f resh fall L6 f rom the last f iveyears? It s all in the name. And with that goes the need to prove that it really is what it s being soldas. Provenance, the history of the piece you are buying can add to the value. Get t ing all the oldcollect ion cards with the specimen when you buy it , is certainly very cool. The cards themselvesare actually collected on their on right .

Wold Cot tage slice with copy of Brit ish Museum specimen card. Note that the actual piece thiswas cut f rom and the name of the person it was bought f rom are shown

Next thought that I have is Availabilit y. What if there is only one stone which fell. And what if it wasnot very big. Lets suppose that it too is just a “common” classif icat ion. Why do we think that it isnecessarily much more valuable than a rarer more interest ing t ype. I think it is part ly condit ioning. Inevery thing that is collected there is the assumpt ion made that the more layers of rarit ysomething has the more valuable it will be. So something like 1909 VDB pennies are valuable notjust that they are old, but they are scarce, and a f ine grade is even more valuable because it iseven rarer. In meteorites we have mult iple layers of value too it seems. A summary might read thisway. One small stone, fell long ago. It has all be in a private collect ion for decades. Nobody hasever had any except the original couple pieces that went to museums. Now a slice has been cutf rom the main mass. It has been made into an unknown number of smaller part slices. How muchcan the owner of fer a meteorite like this for to the collectors of the world?

The Circumstances of Arrival. Here we have many factors that seem to play into the eventual costof a specimen. Was it seen and found right away? Some people only collect falls. Some onlyhistorical falls f rom the long past . Who found it? There are important names in the world ofmeteorites and owning specimens once touched by these individuals has mot ivated interestedcollectors to pay much higher prices then for run of the mill pieces of the same meteorite. I haveseen space potato blobs of Canyon Diablo go for more then beaut ifully sculptured pieces. Why?Just because they were found or owned by a certain person. I am a sucker for these and mightbuy them myself if I had the money. Who can understand the forces at work in this. What if ameteorite hit s a car, or a mail box, or a house, or a cow? Is it really much more valuable? Or it thecultural, psychological, stat ist ical factors we place on it that raises the cost?. And is it OK? Is thatpart of the fun of collect ing? To let the meteorites get under your skin so much that such factorsadd value. I think so. I have meteorites that are special for crazy reasons. Maybe it is who I waswith when I found it or bought it . I would never sell them under any circumstance. Maybe it is one Ihad to wait months to get . We do seem to add value to things based on many factors beyond justweight and type. Today, you have to add factors like it was caught on video tape f lying through

the air, or seen on radar, or snif fed out by a doggie. And the list of reasons for making them morevaluable goes on and on.

The Actual Costs. Af ter having discussed a lit t le of the ethereal in the last sect ion let ’s get rightdown to the t rue economics that determine price. I guess that brings up an issue right of f . Pricedoes not really have anything but a remote relat ionship to value in meteorites. It does howeverestablish the bot tom line below which a f inder is working in the negat ive. We are dealing with ahobby and an obsession somet imes and price and value separate under those circumstances. Af inder may be willing to sell a stone for any amount since they are hunt ing for fun. But , there arereal costs that are involved for the professional. They do ef fect the price and to some extent thevalue of meteorites. For dealers selling meteorites is a career and occupat ion. They are in it forthe money they can make. Like most of us they need to pay their bills and feed their family f romthe money earned through their work. Selling meteorites is their work. I never haggle with dealersfor pieces in my collect ion. I may t ry to get a bet ter deal if it is something we are going to sell.That ’s business. But , if t hey have to t ravel across the world and rent t ransportat ion and obtainguides, pay for lodging and food, in order to recover meteorites, all that expense only logicallybecomes incorporated into the price they must sell the meteorites for. So OK it is only an L6, but ifyou want it you have to pay the price. What if it is a Ureilit e and it was t racked f rom space to theground. And it fell f ar away on the other side of the world. You’re gonna have to pay. But , you canmassage away some of the pain of the price with all the cultural and psychological stuf f .

For example, you can say to yourself .

