[meteorite-list] A question about an iron fleck in NWA 2977 Lunar

From: STARSANDSCOPES at aol.com <STARSANDSCOPES_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:41:46 EDT
Message-ID: <bdf.38563e08.35cf772a_at_aol.com>

Hi list, I had a question about an iron fleck I found in a thin section of
NWA 2977 Lunar. Jim Strope sent it to me.

I plan to use this as next months Meteorite Times Micro Vision and want to
be accurate.

The thin is polished to 1/4 micron. This sometimes has the same effect as
etching but on a much finer scale. I have observed it in other materials that
get this kind of polish.

There is a fleck of iron in this material. In this fleck is what looks like
micro Widmanstatten pattern.

Can this pattern be called Widmanstatten? If not, are the creation
processes the same as with full sized Widmanstatten? How would it be still present
in a lunar? Could the pattern survive a meteor collision with the moon and
not be heated to the point of destruction?

I would like to email micrographs to any one who is interested or, even
better, might have the answers.

The images are taken in incident cross polarized light and I am using a
Glan/Thompson style polarizer that allows me near total extinction. I pull up
the changes in the pattern by slight rotation of the polarizer. The
magnification of these images is 1600X.

Thanks, Tom Phillips




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Received on Sat 09 Aug 2008 06:41:46 PM PDT