[meteorite-list] meteoriteshow

[meteoriteshow]

Hello the List,   I have already sent few messages to the List since I got filed a week ago, but did not really introduce myself (even though some of you may know me already). Christophe and I have started searching for meteorites in Sahara Desert about 2 years ago, organizing 3 expeditions so far. We have found something like 100 different individuals, including 5 carbonaceous chondrites that have been classified by MNHN Paris, 1 Ureilite and probably 1 impact melt (that are not classified yet, under analysis at ENS Lyon). We have been very lucky for our first trip (10 meteorites , finding the first CM2 from Algeria (Acfer 331 - TKW 750g), one nice CV3 containing beautiful CAIs (Acfer 328 - TKW 180g) and two non-paired CO3 (Acfer 332 - TKW 115g & Acfer 333 - TKW 489g). And what to say about the wonderful feeling we had, when discovering a 30kg ordinary chondrite (Acfer 329 - L4/L5 W0), half buried !... We got quite crazy, dancing and screaming around this stone lost in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully there was nobody to see us, else I guess we would have been taken to some asylum... That was really unbelievable for a first attempt, moving around for one week only !!! Our second trip was in April-May 2002. Sand storms and high temperatures in Tanezrouft did not help that much to keep concentrated on watching around in order to find those black space rocks. For one week, we had 55 to 57°C between 12 and 4 pm. But, this is when we found "Naomie", a 5.4 kg carbonaceous chondrite that has been officially named Tanezrouft 057 by the Meteoritical Society, classified by the MNHN Paris as a C4 anomalous. This stone is amazing. There is no fusion crust at all despite it was almost completely buried but it is very dark, from the black colour of its matrix. And cutting slices is so exciting, as each new section shows incredible inclusions (CAIs, Dark Inclusions) and clasts ! If some of you like to see some pictures, you can link to the page of our web site : http://meteoriteshow.free.fr/meteoriteshow%20angl/pages%20meteorites/ck4.html. And during our last trip, we did not find any carbonaceous chondrite upon the 43 individuals that we brought back, but as mentioned before we got one Ureilite weighing 68g and an even smaller stone weighing 50g which is highly suspected to be an impact melt...   We started searching for meteorites as Desert lovers who heard about the fact that some have been found over there, who were looking for more good reasons to enjoy those wonderful landscapes. And I can tell you, this is a great experience and we will go again this winter, searching for new finds and why not witnessing a fall one evening at the bivouac when watching shooting stars (this is our dream of course !).   Well, I don't want to make it so long, but should you like to see more about our collection and expeditions, you can have a look at our web site : http://www.meteoriteshow.com. Any comment is welcome, specially about possible mistakes that you may detect as we may have left some ! I will be glad to answer to you if you have some questions. Should any of you be interested in some complete meteorites (that are non classified ordinary chondrites with no real scientific interest but nice shapes) or slices of classified meteorites, we have some for sale in order to finance our trips and will be happy to respond your requests. From time to time, we put on line a list of slices for sale with pictures and will inform the List. All of them are duly documented with pictures and GPS coordinates, supplied with an authenticity certificate, and we can send pictures snapped on site and the complete ID cards can be downloaded from our web site.   That's all for now folks !   All the best   Frederic Beroud www.meteoriteshow.com   PS : I have a question. As a new comer to the community of meteorites, I am trying to become an IMCA member, but after more than a month since I contacted them I never got any reply... Does anybody can help ?