“It is the only time that an asteroid was found in space and its trajectory to the ground was predicted. Itwas seen by pilots of a passenger jetliner right when it was supposed to be seen. And it turns out to bea fascinating type of meteorite and not much will ever be available to collectors. If I don’t buy it now mychance may pass or the price may be even higher later.”

That kind of internal talk can help but lets be honest “you want it , you know you want it . . .”(Apologies to Mel Brooks) I doubt that we will ever be able to really def ine the variables ofmeteorite pricing. There are too many factors and many are just plain too intangible. But , abot tom line can sort of be set for some.

Many t imes I just look at a specimen and say boy that is a nice shaped, most ly crusted stone and Iwould like to get it if I can. So I ask, “How much is this one.” I get an answer and make a decision.Somet imes it s yes and somet imes it s no. On other occasions I see a specimen on my want listand it is a whole new set of factors that determine the purchase.

Ain’t meteorites fun. I got to go to the garage and clean and cut a bunch today. I wonder whatfactors will weave together to determine the price they will sell for. One thing I know is thatmeteorite collect ing will never again be as it was only a few years ago.

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Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Market Trendsby Michael Blood

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This Month’sMeteorite Market Trends

by Michael Blood

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Meteorite-Times MagazineEvidence of Life Found in Another Martian Meteorite!by Robert Verish

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Another Mars rock, the Los Angeles meteorite, has fossil evidence that suggests lif e once existedon Mars.

Researchers using Raman Spect rographic equipment (like the setup above) have found

“disordered graphite ” and “metalloporphyrin ” in the Los Angeles Mart ian meteorite (diabasicshergot t ite).

The fact that these compounds have a biot ic origin is not quest ioned. Although these twocompounds have been dismissed as being terrest rial contaminants, it begs the quest ion, “Whereare all the other compounds that would accompany this t ype of terrest rial contaminat ion?” Giventhe absence of addit ional evidence for recent terrest rial contaminat ion, it is my content ion that“disordered graphite and “metalloporphyrin” are actually fossil residue, having a biological originwhich predates the impact that launched the host rock f rom the surface of planet Mars.

Researchers at NASA in Houston announced in two separate press releases, one in November2009, and then two months later, in January 2010, that they have found convincing fossil evidencein three mart ian meteorites that lif e once existed on Mars. This evidence has conf irmed theresearchers earlier f indings about the mart ian meteorite Allen Hills 84001 f rom over a decade ago.The other two mart ian meteorites are Nakhla, which fell in Egypt in 1911 and since has been in aBrit ish collect ion, and an Antarct ic f ind by the Japanese called Yamato 000593 (another nakhlite).Designated Yamato 593, it contains signs of fossil lif e similar to that seen in AH84001 and Nakhlameteorites. Both the Nakhla and Yamato lif e forms date to only about 1.4 billion years old, if it canbe proved more def init ively.

NASA presented their f indings in greater depth before the American Geophysical Union Meet ing(January 2010) in San Francisco. At the meet ing, John McKay, the principal invest igator for theoriginal f indings regarding AH84001 presented in 1996, declared that before the end of 2010

“def init ive proof ” will be announced. He stated that recent advancements in inst rumentat ion haveresulted in breakthroughs in our abilit y to ident if y “biomorphs”. The “biomorph” features discoveredin the Yamato 593 meteorite look ident ical to those found inside the Allen Hills and Nakhlameteorites, according to McKay.

Because of these recent f indings, there has been a shif t in the “Mars lif e st rategy”: NASA’s originalst rategy was to “follow the water”, then the st rategy shif ted to “follow the carbon.” The st rategynow, however, simply reads “f ind direct evidence for seeking out lif e”. That role will f irst fall t o theMars Science Laboratory rover undergoing f inal assembly for launch in September 2011.

