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Featured Monthly Articles

Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi

Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin

Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood

Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish

IMCA Insights by The IMCA Team

Micro Visions by John Kashuba

Galactic Lore by Mike Gilmer

Meteorite Calendar by Anne Black

Meteorite of the Month by Michael Johnson

Tektite of the Month by Editor

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Witnessed Fall: Washougal, Washington, USA by Martin Horejsi

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A July 1939 Witnessed Fall: Washougal, Washington, USA Early Independence Day Fireworks -and my Wife’s Birthday Meteorite!

As the only witnessed fall in state of Washington, Washougal is prized beyond its rare classification and miniscule total known weight.

Washougal is a beautiful stone, and a valuable entry at any size into any collection. Reeking with crystals and a eucritic matrix, it could easily be poster child of . Unfortunately, it could just as easily be on the side of a milk carton as a lost main mass.

According to historylink.org, the name Washougal is a Cascade Chinook term that could mean “Small rocks and pebbles.” So it is fitting that the Washougal meteorite is made up of small and diogenite rocks and pebbles. Washougal, when still a fireball, sailed over over a populated area during the daytime–two things that should have made recovery a simple matter. However, things don’t always work out as we would like since although the single known mass was recovered less than 24 hours after it fell, it still took more than six weeks before Washougal saw the light of science-long after it “had ceased to make news.”

When considering the time lag between fall and formal recovery, I think a term is needed for that conceptual gap between meteor and meteorite. In the attempt to coin a term, I put forth the word “meteorary” to be the stage of existence after a meteor, but before a meteorite. The ‘ary’ suffix means “like or connected with” so meteorary is something that is connected with a meteor and that something is the belief that there will be found in the future. But until found, the imaginary objects are said to be meteorary.

Nevada State Journal Reno, Nevada Tuesday, July 4, 1939

Explosion Which Rocked Portland Was Meteor,

but Scientists Can’t Find It

PORTLAND, Ore., July 3. (UPI) – A terrific explosion which rocks Portland and neighboring cities early Sunday was identified Monday as a meteor, but definite conclusions may not be drawn for perhaps another year. A wide variety of guesses – ranging from belief that a powder cache had exploded to hints of a bombing – narrowed down Monday to eyewitnesses accounts of a heavenly body streaking across the sky and disappearing to the northwest. Bend, Eugene and Portland accounts of the “fireball” apparently confirmed the meteor theory. Astronomical observers, however, pointed out it might be another year before the meteor, which apparently exploded in mid-air, could be found. The explosion was believed to have taken place fifty miles northeast of Portland. Residents of Woodland, Wash., said a black cloud was observed rising out of the Cascades Mountains northeast of the community. According to an article by Professor E. F. Lange that was published in The ORE BIN (vol. 30, No. 8),

On Sunday morning, July 2, 1939…

“a spectacular fireball or meteor passed over Portland just before 8:00 a.m. Somewhat to the east of Portland the meteor exploded, causing many people to awaken from their Sunday morning slumbers as buildings shook, and dishes and windows rattled

No damage was reported. Several climbers on Mount Hood and Mount Adams reported seeing the unusual event. The fireball immediately became known as the Portland meteor and stories about it appeared in newspapers from coast to coast.”

Lange describes the stone:

“The Washougal meteorite is about the size of a tennis ball and weighs almost one-half pound. It has a light gray interior, throughout which are scattered many small nickel-iron particles. A fine, smooth, black fusion coating formed by its fiery passage through the atmosphere covers the entire surface.” The Washougal meteorite posing with a dime. Yes, a dime.

A United States dime has a diameter of 17.91mm or 0.705 inches making, in my rough estimation, making Washougal’s diameter about 15% smaller than a tennis ball.

Lange continues…

“Between 1932 and 1939 Pruett had collected enough data from cooperating observers to be able to trace 13 bright fireballs that had passed over the Northwest skies. After each meteor, people sent him a variety of rocks and minerals which suddenly seemed different to them.

None, however, proved to be meteorites until August 18, 1939, more than six weeks after the Portland meteor had ceased to make news, when he received in the mail a small box containing a fine, freshly fallen stony meteorite. It had been sent by Jerry E. Best, Washougal, Wash., who had found the interesting stone in his backyard on July 3.” Great gifts come in small packages. Like gemstones from space, the olivine crystals wink beauty at the eye of the beholder.

Although the fall day and month of Washougal is the same as my wife’s birthday, there is no doubt I am the only one in the house that is excited about owning some Washougal.

