[meteorite-list] AD, Rarely-Seen Early NWA Meteorites, Some Gold Basin, Weird Unclassified, and More!

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:44:04 -0400
Message-ID: <AANLkTikeC-ZoAhOZlcgpTbzCYtKmmU7O5CftYXl6tfUz_at_mail.gmail.com>

Greetings Listees and Collectors!

Short version : Rare low-numbered NWA specimens from the early days of
the NWA rush, and Gold Basin slices.

NWA 064 L5 chondrite
NWA 323 (provisional) chondrite
NWA 2019 mesosiderite
Dhofar 362 H5 chondrite
Gold Basin slices
Weird and unique uNWA stone

See all of the newest offerings here -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/products/brand-new/?page=1&s=newest

Full descriptions of the new offerings :

I was able to acquire several new meteorite specimens from the cabinet
of a fellow collector. As luck would have it, these are some of the
same pieces I was chasing a few years ago for my own collection, but
someone else beat me to them. Now, four years later, I chance across
this other collector in cyberspace (on CloudyNights.com), and I manage
to strike a deal for these hard to find specimens. What I bought is a
collection of early NWA meteorites from the very beginnings of the
Saharan/Moroccan "Gold Rush". These are low-numbered specimens found
in the waning days of the 20th century, right before the floodgates
opened and the market was deluged with thousands of NWA finds. After
keeping a few select pieces for myself, I decided to slice up the
remaining specimens into smaller, more affordable pieces for my
friends and customers. Now that the NWA catalogue is rapidly
approaching NWA 7000, these early obscure meteorites are rarely seen
on the market. In fact, if you search via Google or the Met Bulletin
Database, you'll see that most of these meteorites are not present on
the market in sizeable quantities and very few dealers (if any) are
offering these particular meteorites. This was a one-time purchase
and once my supply of these specimens is exhausted, I will not be able
to acquire more. I have a range of sizes available for every budget,
from $5 micromounts to larger slices and endcuts.

NWA 064, L5 chondrite - this gorgeous L5 chondrite is loaded with
metal and chondrules. This meteorite was once common on the market,
but the modest TKW of 13kg dried up quickly as it was absorbed into
collections. Now this meteorite is rarely seen. It has shock and
weathering grades of - S4, W2. This meteorite was discovered near the
Algerian border by Moroccan nomads and sold to an anonymous buyer in
Erfoud Morocco who had it classified. All NWA meteorites with numbers
under 100 are getting scarce, and these early common chondrites are
often overlooked.

NWA 064 micromounts -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-064--rare-early-low-numbered-saharan-l5-chondrite-micromount

NWA 064 endcut -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-064-rareearly-saharan-l5-chondrite-crusted-endcut-52gr

NWA 064 polished slice -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-064--early-saharan-l5-chondrite-gorgeous-polished-slice-91g


NWA 323 (provisional), unclassified chondrite - back in the early days
of the NWA rush, the classification system became log-jammed with a
flood of NWA meteorites awaiting analysis by labs and approval by the
Meteoritical Society. As hundreds turned to thousands, many of these
early meteorites were pushed onto the back burner and forgotten. The
follow-up lab work or submission of paperwork was never completed, and
these meteorites never received a final classification or catalogue
number. These are meteorites which have become footnotes in the
history of meteorite collecting because it is unlikely they will ever
lose their provisional status. In fact, many such meteorites may no
longer be extant. This particular meteorite was a Dean Bessey find
which was received a provisional classification number in December of
2000. The meteorite was found in Algeria by nomads and sold to Mr.
Bessey in Morocco. This meteorite is beautiful and it is a shame that
it has become a forgotten member of the NWA catalogue. It is packed
with chondrules that have armored rings of metal around them. Like
many of these early Bessey finds, it's not pretty on the outside, but
the interior matrix is a pleasure to look at. My guess would be an H5
or H6 chondrite or borderline mesosiderite.

NWA 323 micromounts -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-353-rare-early-low-numbered-saharan-chondrite-micromount

NWA 323 sliced cubes -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-323-early-saharan-chondrite-nice-cut-cubes-2-grams-each

NWA 323 polished slab -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-353-rare-early-saharan-chondrite-big-slab-loaded-w-metal-26gr


NWA 2019, mesosiderite - a small mass of about 500 grams was purchased
by collector and dealer Philippe Thomas and was classified in 2003.
It was a fresh mass with a weathering grade of W1. It is a textbook
mesosiderite with a beautiful mixture of metal inclusions and silicate
matrix. This small meteorite was sliced up, sold, and absorbed
quickly into collections. It is rarely seen on the market now. I
acquired less than 3 grams of this material and it is all
beautifully-polished, part slices.