It is my purpose in this art icle to bring at tent ion to another Mars rock meteorite, the Los Angelesmeteorite (a diabasic shergot t ite), and to suggest that it , too, should be re-examined based uponf indings that were originally reported nearly ten years ago. Given the “recent advancements ininst rumentat ion”, this re-examinat ion of the Los Angeles mart ian meteorite is warranted. In fact ,before the next NASA science plat form is launched to Mars in order to “search for any and allsigns of lif e”, it would be prudent to re-examine as many mart ian meteorites as is possible.

Typical arrangement of Carbon molecules when in the form of Graphite

About 10 years ago there was an examinat ion of the Los Angeles shergot t ite (LA) by a group ofresearchers, led by Alian Wang, ut ilizing state-of -the-art (for that t ime) Raman spect roscopicinst ruments. The sample of LA that was used in this survey was obtained f rom UCLA. This meansthat the sample came f rom the type specimen that this author submit ted to UCLA in 1999. Havingpersonally cut this t ype specimen on my own rock-saw, I can at test to the fact that this was farf rom a “clean room” operat ion.

The result s of this “survey” were published in 2001 under the t it le:

Preliminary Raman spect roscopic survey on a mart ian meteorite – Los Angeles in Lunar andPlanetary Science XXXII (2001) – 1427.pdf

Although the t it le called this a “Preliminary survey”, it was st ill a very thorough examinat ion thatident if ied all of the mineral const ituents, as well as, contaminants, presumably all terrest rial. WhatI found int riguing was the emphasis placed on describing two of these “contaminants”:

1) the disordered graphite – which was always associated with the masses of secondaryhemat ite.

and

2) the metalloporphyrin – which were individual grains that looked like minute, ruby-colored crystals.

Since these compounds are known to have biologic origins, it is understandable that some space

in the paper be taken to describe their occurrence. But their prominence in the abst ract ,part icularly the images of the ruby-colored metalloporphyrin grains, has led me to think that thesignif icance of their presence in this meteorite was being intent ionally understated, in order toallow the reader to draw their own conclusion.

In order for me to draw my own conclusion, I need answers to certain quest ions.

For instance, if the Raman spect roscope was so sensit ive as to detect and properly ident if yminute masses of carbon compounds that are, at best , ephemeral vest iges of once livingorganisms, then why didn’t the spect roscope detect a long list of hydrocarbon compounds, suchas proteins, lipids, cell-walls, etc., in other words, the remains of the purported terrest rialorganisms that “produced these two contaminants”?

How long does it take to form disordered graphite f rom once living organisms? Among all of theMart ian meteorites, the Los Angeles stones are one of the f reshest , having one of the lowestterrest rial residence t imes (~5k-9k years). Is this long enough for a terrest rial organism todecompose into “disordered graphite”?

In the absence of other hydrocarbons, wouldn’t the sole-presence of minute, crystalline grains ofmetalloporphyrin be exact ly the kind of vest igial substance f rom once living organisms that couldsurvive in the vacuum of space over long geologic t ime?

For now, unt il a re-examinat ion of the Los Angeles meteorite with the newly advancedinst rumentat ion can prove otherwise, I can only conclude that LA is too f resh, too prist ine (lacks awide variety of contaminants f rom terrest rial organisms) and too rich in the exact carboncompounds that you would expect to survive the t ransit through space f rom Mars to Earth.

Ordered Graphite – t ypical “narrow” response with Raman spect rograph

Disordered Graphite – t ypical “wide” response with Raman spect rograph

Over the intervening decade since the above “preliminary survey” was published, NASA has nevercontacted me (the main mass holder of Los Angeles) for addit ional samples for a more thoroughexaminat ion with the advanced analyt ical inst rumentat ion they have developed. I f ind this curious,because their of t -stated st rategy was to “Follow the Carbon”! In fact , as recent ly as January 2010at the AGU Meet ing in San Francisco, John McKay was quick to congratulate themselves (NASA)for having followed through on this st rategy, because when it came to “following the carbon”, therewas (and I quote) “a lot of carbon in Nakhla!”

But in my view, NASA has fallen well short of their goal to follow the carbon to Mars, when theyfailed to follow the carbon t rail just this short distance to Los Angeles.

