http://www.rocksfromspace.org/January_6_2008.html
Jerry writes: "What a unique specimen. I understand that there is a lack of metal and that the chemical composition is primarily MgSiO." Yep, it is almost pure MgSiO3 and, because of its lack of iron, the fusion crust is a light brown (near-white) or almost clear glassy (translucent) color. Jerry asks: "Does this make it crustal material?" According to the late Robert Hutchison: "The fragmental nature of most aubrites and the presence of trapped solar wind in some sugggests that they are near-surface breccias." Harry McSween: "Some aubrite breccias contain fragments of slowly cooled plutonic rocks as well as melted clasts that formed by impacts and cooled rapidly near the surface." Moni inquires: "Is it slightly magnetic?" Even though most aubrites [exceptions: Mount Egerton with 21% FeNi metal(!) and Shallowater with 9% metal] are really metal-poor, they do contain small amounts of nickel-iron so my guess is that it depends on the sensitivity of the magnet used but the attraction should be extremely weak - almost zero. Moni: "a piece of stone looking like this I am not sure I would pick it up." That's exactly what I thought when I got my specimen from Walter Zeitschel. I said to myself: "What's that? He must be kidding...that isn't a meteorite!" Moni: "And is the crust grey?" NORTON O.R. (1998) Rocks From Space II, p. 204: "A fresh specimen has a gray- white or light tan crust, a distinguishing characteristic of enstatite achondrites." Moni also asks: "are there more images available?" Mike Farmer has a few specimens + pictures => http://www.meteoritehunter.com/ Best wishes, Bernd To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [email protected] ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
