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2010 July Issue
Transcript of Meteorite Times Magazine
Meteorite-Times MagazineContentsby Editor
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Featured Monthly Articles
Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi
Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin
Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood
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
Tektite of the Month by Editor
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Meteorite-Times MagazineWitnessed Fall: Washougal, Washington, USAby Mart in Horejsi
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A July 1939 Witnessed Fall: Washougal, Washington, USA
Early Independence Day Fireworks-and my Wife’s Birthday Meteorite!
As the only witnessed fall in state of Washington, Washougal is prizedbeyond it s rare classif icat ion and miniscule total known weight .
Washougal is a beaut iful stone, and a valuable ent ry at any size intoany collect ion. Reeking with diogenite crystals and a eucrit ic mat rix, itcould easily be poster child of howardites. Unfortunately, it could justas easily be on the side of a milk carton as a lost main mass.
According to historylink.org, the name Washougal is a Cascade Chinook term that could mean“Small rocks and pebbles.” So it is f it t ing that the Washougal meteorite is made up of small eucriteand diogenite rocks and pebbles.
Washougal, when st ill a f ireball, sailed over over a populated area during the dayt ime–two thingsthat should have made recovery a simple mat ter. However, things don’t always work out as wewould like since although the single known mass was recovered less than 24 hours af ter it fell, itst ill t ook more than six weeks before Washougal saw the light of science-long af ter it “had ceasedto make news.”
When considering the t ime lag between fall and formal recovery, I think a term is needed for thatconceptual gap between meteor and meteorite. In the at tempt to coin a term, I put forth the word“meteorary” to be the stage of existence af ter a meteor, but before a meteorite. The ‘ary’ suf f ixmeans “like or connected with” so meteorary is something that is connected with a meteor andthat something is the belief that there will be meteorites found in the future. But unt il f ound, theimaginary objects are said to be meteorary.
Nevada State JournalReno, NevadaTuesday, July 4, 1939
Explosion Which Rocked Port land Was Meteor,
but Scient ists Can’t Find It
PORTLAND, Ore., July 3. (UPI) – A terrif ic explosion which rocks Port land andneighboring cit ies early Sunday was ident if ied Monday as a meteor, but def initeconclusions may not be drawn for perhaps another year.A wide variety of guesses – ranging f rom belief that a powder cache had exploded tohints of a bombing – narrowed down Monday to eyewitnesses accounts of a heavenlybody st reaking across the sky and disappearing to the northwest .Bend, Eugene and Port land accounts of the “f ireball” apparent ly conf irmed the meteortheory.Ast ronomical observers, however, pointed out it might be another year before themeteor, which apparent ly exploded in mid-air, could be found.The explosion was believed to have taken place f if t y miles northeast of Port land.Residents of Woodland, Wash., said a black cloud was observed rising out of theCascades Mountains northeast of the community.
According to an art icle by Professor E. F. Lange that was published in The ORE BIN (vol. 30, No. 8),
On Sunday morning, July 2, 1939…
“a spectacular f ireball or meteor passed over Port land just before 8:00 a.m. Somewhat to theeast of Port land the meteor exploded, causing many people to awaken f rom their Sunday morningslumbers as buildings shook, and dishes and windows rat t led
No damage was reported. Several climbers on Mount Hood and Mount Adams reported seeing theunusual event . The f ireball immediately became known as the Port land meteor and stories aboutit appeared in newspapers f rom coast to coast .”
Lange describes the stone:
“The Washougal meteorite is about the size of a tennis ball and weighs almost one-half pound. Ithas a light gray interior, throughout which are scat tered many small nickel-iron part icles. A f ine,smooth, black fusion coat ing formed by it s f iery passage through the atmosphere covers theent ire surface.”
The Washougal meteorite posing with a dime. Yes, a dime.
A United States dime has a diameter of 17.91mm or 0.705 inchesmaking, in my rough est imat ion, making Washougal’s diameter about15% smaller than a tennis ball.