Diabasic Shergot t ite – Available for Re-examinat ion

REFERENCES:

Preliminary Raman spect roscopic survey on a mart ian meteorite – Los Angeles in Lunar andPlanetary Science XXXII (2001) – 1427.pdf -by Alian Wang, Karla E. Kuebler, John Freeman, Bradley L. Jollif f , Dept . Earth & Planetary Sciences,Washington Universit y, St . Louis, MO, 63130 (alianw@levee.wust l.edu)

Google docs – Preliminary Raman spect roscopic survey on a mart ian meteorite – Los Angeles,by Alian Wang, Karla E. Kuebler, John Freeman, Bradley L. Jollif f , Dept . Earth & Planetary Sciences,Washington Universit y, St . Louis, MO, 63130 (alianw@levee.wust l.edu)

(If the previous Reference has expired, t ry this more permanent link.)

Metalloporphyrin : Def init ion f rom Answers.com

metalloporphyrin ( m?’talo’pörf?r?n ) ( biochemist ry ) A compound, such as heme, consist ing of aporphyrin combined with a metal such as iron, copper…

Disordered graphite- Graphite surface disorder detect ion using in situ Raman microscopy – BY Laurence J. Hardwick,Hilmi Buqa and Pet r Novák

in: Solid State Ionics – Volume 177, Issues 26-32, 31 October 2006, Pages 2801-2806

Fig. 4. In situ Raman spect ra series of disordered graphite of the four points f rom open circuitpotent ial (3000 mV) to 550 mV (top) and f rom 500 mV to 220 mV (bot tom). Spect ra are shif tedarbit rarily up the intensit y axis. The arrows on the lef t -hand side of each quad indicate thedirect ion of the scan.

Alian Wang – Mission to Mars – Alian also uses Raman spect roscopy for another passion of hers:the study of Mart ian meteorites… …

Images of t race fossils in Mart ian meteorites: – NASA Johnson Space Center website – NewStudy Adds to Finding of Ancient Life Signs in Mars Meteorite – 12.08.09

SPACEFLIGHT NOW- Three Mart ian meteorites t riple evidence for Mars lif e – BY CRAIG COVAULT

Posted: January 9, 2010

SPACEFLIGHT NOW – Mart ian meteorite surrenders new secrets of possible lif e – BY CRAIGCOVAULT

Posted: November 24, 2009

Technology Review – Delta V – Wednesday, December 02, 2009 – Fresh Evidence of Ancient Lifeon Mars?

A new study says it ’s the best explanat ion for materials found in a meteorite, but not everyoneagrees.

Life on Mars NewsWire: Recent Art icles – News that scient ists had found evidence of lif e in a Marsmeterorite had leaked out , …

Life on Mars: New Evidence f rom Mart ian Meteorites – in Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7441, 744102

In summary, the original hypothesis that features in ALH84001 may be the result of early microbiallif e onMars remains robust and is further st rengthened by the presence of abundant biomorphs in otherMart ianmeteorites. These biomorphs, while not completely def init ive for microbial lif e, are clearlyassociated withMart ian aqueous alterat ion (crack-f illing iddingsite) and are nearly ident ical to terrest rial biomorphsknown tobe formed by microbial act ivit y. New Mart ian data since our original paper have signif icant lysupported thehabitabilit y of Mars and the possibilit y of lif e there. These data include the presence of an earlymagnet icdynamo detected by by the discovery of st rongly magnet ized crustal rocks, the presence ofabundant earlysurface water and recent near-surface water, the presence of early clay minerals and carbonates,and thepresence of methane plumes in the atmosphere which may have a biological origin. Combining allof the newdata f rom the Mars missions with our new data on biomorphs, the case for lif e on Mars appears tobe muchst ronger.