In fact, I’m sure that in the time since this lovely specimen entered my collection, my lovely wife has forgotten that she shares a birthday with it. Oh well. It’s the thought that counts, right? Fresh crust on a rare whose fall was witnessed is something that never gets old.

The beauty of the complete individual that fell 70+ years ago did not escape Leonard, but until the main mass is found again, the fully crusted main mass will exist only in the collective imagination of those who hold these stones in high regard.

The case of the missing main mass…

After acquiring the specimen highlighted in this article, I realized that I had not only one of the very few pieces of Washougal in the world, but also a disproportionately large specimen given that the main mass of this fall is unaccounted for. The Catalogue of Meteorites lists the main mass as living at the University of Oregon which is in Eugene, Oregon. The Natural History Museum in London professes a 17g piece along with a gram of dust. Arizona State University claims 8.1g, and the Bartoschewitz Collection with one gram. However, I could not locate the main mass during an extended time at the University of Oregon. So I dug around in the literature.

Leaflet No. 165, published in November, 1942 by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific includes an article by J. Hugh Pruett titled The Portland Meteor and Resulting Meteorite. The article contains the following excerpt:

The sample was mailed to Dr. H. H. Nininger of Denver for positive identification. “Specimen genuine meteorite,” a telegram replied.

Dr. F. C. Leonard of the University of California at Los Angeles later inspected it and pronounced it a “beautiful little aerolite.”

After the presentation of a small slab to Dr. Nininger, the remaining 206 grams became a prized part of the writer’s meteorite collection.

James Hugh Pruett, known as an amateur astronomer and a frequent contributor to Sky & Telescope magazine moved on to the next world in 1955. I’ve heard that the Washougal main mass resided in the museum at the University of Oregon, but even when allowed access to the back room-given that no such specimen was on display-nothing was found except a multi-pound rusty slab of the wrapped in a plastic bag.

The pebble of Washougal in my collection represents a physical sample of worlds beyond ours, as well as a brief but important moment in . Three things are often cited as key for meteorite recovery. First, there must be someone to recover the stone. Second, the amount of competing background rock must be low enough to make the task reasonable. Third, there needs to be the intellectual curiosity to pursue the unknown. In Washougal’s case, all three were present in abundance. But sadly the stone, at least for the moment, cannot return the favors.

Until next time….

The Accretion Desk welcomes all comments and f eedback. [email protected]

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Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood

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This Month’s Meteorite Market Trends

by Michael Blood

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Tungsten Mountain 533 by Robert Verish

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Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM 542, TM 543 – Image Gallery

Images of the Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM 542, TM 543 meteorites – as

f ound “in-situ” and in the lab

The subject of this month’s “Bob’s Findings” article is about four meteorite fragments found at Edwards Creek Valley, Nevada, officially named the Tungsten Mountain 533 (TM 533), TM 534, TM 542, TM 543 – Ordinary , four stony meteorites that were found May 9th & 10th, 2007 during a “meteorite-recovery field trip” organized by this author.

These “official names” (actually, the numbers) were just recently approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the , so they are recent additions to the Meteoritical Bulletin Database, but they will eventually appear “in print” when the next Meteoritical Bulletin is published. The benefit of having the Database on-line is that images of these meteorites can be uploaded via the Encyclopedia of Meteorites.

Although these small, weathered Ordinary Chondrites may not be all that interesting, it is the fact that for all of the H-chondrites that have been found at this locality, there hasn’t been a proper pairings study conducted, which is noteworthy. By the time 500 and more meteorite fragments and individuals were submitted for provisional numbers, it was very apparent to all of the field workers involved with this locality, that the vast majority of these finds were all of the same lithology, an equilibrated H-, meaning that they were presumed to be from the same fall. Yet, even the f irst 10 classif ications of meteorites from this locality were all “equilibrated chondrites”, there still was no proof that any of these were paired, let alone any proof which one of these H-chondrites represented the vast majority of the 500+ recorded finds.

Fayalite Shock TM Plus/minus Petrologic Grade W. Grade (mol%) Stage number 17.5 0.1 4 2 W3 TM 003 17.9 0.1 4 2 W3 TM 009 18.2 0.2 5 2 W3 TM 010 18.5 0.2 5 3 W3 TM 007 18.6 0.1 6 2 W5 TM 004 19.2 0.2 6 2 W5 TM 002 19.3 0.5 4 2 W3 TM 001 20.3 0.3 5 3 W2 TM 008 25 0.2 6 4 W3 TM 006 25.5 0.2 6 2 W3 TM 005

Hence, there was a need for more finds to be submitted for classification. And luckily, they were accepted. Not only that, but the “turn-around” time was surprising short.

