[meteorite-list] Watson Australia image

From: Elton Jones <jonee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue May 16 00:08:03 2006
Message-ID: <4469435C.60506_at_epix.net>

Hello Matt,

Your message was lost in cyberspace a while so my question is going back
a few weeks.

This is an amazing meteorite with a some complicated history. Watson
clearly looks disrupted-- in chunks no less-- the orientations of the
crystal latices have been jumbled. Some of those look like they have
been remixed and regrown briefly. Others are too course to have grown in
a small body in a short time, suggesting they are original.
Conventional wisdom is that a melt would cause the taenite and kamacite
to remix. However this would not necessarily be so as this specimen
seems to indicate. Seems in a full remelt, the lattices would be
realigned throughout the mass and of consistent size. I see several
bent laminae and near the tip of the chondritic inclusion are intermixed
lobes, which suggest to me that this deformation was produced by an
extrusion/ductile process versus a melt. This is remarkable in that a
chondritic "slug" was embedded in the iron. So I then mused to myself
how do you shoot a slug of H-chondritic meteorite into an iron mass and
fail to turn it into glass. I don't think you can. I surmise this is a
case of the iron parent deforming over/through the silicate parent and
this slug was pinched off as the iron barreled through the silicate,
folding in behind it.

Questions for you or the list.
Are there any other published or unpublished theories as to its history?
Has anyone ever discussed the occurrence of a "brecciated" iron?
Are there any other irons that have a similar brecciated appearance?
and in the "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" Category...
    Does this H-clast meet the criteria to be a separatley named meteorite?

Thanks for posting I find it facinating.
Elton

Matt Morgan wrote:

> Some of you who collect irons may enjoy this pic of Watson, Australia,
> type IIE with an H-chondrite clast.
> This piece came from Robert Haag collection and was just refinished.
> It is a really interesting meteorite!
> Matt Morgan
>
> <http://www.mhmeteorites.com/images/watson.jpg>
>
> Close-up of clast and etch.
> <http://www.mhmeteorites.com/images/watson_close.jpg>
>
Received on Mon 15 May 2006 11:13:32 PM PDT