My previous art icles can be found *HERE*

For for more informat ion, please contact me by email:

Bolide*chaser

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Meteorite-Times MagazineIMCA Insights – March 2010by IMCA TEAM

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Meteorites 101 at a Deaf Schoolby Pete Shugar

Background on Learning the Art of Sign Language

It was seventh grade. Her locker was just f ive away f rom mine. She was shy. I never saw her withanyone else. I f inally screwed up the mental courage and taped a note to her locker, asking for adate. Imagine my surprise when she gave me a note saying yes. I had suggested a ice creamsundae at the local Woolworth. When she arrived, I found out the reason she didn’t have manyf riends. It was because she was deaf . She then taught me the manual alphabet .

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

Thus began my love af fair with sign language. Over the years, I did very lit t le to advance thatbeginning. About 15 years ago I chanced upon another set t ing that required signing. I took a fewf ree courses f rom the school system and have cont inued to work on it ever since.

Ten years ago I found that my hearing was get t ing progressively worse. I worked faster to learnmore signs. Early last year all hearing in the lef t ear was gone. The right ear was almost gone aswell. I didn’t have too much t rouble talking to someone face to face as I could read lips, but I wasvery nervous as this was the f irst t ime I had to sign to an audience, not count ing my ef fort s at myhome church.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

The Meteorite Teasers

I work for the school system here in Amarillo as a monitor on the bus to keep the kids f rom killingthe bus, the driver, or themselves. I almost always put one or two meteorites in my pocket to showthe kids on my bus. I’ve even done this at church or at any other gathering of kids or adult s. Manyis the parent that asks quest ions and want to learn something about our visitors f rom space.

One day I had to drive a SUV as the sub driver on a route. It was to f ill in on the route that servesthe deaf school here in Amarillo. I always carry a few meteorites with me as there is alwayssomeone that has never seen a meteorite or is a science buf f that might like to see and hold one. Isoon discovered the pleasure of watching the “Look of Wonder” that spreads across their facewhen they touch a meteorite. Although almost all of my meteorites are micros, I do have a fewlarger specimens as well as lunar and Mart ian micros in my collect ion. The boys and girls reallyf reak out when told that they have just touched a piece of the Moon or Mars.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

As usual, I had specimems with me that day and let a deaf girl touch several. She was very excitedand her lit t le f ingers just f lew far faster than I could read them as she told me of what it meant tobe able to see and touch something that had been in space, but now it was in her hand. She wasso thrilled to hold them. I promised to let her touch a lunar at a later t ime. The teacher saw theef fect this had on “Karen Jo”* and asked me if I could come to the school and do a presentat ion.

She saw that I signed and promised that I would have someone to help me if I got stuck for aword. I told her, “Yes, I would be glad to do the presentat ion”.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

Preparat ion

Seeing as I only had 3 weeks to get my act together, I asked the MeteoriteCent ral mailing list forsome cheap meteorites that I could af ford. To my surprise, there was an outpouring of of fers forf ree samples. As these poured in, I became very proud of the members of this list and felt that Iwould do all that I could to honor each and everyone who helped make that presentat ion the bestthat I ever did. One of fer asked how many there would be in the class. I est imated 30 to 35. What Ididn’t know was that there was 2 classes, each with 30 to 35 kids.

Well, when all the of fers had arrived, I counted out all of the meteorites. There were enough NWA869′s for one class and enough NWA 4293′s for the second class. Then there were all the largeunclassif ied NWA’s which became the focus of the science teachers’ gif t s. There st ill remain themany smaller unclassif ied NWA’s that will f ind a home in a later presentat ion. One batch ofmeteorites did not arrive t ill t he evening af ter the presentat ion. When I opened it up, there were 5perfect small Campos made into individuals with a loop for a necklace which made perfect gif t sfor the teachers. I went back the next day and lef t one for the principal, as well as for the teacherwho invited me.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

The IMCA “Meteorites 101″ PowerPoint presentat ion was a big help, but I had to t rim it downbecause of t ime limit s. Some of it was just too technical for the lower grade levels. I dug into thehistory of all the meteorites that I would present to f ind cool facts and t idbit s that made themeteorites come alive, instead of just being a lump of rock and/or metal. I made sure not to taketoo many with me as there is such a thing as overload. Too many also makes it hard to keep upwith what is being passed around. The last thing you need is to lose one of your more valuablemeteorites.