Lange cont inues…
“Between 1932 and 1939 Pruet t had collected enough data f romcooperat ing observers to be able to t race 13 bright f ireballs that hadpassed over the Northwest skies. Af ter each meteor, people sent hima variety of rocks and minerals which suddenly seemed dif ferent tothem.
None, however, proved to be meteorites unt il August 18, 1939, morethan six weeks af ter the Port land meteor had ceased to make news,when he received in the mail a small box containing a f ine, f reshlyfallen stony meteorite. It had been sent by Jerry E. Best , Washougal,Wash., who had found the interest ing stone in his backyard on July 3.”
Great gif t s come in small packages. Like gemstones f rom space, theolivine crystals wink beauty at the eye of the beholder.
Although the fall day and month of Washougal is the same as mywife’s birthday, there is no doubt I am the only one in the house that isexcited about owning some Washougal.
In fact , I’m sure that in the t ime since this lovely specimen entered mycollect ion, my lovely wife has forgot ten that she shares a birthdaywith it . Oh well. It ’s the thought that counts, right?
Fresh crust on a rare achondrite whose fall was witnessed issomething that never gets old.
The beauty of the complete individual that fell 70+ years ago did notescape Leonard, but unt il t he main mass is found again, the fullycrusted main mass will exist only in the collect ive imaginat ion of thosewho hold these stones in high regard.
The case of the missing main mass…
Af ter acquiring the specimen highlighted in this art icle, I realized that I had not only one of the veryfew pieces of Washougal in the world, but also a disproport ionately large specimen given that themain mass of this fall is unaccounted for. The Catalogue of Meteorites list s the main mass asliving at the Universit y of Oregon which is in Eugene, Oregon. The Natural History Museum inLondon professes a 17g piece along with a gram of dust . Arizona State Universit y claims 8.1g, andthe Bartoschewitz Collect ion with one gram. However, I could not locate the main mass during anextended t ime at the Universit y of Oregon. So I dug around in the lit erature.
Leaf let No. 165, published in November, 1942 by the Ast ronomical Society of the Pacif ic includesan art icle by J. Hugh Pruet t t it led The Portland Meteor and Resulting Meteorite. The art iclecontains the following excerpt :
The sample was mailed to Dr. H. H. Nininger of Denver for posit ive ident if icat ion. “Specimengenuine meteorite,” a telegram replied.
Dr. F. C. Leonard of the Universit y of California at Los Angeles later inspected it andpronounced it a “beaut iful lit t le aerolite.”
Af ter the presentat ion of a small slab to Dr. Nininger, the remaining 206 grams became aprized part of the writer’s meteorite collection.
James Hugh Pruet t , known as an amateur ast ronomer and a f requent cont ributor to Sky &Telescope magazine moved on to the next world in 1955. I’ve heard that the Washougal main
mass resided in the museum at the Universit y of Oregon, but even when allowed access to theback room-given that no such specimen was on display-nothing was found except a mult i-poundrusty slab of the Willamet te meteorite wrapped in a plast ic bag.
The pebble of Washougal howardite in my collect ion represents a physical sample of worldsbeyond ours, as well as a brief but important moment in meteorit ics. Three things are of ten citedas key for meteorite recovery. First , there must be someone to recover the stone. Second, theamount of compet ing background rock must be low enough to make the task reasonable. Third,there needs to be the intellectual curiosit y to pursue the unknown. In Washougal’s case, all threewere present in abundance. But sadly the stone, at least for the moment , cannot return thefavors.
Unt il next t ime….
The Accretion Desk welcomes all comments and feedback. [email protected]
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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 MagazineTungsten Mountain 533by Robert Verish
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Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM 542, TM 543– Image Gallery
Images of the Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM 542, TM 543 meteorites – as
found “in-situ” and in the lab
The subject of this month’s “Bob’s Findings” art icle is about four meteorite f ragments found atEdwards Creek Valley, Nevada, of f icially named the Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM542, TM 543 – Ordinary Chondrites, four stony meteorites that were found May 9th & 10th, 2007during a “meteorite-recovery f ield t rip” organized by this author.