What can be learned from this, is that even though there can be long delays and great difficulty in getting some common meteorites classified, it isn’t always the case. Hopefully, with time this problem will improve and it will be less and less used as an excuse for not getting finds submitted for classification.

I had these Tungsten Mountain finds classified at the same institution that classified most of the other finds from this locality.

Over 5 years ago I made the following statement and it holds true even more so today: “There are more than a couple reasons why a finder would want his meteorite classified by the same person who had classified other finds from that same locality. And it’s more than the fact that it is only proper protocol to give first consideration to the researcher that is conducting a study of that locality. The most obvious reason would be that pairings could be done much easier. In fact, it is becoming more apparent that meteorites, that are obviously paired, are having great difficulty in getting paired when they are getting classified by different institutions. ”

Now that 18 out of the 19 classified finds from Tungsten Mountain have been done at the same institution, and their type specimens are available for proper pairings, it would be more that just proper protocol to have future Tungsten Mountain finds classified at that same institution. It would actually be the most prudent thing to do, as long as there is any interest in pairing all of these dry lake finds. I would think this would be a common interest of both collectors and researchers. Hopefully, for other multiple find localities across the Southwest US, we will see a consensus form among finders and researchers that promotes this protocol.

Ref erences:

Tungsten Mountain 240 H4 S1 W5 Fa = 16.9±0.1 n=8 opx: Fs15.6Wo3.0 n=1 41.6 g Tungsten Mountain 533 H5 S3 W2 Fa = 18.6±0.2 n=7 Fs = 16.4±0.2, Wo = 1.3 n=5 25.3 g Tungsten Mountain 535 H4 S1 W5 Fa = 18.1±0.2 n=4 Fs = 16.2, Wo = 1.3 n=2 26.1 g Tungsten Mountain 542 H5 S3 W1 Fa = 18.3±0.1 n=7 Fs = N/A 4.6 g Tungsten Mountain 543 H4 S2 W3 Fa = 18.5±0.3 n=6 Fs = N/A 18.1 g Tungsten Mountain 563 H5 S3 W2 Fa = 19.0±0.7 n=5 Fs = N/A 9.3 g

The following are links that take you to the Meteoritical Bulletin description for that Tungsten Mountain meteorite. And if you “click” on an image, you can be linked to an “Enlarged” version of that image. The images are of each meteorite “as it was found” on the playa and of the type- specimenwhile under study in my lab:

Tungsten Mountain 533 – this meteorite is now classified and officially NUMBERED:

H5, S3, W2 (Fa 18.6+/- 0.2% n=7, Fs 16.4 %, Wo 1.3% n=5)

Tungsten Mountain 535 – this meteorite is now classified and officially NUMBERED:

H4 , S1, W5 (Fa 18.1+/- 0.2% n=4 , Fs 16.2%, Wo 1.3% n=2)

Tungsten Mountain 542 – this meteorite is now classified and officially NUMBERED:

H5, S3, W1 (Fa 18.3+/- 0.1% n=7, Fs = N/A)

Tungsten Mountain 543 – this meteorite is now classified and officially NUMBERED:

H4 , S2, W3 (Fa 18.5+/- 0.3% n=6, Fs = N/A)

My previous articles can be found *HERE*

For for more information, please contact me by email: *chaser

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IMCA Insights – July 2010 by IMCA TEAM

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IMCA Insights – July 2010 Ensisheim Meteorite Show 2010 by Norbert Classen

Welcome to the July issue of IMCA Insights and to our second meteorite show report for this year, Ensisheim 2010. The show was opening its gates for the 11th time from June 18 to 20, 2010, and like in the last years it attracted a lot of international visitors, collectors, dealers, and scientists from all over the world.