The Moment of Truth Arrives

I f irst told of my awakening to meteorites and what I collected and why. I showed several mustread books and told of the work of H.H. Nininger as the father of Meteorit ics. The children werevery at tent ive and all asked good quest ions that showed a grasp of the science of meteorit ics. Iwas asked how the meteoroid could be dislodged f rom the asteroid belt . What made all themeteoroids and asteroids in the f irst place? How do we know that this meteorite is f rom 4 Vesta?These quest ions and many more were asked and answered.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

“Vaca Muerta” was cool, I just passed Valera around with no explainat ion. The boys thought it wascool, but the girls just squeeled “Eewweee” when told that Valera was the “bullet ” that killed a cow.Of course, the quest ion “Has a meteorite ever killed a person?” came next . I showed the verymicro-micro of Sylacauga. “It s so small”, they said. I told of how hard it was to obtain it . Everymeteorite brought more quest ions. The meteorites caused several to want to study and learnmore about them. One thought it would make a very interest ing science fair project .

At the conclusion of the presentat ion I had one of the teachers pass out to each member of theclass a meteorite. I wanted a teacher to not look at each one, but to simply reach into the box andpass one out . I was worried that there would be much made of the “I got one bigger than you”syndrome. These fourth and f if th grade boys and girls had a wonderful t ime. I was elated at therecept ion I received. I became the man of the hour in the eyes of kids as well as the teachers. It ’sgood to be a good role model for them. The teachers were very happy to have my resourcesthere for them to use. They were also surprised to receive some very cool looking unclassif iedNWA’s for later use in the classroom.

Photo courtesy of Pete Shugar

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

I fully believe that the giveaways were what made such a big impact upon the overall success ofany ef fort to reach the students. You just need to be willing to spend a lit t le t ime with them. Thepayof f is unreal.

My only regret was that I could have used at least 30 more minutes per class to cover more fullyall that needed to be covered.

*Not her real name.

– This art icle will also be published in a future issue of Meteorite Magazine –

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Meteorite-Times MagazineNWA 869 Inclusionsby John Kashuba

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Hey Chuck,

Please look for f ine grained inclusions, too, when you’re slicing those NWA 869s. They look likelit t le gray patches of unmixed Port land cement . Folks have been calling them achondrit ic inclusionsbut that might not be what they are. There’s a recurring rumor that something’s going to bepublished about them but I haven’t seen it yet .

NWA 869 is get t ing more study. I understand it s classif icat ion has been amped up to L3-6chondrit ic breccia. It is a coarse breccia with chunks of up to 5.5 cm. Nobel gas measurementsshow that some port ions of the mix had been on the surface of the parent body so it is a regolithbreccia – think “asteroid soil”. Plowed soil. The light colored, rather well metamorphosed partsmight be f rom deep down. Clasts as primit ive as t ype 3 have seen lit t le heat . There are shockdarkened and shock melted bit s and the rare foreign carbonaceous f ragment . Most ly it is it s greygreen self . Impacts plowed it up and impacts compacted – lit hif ied – it .

Scient ists f igure the meteoroid that was blasted of f the parent body was maybe 4 to 5 meters indiameter before atmospheric ent ry. Even with ablat ion loss of 90 to 95% about 7 tons dropped onthe Sahara Desert . This was 4.4±0.7 kyr ago – af ter the mammoths but well before iPhones.[Metzler et al. (2008) LPS and Welten et al. (2010) LPS]

Slices with f ine grained inclusions shouldn’t go to the kids. We’ll keep them. They’ll be good t radingmaterial if t hat paper ever comes out .

I’ve got some pictures.

- John

A breccia for sure. The long diagonal of the squarish white clast is 5cm. The slice is 19 cm long.

This inch long slice has a nice f ine grained inclusion. Looks like cement ,doesn’t it ?

This is one of the thin sect ions made f rom that slice. The f ine grainedinclusion stands out pret t y well here.

Up close to it now. The f ine grained port ion is on the lef t and theregular lit hology is on the right . PPL FOV 5.2 mm.