These “of f icial names” (actually, the numbers) were just recent ly approved by the NomenclatureCommit tee of the Meteorit ical Society, so they are recent addit ions to the Meteorit ical Bullet inDatabase, but they will eventually appear “in print ” when the next Meteorit ical Bullet in is published.The benef it of having the Database on-line is that images of these meteorites can be uploadedvia the Encyclopedia of Meteorites.
Although these small, weathered Ordinary Chondrites may not be all that interest ing, it is the factthat for all of the H-chondrites that have been found at this localit y, there hasn’t been a properpairings study conducted, which is noteworthy. By the t ime 500 and more meteorite f ragmentsand individuals were submit ted for provisional numbers, it was very apparent to all of the f ieldworkers involved with this localit y, that the vast majorit y of these f inds were all of the samelithology, an equilibrated H-chondrite, meaning that they were presumed to be f rom the same fall.Yet , even the f irst 10 classif ications of meteorites f rom this localit y were all “equilibratedchondrites”, there st ill was no proof that any of these were paired, let alone any proof which oneof these H-chondrites represented the vast majorit y of the 500+ recorded f inds.
Fayalite(mol%) Plus/minus Pet rologic Grade Shock
Stage W. Grade TMnumber
17.5 0.1 4 2 W3 TM 00317.9 0.1 4 2 W3 TM 00918.2 0.2 5 2 W3 TM 01018.5 0.2 5 3 W3 TM 00718.6 0.1 6 2 W5 TM 00419.2 0.2 6 2 W5 TM 00219.3 0.5 4 2 W3 TM 00120.3 0.3 5 3 W2 TM 00825 0.2 6 4 W3 TM 00625.5 0.2 6 2 W3 TM 005
Hence, there was a need for more f inds to be submit ted for classif icat ion. And luckily, they wereaccepted. Not only that , but the “turn-around” t ime was surprising short .
What can be learned f rom this, is that even though there can be long delays and great dif f icult y inget t ing some common meteorites classif ied, it isn’t always the case. Hopefully, with t ime thisproblem will improve and it will be less and less used as an excuse for not get t ing f inds submit tedfor classif icat ion.
I had these Tungsten Mountain f inds classif ied at the same inst itut ion that classif ied most of theother f inds f rom this localit y.
Over 5 years ago I made the following statement and it holds t rue even more so today:“There are more than a couple reasons why a f inder would want his meteorite classif ied by thesame person who had classif ied other f inds f rom that same localit y. And it ’s more than the fact
that it is only proper protocol to give f irst considerat ion to the researcher that is conduct ing astudy of that localit y. The most obvious reason would be that pairings could be done much easier.In fact , it is becoming more apparent that meteorites, that are obviously paired, are having greatdif f icult y in get t ing paired when they are get t ing classif ied by dif ferent inst itut ions. ”
Now that 18 out of the 19 classif ied f inds f rom Tungsten Mountain have been done at the sameinst itut ion, and their t ype specimens are available for proper pairings, it would be more that justproper protocol to have future Tungsten Mountain f inds classif ied at that same inst itut ion. It wouldactually be the most prudent thing to do, as long as there is any interest in pairing all of these drylake f inds. I would think this would be a common interest of both collectors and researchers.Hopefully, for other mult iple f ind localit ies across the Southwest US, we will see a consensus formamong f inders and researchers that promotes this protocol.