View of the Ensisheim Regency Palace Photo courtesy Peter Marmet

If you have never been to Ensisheim: it is the place of one of the oldest witnessed meteorite falls, and it is an absolute must for every guest to pay at least a short visit to the remaining mass of the Thunderstone of Ensisheim which fell in 1492, and which serves as the centerpiece of the annual show which is organized by the St. Georges Confraternity of the Ensisheim Meteorite Guardians (Confrérie des Gardiens de la Météorite d’Ensisheim) inside of the historic Regency Palace. Five new Guardians of the Ensisheim Meteorite, among them IMCA Members Olaf Gabel and Kazimierz Mazurek Photo courtesy Hanno Strufe

The traditional opening ceremonies of the Ensisheim show also include a special honor for a handful of special guests who have been selected to become honorary members of the Brotherhood of Guardians. Among them there were two IMCA members this year, “chief-impactor” Olaf Gabel from Germany and seasoned meteorite collector Kazimierz Mazurek from Poland. In the evening at the famous Friday night dinner party the organizer of the Ensisheim show, Zelimir Gabelica, had the pleasure to welcome yet another new member to the Brotherhood – the renowned meteoriticist John Wasson who arrived at the show in the evening.

Zelimir Gabelica (right) welcoming John Wasson to the Brotherhood Photo courtesy Mirko Graul

I arrived at the show on Saturday at about 10 a.m., and I was welcomed by a lot of friends such as Marc Jost and Peter Marmet from Switzerland. It took me some time to get into the Regency Palace as there were too many people to welcome, and to talk with. When I finally entered the main hall where all the dealers had their tables I was delighted to see that more than half of them were IMCA members, such as Erich Haiderer, Sergey Vasiliev, Luc Labenne, Philippe Thomas, Laurent Jaworski, Marcin Cimala, Hans Koser, Moritz Karl, Mirko Graul, Martin Altmann & Stefan Ralew of Chladni’s Heirs, Ali and Mohammed Hmani, Marc Jost, Peter Marmet, Dirk Hohmann, Bernd Ruschinzik, Hanno Strufe, Siegfried Haberer, Giorgio Tomelleri, and – last but not least – our IMCA Vice-President Anne Black from the United States. Please forgive me if I forgot to mention the one or the other.

View of the Main Hall, and of various dealer's tables Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala

On all these tables there were more goodies than one can possibly mention – samples of new and historic falls as well as various desert finds, enough to fill a book, and enough to make any museum exhibit pale in comparison. However, there were less new finds and falls this year, but there were a few new things worth mentioning such as a new oriented iron from Northwest Africa which could be seen at Ali Hmani’s table.

IMCA Member Ali Hmani and his new oriented NWA Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala Closeup view of Ali Hmani's new oriented NWA iron meteorite Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala

The arguably most fascinating new iron find which received a lot of attention at this year’s show could be seen at Dima Sadilenko’s and Sergey Afanasiev’s table. Our Russian friends were selling a lot of decent sized shrapnels of the new anomalous that has been recovered from the Jilf al Kabir plateau in Egypt in 2009 – a rare iron associated with some recently discovered craters making this find even more spectacular.

A sample of the new crater forming iron from Jilf a Kabir, Egypt Photo courtesy Marcin Cimala

Another highlight of the show were Siegfried Haberer’s fantastic samples of Almahata Sitta, the famous fall from Sudan – the only fall that has been exactly predicted and which resulted from the collision of 2008 TC3 with our planet Earth. Almahata Sitta is not only special because it is the first predicted , and it’s not only extraordinary because it represents an anomalous member of a rare class of . In fact, its nature seems to be much more complicated than that: it seems to represent a fall comprised of several meteorite types, including different ureilitic lithologies, E chondrites, ordinary chondrites, plus a so-far unknown type of unequilibrated chondrite. And at Siegfried’s table everyone could have a close look at these various lithologies, and at some marvellous complete stones from this fall.

Fantastic Almahata Sitta individuals at Siegfried Haberer's table Photo courtesy Hanno Strufe

Siegfried Haberer, Karin Schneider, and the author Norbert Classen Photo courtesy Siegfried Haberer

Of course, I was also lucky to find a few new samples for my own collection of planetary meteorites. Luc Labenne had a new lunar from Oman, Dhofar 1528, of which I purchased a fantastic 2.042g part slice, and Philippe Thomas had another new lunar from Western Sahara, NWA 6221, of which I acquired a neat 0.579g thin slice – just click the hyperlinks to view photos of both samples. Philippe and Lea Thomas with their brand-new lunar NWA 6221 Photo courtesy Hanno Strufe

Of course, Ensisheim is not just about sales and trades of meteorites but also for socializing with old and new friends from all over the world. There were visitors from the UK such as Graham Ensor and Peter Davidson, and also a lot of people from the US such as Anne Black, Mike Farmer, Greg Hupe, and Darryl Pitt. Darryl and I had been dealing, wheeling and mailing with each other since years via the internet, and we became real penpals in time. So it was great to finally meet him and to chat with him in person.