Same view. XPL

Same slice, dif ferent thin sect ion. Is that a carbonaceous clast thereon the right edge?

Maybe it is. Same clast , dif ferent thin sect ion. XPL FOV 2 mm.

Dif ferent NWA 869 thin sect ion. There’s a patch sit t ing a lit t le abovecenter with dark mat rix and well def ined chondrules. It ’s probably oneof the low metamorphic grade areas.

Here is a close-up of that part . Neat and orderly. PPL FOV 3 mm.

Same with another f ilt er thrown in. Not as dist inct , but pret t ier. XPLFOV 3 mm.

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Meteorite-Times MagazineCount Guido Deiroby Editor

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This feature is devoted each month to one of the personalit ies within the meteorite community.This month we are delighted to have Count Guido Deiro share the incredible story of his f irstmeteorite f ind.

METEORITE FIRST FIND STORY 3/3/10 12.73kg NEVADA RECORD CHONDRITE

Myself and Sonny Clary's dog "Brix"overlooking the f ind.

I’ve lived and worked in the Great Basin and Mohave Deserts all my lif e. For dozens of years andthousands of hours as a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot providing cont ract services togovernment agencies and scient if ic laboratories, most associated with the Nevada AtomicProving Grounds (87% of the State of Nevada is government land).

Af ter the death of Howard Hughes, (yes, I did know and f ly with him) I lef t my posit ion at theHughes Tool Co. as Director of Aviat ion Services and began brokering ranch propert ies, Taylorgrazing and patented water rights which put me “boots on ground” throughout the state.

I began to study meteorites about a year ago as a diversion to take my mind of f the two years ofradiat ion and chemo t reatments I had been undergoing for stage IV metastasized cancer. I hadresponded well for a 72 year old and was in remission. I needed some new pursuit to get mymental and physical health back.

Lit t le did I know that I was about to catch another disease..and this one incurable…the obsessionwith meteorites.

Af ter purchasing some sixty dif ferent t ypes and classif icat ions, a stereo scope and a cabinet forcomparison purposes …and reading numerous posts on List and dozens of papers, at tendingTucson… put t ing faces on all whom I had met online… I decided I was ready to go into the f ieldand f ind my own meteorites.

My modest cabinet with the big chondrite looking so out ofplace.

I was fortunate to have made acquaintance with Sonny Clary who lives nearby. He had become mymentor, given me samples and shown me some pointers on hunt ing by taking me on a short localt rip to look at an area of interest . We spent maybe two hours in the f ield. Sonny moves quickly, hisacute vision and experience let t ing him cover a lot of ground in very lit t le t ime. I found I was morecomfortable going my own way and not slowing him up. Neither he, nor I, found anything.

I have four grandsons and I spent a few hours in some vacant f ields in Las Vegas throwing downweathered samples and demonst rat ing to them the use of the cane and detector. Ten yearsyoung, Vincent , was fascinated. He’ll be an “ist ” someday.

On Tuesday, March 2nd, Sonny called late and invited me to spend my f irst full day hunt ing an areahe felt was promising several hours away. We met at his home and loaded up the gear, food andwater. Brix, his super Alsat ian, whined excitedly knowing we were going on a hunt . Sonny hast rained Brix to the point that the dog will bring him rocks in the f ield. No meteorites yet…but it willhappen.

We arrived in a remote part of the desert around nine o’clock. The temperature was a pleasant 67degrees under clear skies and no wind. We saddled up and agreed as to which way each of uswould go. Sonny took of f to the lef t and me to the right . Within minutes we were out of sight ofeach other. We did have a means of communicat ing elect ronically in the event of an emergency.

Af ter several hours with no luck, we met back at the t ruck and t raveled two miles north on thevalley f loor. Af ter another hour or two of nothing but meteor wrongs picked up f rom the desertpavement , Sonny decided to expand our search area again several miles to the west .

