[meteorite-list] Happy Birthday or Fallday LUMPKIN

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 6 14:37:38 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000001F000029D0_at_paulinet.de>

Hello again, ... and best wishes, Bernd

Just in case you should be lucky enough to own a piece of the
LUMPKIN, Georgia, H6 chondrite, which is unlikely though:

HENDERSON E.P. et al. (1966) Meteorites in Georgia (Department of Mines, Mining
& Geology - Reprinted from Georgia Mineral Newsletter IX-4, Winter 1956, pp. 126-142):

Lumpkin, Stewart County

This stony meteorite, a hypersthene chondrite, weighed 12 1/4 ounces. It
fell October 6, 1869 on land owned by Captain Elbridge Barlow which then
was located about twelve miles southwest of Lumpkin. It was picked up a
few moments after it struck. Willet, 1870, quotes Captain Barlow as saying,
"... while standing in the open yard, the sky being bright and clear, he heard
first a succession of about three explosions, followed by a deep roaring for
several seconds, and then by a rushing or whizzing sound of something, rushing
with great speed through the air nearby. The sound ceased suddenly. The noise
continued from first to last about half a minute. Two Negroes were working near
by the well in the sarne yard, about sixty yards from where Mr. Barlow stood. They
heard the noise and supposed it to be the falling in of the plank well curbing,
banging from side to side in its descent, and so spoke of it to one another before
the meteorite fell. While they were speaking thus about the noise, the meteorite fell
and struck the ground about 20 steps from them, in full sight knocking up the dirt.
They called Captain Barlow and showed him the spot. It was upon very hard trodden
ground in the clean open yard. The earth was freshly loosened up very fine in a circle
of about 18 inches in diameter, and upon scraping the loose dirt away with the hands
the stone was found about 10 inches below the surface. From the direction in which
the ground was crushed in it must have come from the northwest and at an angle of
about 30?. The stone when picked up was covered with black shell ... The stone
still has a strong odor. He does not remember that it had any noticeable heat."

Willet's account mentions that the sound of this fall was heard over considerable
area and cites an instance of noise being heard 18 miles away.

J.L. Smith, 1870, said that this meteorite contained about 7 percent Ni-Fe and
the metal contained about 12 percent nickel. Also, that troilite made up about 6.10
percent of the meteorite and that silicates, (pyroxene, olivine and feldspars) about
86.9 percent. The descriptions of this stone are not sufficiently complete to identify
it. Since the samples in the collections are small, it is unlikely that a comprehensive
study of this meteorite will be made. According to Willet, 1870, a specimen of the Lump-
kin stone was given to Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, but we have been unable to
verify if this sample is preserved.

Specimens of the Lumpkin stone are in the following collections:

Mineralogical Museum, Harvard, 53 grams - Cambridge, Mass.
U.S. National Museum, 29 grams - Washington, D.C.
AMNH, 24 grams - New York, N.Y.
Chicago Museum of Natural History, 3 grams - Chicago, Ill.
Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum, 25 grams - Vienna, Austria
British Museum (Natural History), 17 grams - London, England
Hungarian National Museum, 5 grams - Budapest, Hungary
University of Bonn, 1 gram - Bonn, Germany

References:

Smith J.L. (1870) Fall of a meteorite in Stewart County
Georgia (Amer. Journ. Sci. 2, vol. 50, pp. 339-341, p. 293).

Willet J.E. (1870) Account of the fall of a meteoric stone in Stewart
County, Georgia (Amer. Journ. Sci. 2, vol. 50, pp. 335-338).
Received on Wed 06 Oct 2004 02:34:09 PM PDT