References:
Tungsten Mountain 240 H4 S1 W5 Fa = 16.9±0.1 n=8 opx: Fs15.6Wo3.0 n=1 41.6 g
Tungsten Mountain 533 H5 S3 W2 Fa = 18.6±0.2 n=7 Fs = 16.4±0.2, Wo = 1.3 n=5 25.3 g
Tungsten Mountain 535 H4 S1 W5 Fa = 18.1±0.2 n=4 Fs = 16.2, Wo = 1.3 n=2 26.1 g
Tungsten Mountain 542 H5 S3 W1 Fa = 18.3±0.1 n=7 Fs = N/A 4.6 g
Tungsten Mountain 543 H4 S2 W3 Fa = 18.5±0.3 n=6 Fs = N/A 18.1 g
Tungsten Mountain 563 H5 S3 W2 Fa = 19.0±0.7 n=5 Fs = N/A 9.3 g
The following are links that take you to the Meteorit ical Bullet in descript ion for that TungstenMountain meteorite. And if you “click” on an image, you can be linked to an “Enlarged” version ofthat image. The images are of each meteorite “as it was found” on the playa and of the t ype-specimenwhile under study in my lab:
Tungsten Mountain 533 – this meteorite is now classif ied and off iciallyNUMBERED:
H5, S3, W2 (Fa 18.6+/-0.2% n=7, Fs 16.4 %, Wo 1.3% n=5)
Tungsten Mountain 535 – this meteorite is now classif ied and off iciallyNUMBERED:
H4 , S1, W5 (Fa 18.1+/-0.2% n=4 , Fs 16.2%, Wo 1.3% n=2)
Tungsten Mountain 542 – this meteorite is now classif ied and off iciallyNUMBERED:
H5, S3, W1 (Fa 18.3+/-0.1% n=7, Fs = N/A)
Tungsten Mountain 543 – this meteorite is now classif ied and off iciallyNUMBERED:
H4 , S2, W3 (Fa 18.5+/-0.3% n=6, Fs = N/A)
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 – July 2010by IMCA TEAM
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IMCA Insights – July 2010Ensisheim Meteorite Show 2010by Norbert Classen
Welcome to the July issue of IMCA Insights and to our second meteorite show report for this year,Ensisheim 2010. The show was opening it s gates for the 11th t ime f rom June 18 to 20, 2010, andlike in the last years it at t racted a lot of internat ional visitors, collectors, dealers, and scient istsf rom all over the world.
View of the Ensisheim Regency Palace Photo courtesyPeter Marmet
If you have never been to Ensisheim: it is the place of one of the oldest witnessed meteorite falls,and it is an absolute must for every guest to pay at least a short visit to the remaining mass ofthe Thunderstone of Ensisheim which fell in 1492, and which serves as the centerpiece of theannual show which is organized by the St . Georges Conf raternit y of the Ensisheim MeteoriteGuardians (Conf rérie des Gardiens de la Météorite d’Ensisheim) inside of the historic RegencyPalace.
Five new Guardians of the Ensisheim Meteorite, amongthem IMCA Members Olaf Gabel and Kazimierz MazurekPhoto courtesy Hanno St rufe
The t radit ional opening ceremonies of the Ensisheim show also include a special honor for ahandful of special guests who have been selected to become honorary members of theBrotherhood of Guardians. Among them there were two IMCA members this year, “chief -impactor”Olaf Gabel f rom Germany and seasoned meteorite collector Kazimierz Mazurek f rom Poland. Inthe evening at the famous Friday night dinner party the organizer of the Ensisheim show, ZelimirGabelica, had the pleasure to welcome yet another new member to the Brotherhood – therenowned meteorit icist John Wasson who arrived at the show in the evening.
Zelimir Gabelica (right ) welcoming John Wasson to theBrotherhood Photo courtesy Mirko Graul
I arrived at the show on Saturday at about 10 a.m., and I was welcomed by a lot of f riends such asMarc Jost and Peter Marmet f rom Switzerland. It took me some t ime to get into the RegencyPalace as there were too many people to welcome, and to talk with. When I f inally entered themain hall where all the dealers had their tables I was delighted to see that more than half of themwere IMCA members, such as Erich Haiderer, Sergey Vasiliev, Luc Labenne, Philippe Thomas,
Laurent Jaworski, Marcin Cimala, Hans Koser, Morit z Karl, Mirko Graul, Mart in Altmann & StefanRalew of Chladni’s Heirs, Ali and Mohammed Hmani, Marc Jost , Peter Marmet , Dirk Hohmann,Bernd Ruschinzik, Hanno St rufe, Siegf ried Haberer, Giorgio Tomelleri, and – last but not least – ourIMCA Vice-President Anne Black f rom the United States. Please forgive me if I forgot to ment ionthe one or the other.
