[meteorite-list] NPA 12-30-1962 Diamonds found in the Dyalphur Meteorite

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Feb 10 16:20:06 2005
Message-ID: <BAY4-F15A90F2EA6A801E3F0EEEDB3760_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: The Times Recorder
City: Zanesville, Ohio
Date: Sunday, December 30, 1962
Page: "A SECTION - PAGE 7", 40 total pages

Diamonds Found In Meteorite

     WASHINGTON (UPI) - Another diamond strike has been made in matter from
space.
     The diamonds apparently were formed 10 to 30 million years ago when a
couple of meteoroids collided with terrific impact millions of miles from
the earth.
     The latest discovery of diamonds in a meteorite, the fourth in history
to be confirmed, was reported in the technical journal "Science" by Dr.
Michael E. Lipschutz.
     Lipschutz is an astrochemist on duty with Goddard Space Flight Center
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The study of
meteorites is considered by NASA to be an important phase of space
exploration.
     These bits or chunks of matter, which have broken their orbital
moorings deep in the solar system and crash-landed on earth, have been
called "space probes in reverse."

No Alarm Caused

     Lipschutz' discoveries will not alarm the diamond miners of South
Africa or the diamond merchants of Amsterdam.
     Diamonds from space are extremely rare and are not of gem quality. They
are tiny, they are black - as all meteoritic diamonds appear to be, and they
are about half graphite. Graphite is a soft form of carbon which transforms
into hard diamond under great pressure and heat.
     The recently discovered diamonds were in minute samples of the Dyalphur
meteorite which was seen to fall in India on May 8, 1872. It weighed about
10 ounces. Most of it is in the British Museum, but the Chicago National
History Museum obtained a bit of it weighing about one-seventh of an ounce.
     The Chicago institution permitted Lipschutz to remove samples totaling
about one twenty-eight thousands of an ounce. The diamond crystals in his
samples were so small that it would take hundreds of millions of them to
measure an inch.

Uses X-Ray Analysis

     The observe them at all Lipschutz had to use an X-ray analysis
technique. This modern method also used to confirm the presence of diamonds
in the other three meteorites.
     The other diamond-bearing meteorites are the Novo Urei, 4.5 pounds,
which fell in Russia in 1886; the Goalpara, six pounds, which was found in
the jewel collection of the Rajah of Goalpara in 1858; and the gigantic
Canyon Diablo meteorite of Arizona.
     The Canyon Diablo weighed about half a million tons when it hit the
earth in the dim past. The crater it dug is about three-fourths of a mile
wide and 560 feet deep.
     Lipschutz and Prof. Edward Anders of the University of Chicago reported
in a paper last year that diamonds were formed in the great Arizona
meteorite by shock transformed of graphite when it crashed. These diamonds
were disclosed by X-ray analysis in 1939.
     The largest meteorite diamonds are about the size of the tip of a sharp
lead pencil. The smallest are invisible.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

http://stores.ebay.com/meteoritearticles

PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
Received on Thu 10 Feb 2005 04:19:03 PM PST