This t ime we were on excellent ground. Gent ly rolling, with very lit t le organic growth and hardly anyrocks at all. If they were here, the meteorites would stand out prominent ly. Again, Sonny st rode of fnorthwest with Brix roaming in f ront of him. Brix has received snake avoidance t raining and a goodthing, because the rat t lers, including the feared “Mohave Green”, are coming out of their dens thist ime of year to warm themselves, and shed their winter skin, making them ill t empered andaggressive. Sonny hunted with no assistance f rom cane, or detector. I used my six foot staf f witha circular neodymium magnet screwed on the end.

I followed Sonny to the west , deciding to make the f irst leg of my search into the reduced visibilit yof the sun, so I could make the other two half mile legs with the sun at my side and rear to highlightthe ground and prevent squint ing. I have special t inted prescript ion glasses that provide some UVprotect ion, reduce eye st rain and sharpen the f ield of view.

Sonny and Brix were quickly out of sight . About an hour and a half into things, and while walkingforward a few paces at a 45 degree angle to the lef t and then to the right , my scan picked up anirregular shape 50′ to my right . It was so out of place as to shape and color that I knewimmediately it was a possible. I turned and walked toward it . As I got within a few yards I could seethat it had the familiar dark desert pat inat ion that I had studied on my Gold Basin samples. It wasa three inch high t ip st icking out of the ground like a t riangular iceberg.

I started to laugh out loud as I walked around it in a t ight circle. Taking my cane, I carefully placed itclose alongside dangling it loosely between two f ingers. Nevada chondrites tend to have lowmetal. The cane moved slowly toward the rock and touched it . So subt le was it s movement that Ididn’t immediately believe I had seen what I had seen and had to repeat the test all around the t ip.Each t ime it “clicked” I got a rush of excitement .

Before I could contain myself , I reached down and grabbed the exposed t ip and pulled. My handslipped of f . The rock was solidly buried in the ground.

The meteorite in situ af ter clearing the f irst two inches of dirtaway f rom it by hand.

I began to dig with my bare hands. Down two inches and st ill no movement . Step back. Put scalecube down. Take picture. Three more inches and shove it with your foot . No movement . Morepictures and the thought of “How in the hell did I get this lucky?” I dug f rant ically like a rabid gopher.“How big was this thing?”, “Wow”, “Wait t ill Sonny sees this.” Then I got greedy. I didn’t want it tostop get t ing bigger, but f inally at a depth of about nine inches I was able to get my f ingers underthe bot tom edge of the t riangular shape. I stood up, put my foot against it and shoved. Themeteorite came f ree f rom it s thousands of years ent rapment in the desert f loor. I had my f irstf ind.

The meteorite exposed in situ with 1cm scale cube. This photoresulted in Tom Phillips producing the one inch "Count " scalecube for larger meteorites.

I called Sonny on cell. At f irst he thought I was joking, but when I of fered a $100 wager if he cameand found it was not a meteorite, he started his t rek to my locat ion. He arrived in f if t een minutes,the last few yards with a huge grin on his face and his arms out st retched. “Dude” he said. “You theman.” We were like a couple of kids for a minute. Literally pounding each other’s f ist s and laughing.I have never seen Sonny so animated.

Brix immediately went to the meteorite, and curling around it , he laid down on guard. It was his now.

Adam Hupe' using his 24" diamond bladed saw that he calls"The Judge" to cut the Nevada chondrite in half . I gave Sonnyhalf as without his guidance I wouldn't have made the f ind.

The specimen is current ly the largest intact chondrite found so far in Nevada and my f irst f ind. It sgross weight was 12.73kg. 250mm x 180mm x 120mm. I went out and bought a bunch of lot teryt ickets.

Count GuidoDeiro

IMCA 3536

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Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Calendar – March 2010by Anne Black

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9.9 gram specimen f rom The Darryl Fut rell Collect ion OfTekt ites

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Once a few decades ago this opening

was a framed window in the wall

of H. H. Nininger's Home and

Museum building. From this

window he must have many times

pondered the mysteries of

Meteor Crater seen in the distance.

Photo by © 2010 James Tobin