View of the Main Hall, and of various dealer's tables Photocourtesy Marcin Cimala
On all these tables there were more goodies than one can possibly ment ion – samples of new andhistoric falls as well as various desert f inds, enough to f ill a book, and enough to make anymuseum exhibit pale in comparison. However, there were less new f inds and falls this year, butthere were a few new things worth ment ioning such as a new oriented iron f rom Northwest Af ricawhich could be seen at Ali Hmani’s table.
IMCA Member Ali Hmani and his new oriented NWA ironmeteorite Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala
Closeup view of Ali Hmani's new oriented NWA ironmeteorite Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala
The arguably most fascinat ing new iron f ind which received a lot of at tent ion at this year’s showcould be seen at Dima Sadilenko’s and Sergey Afanasiev’s table. Our Russian f riends were sellinga lot of decent sized shrapnels of the new anomalous ataxite that has been recovered f rom theJilf al Kabir plateau in Egypt in 2009 – a rare iron associated with some recent ly discoveredcraters making this f ind even more spectacular.
A sample of the new crater forming iron f rom Jilf a Kabir,Egypt Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala
Another highlight of the show were Siegf ried Haberer’s fantast ic samples of Almahata Sit ta, thefamous ureilit e fall f rom Sudan – the only fall that has been exact ly predicted and which resultedf rom the collision of Asteroid 2008 TC3 with our planet Earth. Almahata Sit ta is not only specialbecause it is the f irst predicted meteorite fall, and it ’s not only ext raordinary because itrepresents an anomalous member of a rare class of achondrites. In fact , it s nature seems to bemuch more complicated than that : it seems to represent a fall comprised of several meteoritetypes, including dif ferent ureilit ic lit hologies, E chondrites, ordinary chondrites, plus a so-farunknown type of unequilibrated chondrite. And at Siegf ried’s table everyone could have a close
look at these various lit hologies, and at some marvellous complete stones f rom this fall.
Fantast ic Almahata Sit ta individuals at Siegf ried Haberer'stable Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe
Siegf ried Haberer, Karin Schneider, and the author NorbertClassen Photo courtesy Siegf ried Haberer
Of course, I was also lucky to f ind a few new samples for my own collect ion of planetarymeteorites. Luc Labenne had a new lunar f rom Oman, Dhofar 1528, of which I purchased afantast ic 2.042g part slice, and Philippe Thomas had another new lunar f rom Western Sahara,NWA 6221, of which I acquired a neat 0.579g thin slice – just click the hyperlinks to view photos ofboth samples.
Philippe and Lea Thomas with their brand-new lunar NWA6221 Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe
Of course, Ensisheim is not just about sales and t rades of meteorites but also for socializing withold and new f riends f rom all over the world. There were visitors f rom the UK such as Graham Ensorand Peter Davidson, and also a lot of people f rom the US such as Anne Black, Mike Farmer, GregHupe, and Darryl Pit t . Darryl and I had been dealing, wheeling and mailing with each other sinceyears via the internet , and we became real penpals in t ime. So it was great to f inally meet him andto chat with him in person.
Greg Hupe and Darryl Pit t enjoying an original "Meteorite"beer Photo courtesy Hanno St rufe
As always, it ’s hard to cover all aspects of a show such as Ensisheim, and so please forgive me if Iforgot to ment ion some major or minor aspects in my rather personal show report . Anyway, I’mlooking forward to see you all in Ensisheim, next year, and if you are considering to visit Ensisheim,you should also consider to stay a few days longer, and to at tend the nearby Mineral Show at Ste.Marie aux Mines which is always opening it s gates the week af ter the Ensisheim show. It ’s one ofthe largest rock and gem shows in Europe which is also at tended by many meteorite people, andso it is really worth a visit .