NWA 2019 slice -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/nwa-2019-rare-early-nwa-mesosiderite-gorgeous-thin-slice-284g


Dhofar 362, H5 chondrite - the Moroccans and Algerians were not the
only ones gathering meteorites in the Saharan desert. Private
meteorite hunters once had unfettered access to the deserts of Oman.
This metal-laden H5 chondrite has an attractive dark matrix that is
peppered with metal flecks. It is also highly shocked, with a shock
rating of S4. This meteorite was found by German meteorite hunters
near Zufar Oman in 2000. The TKW is only 615g, so there was not much
of this meteorite to go around. It was quickly absorbed into a
handful of collections and has not been seen on the market since.
Now, there are over 1500 meteorites in the Dhofar catalogue.

Dhofar 362 micromounts -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/dhofar-362--rare-early-oman-h5-chondrite-micromount

Dhofar 362 big polished slice -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/dhofar-362--early-oman-h5-chondrite-big-polished-slice-15gr

Dhofar 362 thick slab -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/dhofar-362-rare-early-oman-h5-chondrite-polished-slab-11gr

Dhofar 362 big endcut -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/dhofar-362--rare-early-oman-h5-chondrite-big-endcut-22gr

Dhofar 362 polished slice -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/dhofar-362--rare-early-oman-h5-chondrite-polished-slice-38gr


Also available are slices of classic American meteorite -

Gold Basin, L4 chondrite - this meteorite needs no introduction to
most collectors. Gold prospectors in Mohave County Arizona had been
finding odd "hot rocks" for many years. Most of these rocks were
discarded as worthless since they were not gold. It took the keen eye
of Professor Jim Kriegh to recognize these hot rocks as meteorites.
Gold Basin is an ancient fall with a long terrestrial age. But
despite it's age, it has much unoxidized metal in it and an attractive
mottled matrix. For some reason, most of the Gold Basin on the market
is in the form of individuals or fragments. Polished slices have not
been common recently, so I decided to slice up a 40 gram individual
and polish the slices.

Gold Basin thick slab -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin--classic-american-l4-chondrite-thick-sliced-slab-11gr

Gold Basin micromounts -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin-classic-american-l4-chondrite-from-arizona

Gold Basin slice -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin--classic-american-l4-chondrite-nice-slice-407gr

Gold Basin Lot of 3 Slices -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin--classic-arizona-l4-chondrite--lot-of-3-nice-slices

Gold Basin Lot of 3 Micro Slices -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin--classic-arizona-l4-chondrite-lot-of-3-micro-slices

Gold Basin Endcut -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/gold-basin--classic-american-l4-chondrite-from-arizona-endcut-32gr


Bizarre unclassified uNWA meteorite ?

On rare occasion, I will chance across a truly weird meteorite that
defies easy explanation. This meteorite is one of those oddballs.
Unfortunately, any meteorite that is not a possible planetary is not
really worth the costs of classification unless the specimen weighs at
least 100 grams. This endcut weighs 43 grams and comes from an
unknown mass that was probably about 200-500 grams before cutting.
This endcut contains a striking inclusion or clast that is an
entirely-different lithology from the surrounding matrix. It looks
like a smaller meteorite of one type was eaten by a larger meteorite
of another type. I have seen a lot of brecciated meteorites, but I
have never seen one with a clast that is so visually different from
the host mass. The clast is packed with metal fleck and has a
speckled appearance, while the host matrix is a pale, finely grained
material that is almost devoid of metal. The parent matrix looks like
an enstatite-type chondrite, like Al Haggounia, but the clast
resembles another type like NWA 869. It is one of the strangest
meteorite specimens I have seen and if it was larger, I'd get it
classified to satisfy my curiosity. I was tempted to slice it up and
see if any other weird inclusions are hiding inside, but there are
fractures in the meteorite that might cause it to shatter if I tried
cutting it. So I decided to leave it alone and offer it to a
collector who can appreciate it's uniqueness. I've handled thousands
of meteorites and I will probably handle thousands more before I run
across another one more odd than this.

Weird uNWA - http://www.galactic-stone.com/product/unclassified-unwa-meteorite-bizarre-endcut-with-weird-inclusion-43g

See all of the newest offerings here -
http://www.galactic-stone.com/products/brand-new/?page=1&s=newest

Don't forget to use your coupon code for 20% OFF your entire order!
Use coupon code "metlist" at checkout to get the discount.

Feel free to contact me off-list with any questions or requests -
meteoritemike at gmail.com

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

MikeG

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Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
http://www.galactic-stone.com
http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
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Received on Sat 19 Jun 2010 10:44:04 PM PDT