Hi List! Last night I cut open some small UNWA stones and got a couple of pleasant surprises.
I cut about 30 stones last night - all of them the size of a walnut or smaller. Most of them were nothing to write home about (or write to the List about). But 2 were standouts. The first stone weighs about 10 grams and has a wind polished desert varnish on it - chondrules were visible on the surface, but I expected a matrix similar to NWA 869 - based on similar-looking stones I have cut. Instead, I saw a pleasant black matrix with abundant chondrules. The chondrules are packed tightly together and there are lots of metal veins that snake around between the chondrules. A couple of the chondrules are "armored" with perfect rings of metal around them. Based on this stone's metal content, magnetic attraction, and abundant chondrules, I am thinking it might be an H3. Does anyone have any comments? Could it be a metal-rich carbonaceous type? Sanding a slice to 320 grit produced a decent shine and removed the saw marks, but didn't enhance the chondrules much - it might the white ones stand out more, but the others became harder to see. I took photos of the polished slice and the unsanded slices. There is also a photo of the "main mass" stone. Closeup of sanded slice with armored chondrule - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/slice-chondrules.jpg Sanded slice with armored chondrule - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/slice-close-chondrules.jpg Unsanded slice - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/slice-close-chondrules-rough.jpg Another - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/slice-chondrules-rough-2.jpg Yet another rough slice -http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/slice-chondrules-rough.jpg The "main mass" - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/chondrules-stone.jpg ... The second interesting stone is chondrule rich. It has a reddish matrix with blue chondrules (and some others). It has the usual nickel-iron flecks, but there are also blebs of brassy troilite. Sanding a slice to 320 blurred the details, so this is another one that shows better without sanding. Red matrix troilite - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/red-chondrules-troilite.jpg Closeup of red matrix slice - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/red-chondrules-troilite-close3.jpg Another closeup - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/red-chondrules-troilite-2.jpg ... Here is a 3rd stone that was unremarkable, except for this big honkin white chondrule - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/honker.jpg ... Time to get a polarizer assembly! - http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj24/Meteoritethrower/Meteorites/chondrules/microscope.jpg .... Does anyone have any comments on what the pictured stones above might be? (type) The black one with armored chondrules might take a good polish - I have some finer sandpaper and rouge on the way. :) Best regards, MikeG -- ......................................................... Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA) Member of the Meteoritical Society. Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network. Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and http://www.glassthrower.com .......................................................... ______________________________________________ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