Greg Hupe and Darryl Pitt enjoying an original "Meteorite" beer Photo courtesy Hanno Strufe

As always, it’s hard to cover all aspects of a show such as Ensisheim, and so please forgive me if I forgot to mention some major or minor aspects in my rather personal show report. Anyway, I’m looking forward to see you all in Ensisheim, next year, and if you are considering to visit Ensisheim, you should also consider to stay a few days longer, and to attend the nearby Mineral Show at Ste. Marie aux Mines which is always opening its gates the week after the Ensisheim show. It’s one of the largest rock and gem shows in Europe which is also attended by many meteorite people, and so it is really worth a visit. When the night falls: party time in Ensisheim Photo courtesy Peter Marmet

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More Stitching by John Kashuba

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Chuck, Last time, I went on about my fitting pictures together when my microscope doesn’t have a low enough power. That’s when the object is too big to fit into the field of view at my lowest power – with best image settings (least distortion, best resolution etc.) I take pictures of portions of the object then electronically paste them together to get an image of the whole item – usually a large .

There are probably a lot of programs that will fit puzzle pieces together for you. I use two that came to me by chance. One was free with my first digital camera, a Canon. It’s called PhotoStitch. The other is Adobe’s CS4 high power Photoshop. This was a gift from my kid(!). As you’d expect, CS4 is pretty sweet. But sometimes it gets confused when there is a lot of black space in the pictures. Then I fall back on PhotoStitch.

I also use stitching / merging with higher magnifications. Again, I am compensation for not having high grade optics with a variety of magnifications. In this case features in images at my “regular” magnification are too small. That is, when you enlarge them to fill the viewing frame they’re blurry. My fix is to up the microscope’s power (which too often over fills the field of view) and take a set of pictures to cover the feature in question. Merge, trim and show off.

Let me show you.

John

At my normal magnification the field of view is about 3 mm wide. This chondrule in a CK5 meteorite looks interesting to me. When that image is enlarged the thing is blurry.

My fix is to use a higher microscope magnification. My next power up won’t accommodate the whole chondrule so I took four shots. This is one of them. Those four shots merged with CS4 look like this.

Cropped and corrected it looks pretty good. Without seeing other sections through this barred olivine chondrule we can’t be sure, but to me it looks like the section does not cut close to the center of the chondrule. Thinking of it as a hardboiled egg, the shallow cut exaggerates the thickness of the white (the igneous rim) and just barely catches the yoke (bars). The brightly colored feature in this CK3 needed a closer look.

But simply enlarging that picture doesn’t get it. Merging four higher magnification pictures gave me this.

This barred chondrule in a CV3 is not terribly small in this shot but I wanted to see more detail that it hinted was in and within the rim. I took four higher magnification pictures of the top right quarter of the chondrule then chose this portion for interest. It looks like the glass interstitial to the bars is partially devitrified. Paul and Jim have been good enough to host a larger version of this picture. Click on the picture to see it.

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Meteorite Calendar – July 2010 by Anne Black

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Flight-oriented Sikhote-Alin by Michael Johnson

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Flight-oriented Sikhote-Alin with countless flow-lines. The Sikhote-Alin iron meteorite is the largest observed meteorite fall in modern history. A shower of fireballs rained down upon the thick forest of the Sikhote-Alin mountains of Eastern Siberia in Russia on February 12, 1947 at 10:38 hours. The flaming fireball, as bright as the sun cast moving shadows in broad daylight as it passed by observers. It is estimated that over 23,000 kilograms fell that morning, leaving a smoke trail which could be seen in the sky for hours. The meteorite impacted the mountains with a huge explosion which was felt over 100 miles away. It made over 120 craters of varying sizes. The largest reported crater was 20 feet deep and 85 feet across. It blasted fragments in every direction. Pieces were even found embedded in nearby trees.

© Richard Kowalski

The Michael Johnson Collection of Aesthetic Rocks from Outer Space Images, text are Copyright © 2010 ROCKSFROMSPACE.org No reproduction without written permission. Web design by Michael Johnson of rocksfromspace.org Please Share and Enjoy:

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Anda Tektite

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Once a few decades ago this opening was a framed window in the wall of H. H. Nininger's Home and Museum building. From this window he must have many times pondered the mysteries of Meteor Crater seen in the distance.

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