When the night falls: party t ime in Ensisheim Photocourtesy Peter Marmet
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Meteorite-Times MagazineMore Stitchingby John Kashuba
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Chuck,Last t ime, I went on about my f it t ing pictures together when my microscope doesn’t have a lowenough power. That ’s when the object is too big to f it into the f ield of view at my lowest power –with best image set t ings (least distort ion, best resolut ion etc.) I take pictures of port ions of theobject then elect ronically paste them together to get an image of the whole item – usually a largechondrule.
There are probably a lot of programs that will f it puzzle pieces together for you. I use two thatcame to me by chance. One was f ree with my f irst digital camera, a Canon. It ’s called PhotoSt it ch.The other is Adobe’s CS4 high power Photoshop. This was a gif t f rom my kid(!). As you’d expect ,CS4 is pret t y sweet . But somet imes it gets confused when there is a lot of black space in thepictures. Then I fall back on PhotoSt it ch.
I also use st it ching / merging with higher magnif icat ions. Again, I am compensat ion for not havinghigh grade opt ics with a variety of magnif icat ions. In this case features in images at my “regular”magnif icat ion are too small. That is, when you enlarge them to f ill t he viewing f rame they’re blurry.My f ix is to up the microscope’s power (which too of ten over f ills the f ield of view) and take a setof pictures to cover the feature in quest ion. Merge, t rim and show of f .
Let me show you.
John
At my normal magnif icat ion the f ield of view is about 3 mm wide.This chondrule in a CK5 meteorite looks interest ing to me.
When that image is enlarged the thing is blurry.
My f ix is to use a higher microscope magnif icat ion. My next powerup won’t accommodate the whole chondrule so I took four shots.This is one of them.
Those four shots merged with CS4 look like this.
Cropped and corrected it looks pret t y good. Without seeing othersect ions through this barred olivine chondrule we can’t be sure, butto me it looks like the sect ion does not cut close to the center ofthe chondrule. Thinking of it as a hardboiled egg, the shallow cutexaggerates the thickness of the white (the igneous rim) and justbarely catches the yoke (bars).
The bright ly colored feature in this CK3 needed a closer look.
But simply enlarging that picture doesn’t get it .
Merging four higher magnif icat ion pictures gave me this.
This barred chondrule in a CV3 is not terribly small in this shot but Iwanted to see more detail that it hinted was in and within the rim.
I took four higher magnif icat ion pictures of the top right quarter ofthe chondrule then chose this port ion for interest . It looks like theglass interst it ial to the bars is part ially devit rif ied. Paul and Jim havebeen good enough to host a larger version of this picture. Click onthe picture to see it .
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Meteorite-Times MagazineMeteorite Calendar – July 2010by Anne Black
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Meteorite-Times MagazineFlight-oriented Sikhote-Alinby Michael Johnson
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Flight-oriented Sikhote-Alin with countless flow-lines.The Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite is the largest observed meteorite fall in modern history. A showerof f ireballs rained down upon the thick forest of the Sikhote-Alin mountains of Eastern Siberia inRussia on February 12, 1947 at 10:38 hours. The f laming f ireball, as bright as the sun cast movingshadows in broad daylight as it passed by observers. It is est imated that over 23,000 kilogramsfell that morning, leaving a smoke t rail which could be seen in the sky for hours. The meteoriteimpacted the mountains with a huge explosion which was felt over 100 miles away. It made over120 craters of varying sizes. The largest reported crater was 20 feet deep and 85 feet across. Itblasted f ragments in every direct ion. Pieces were even found embedded in nearby t rees.
© Richard Kowalski
The Michael Johnson Collect ion of Aesthet ic Rocks f rom Outer SpaceImages, text are Copyright © 2010 ROCKSFROMSPACE.org
No reproduct ion without writ ten permission.Web design by Michael Johnson of rocksf romspace.org
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Meteorite-Times MagazineAnda Tektiteby Editor
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Anda Tekt ite
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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
