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Meteorite Times Magazine Contents by Editor 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 Meteorite Calendar by Anne Black Meteorite of the Month by Editor Tektite of the Month by Editor Terms Of Use Materials contained in and linked to from this website do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Meteorite Exchange, Inc., nor those of any person connected therewith. In no event shall The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. be responsible for, nor liable for, exposure to any such material in any form by any person or persons, whether written, graphic, audio or otherwise, presented on this or by any other website, web page or other cyber location linked to from this website. The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. does not endorse, edit nor hold any copyright interest in any material found on any website, web page or other cyber location linked to from this website. The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. shall not be held liable for any misinformation by any author, dealer and or seller. In no event will The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. be liable for any damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, consequential, or other damages arising out of this service. © Copyright 2002–2011 The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. All rights reserved. No reproduction of copyrighted material is allowed by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Meteorite Times Magazine Esnandes, France: Caution Hot! by Martin Horejsi Back in the fall of 1837… a small meteorite fell in Esnandes, France. What makes this small especially interesting is that, and I quote, “A peasant, who observed the fall, said to have been burnt while collecting the stone.” Burnt? Yet again, someone reported that a meteorite was hot when it landed. Esnandes was a mere 1500 grams so it hardly contained enough material remain so incredibly cold that it felt hot to the touch. Nor did it likely sit baking in the sun before being picked up. Esnandes, France is a little over 46 degrees north of the equator, and while the exact fall date is not known, fall is fall which means the sun was close to or lower than the autumn equinox. The text from the Catalogue of Meteorites lists the distribution of Esnandes as extremely narrow. The piece featured in this Accretion Desk ranks third largest in the world at half the weight of second place and one fourth the weight of first place. However, a significant amount of mass is not accounted in the list and is probably represented in a collection somewhere, likely Paris. Crust, beautiful crust! Esnandes has wonderful crust for its age. Crust is critically important for documenting the authenticity of a historic meteorite. The matrix of Esnandes is very similar to many other chondrites so it would be easy to make a mistake identifying such rare material. A 2003 article in Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences by P. Rochette, et. al. suggests that Esnandes should be reclassified as an L chondrite. Magnetic tests and microanalysis on Esnandes samples from the Natural History Museum in Paris were the key. Visually, it makes sense to me. Although I’ve seen H chondrites that look much like Esnandes, I have seen far more L chondrites that do. I’ve seen it advertised that Esnandes might be a so-called Hammer stone meaning that it hit a man-made object upon its arrival to earth. Unfortunately there is no supporting evidence for such a claim. Oddly, however, it would seem that if the report that a peasant burned his/her and when picking up the stone has made it through 175 years of human activity, something would have been noted had it hit a building or whatever else people had back then. Backing up this logic is that there are plenty of other hammer stones of similar or older age, and their stories of collision seemed to transcend time with little effort. Until next time…. The Accretion Desk welcomes all comments and feedback. [email protected] Meteorite Times Magazine Tucson Gem and Mineral Show 2012 by Jim Tobin Tucson Gem and Mineral Show 2012 was my 20th show. I think it will turn out to be one of the most memorable of all my visits to Tucson. We changed a little from the norm by attending the week before all the big meteorite celebrations. Even before leaving for the trip we were thinking that might turn out to be a great opportunity. It certainly was. We were able to find what we wanted to get for the business without the crowds and before it had been picked over. Almost as important; being there early gave opportunities to sit and chat with dealers and friends that are often too busy working during the second week of the show. As it turned out we were leaving for home when most of the meteorite collectors were just arriving. Meteorites, Meteorites, and More Meteorites For me this was a show with lots of iron meteorites. I had arranged with Anne Black to get some of the ASU rare old irons that she had offered by email a couple weeks before Tucson. I always miss her offerings. I am either at work or asleep and find the emails way too late. But, I had some things going on in my personal life that required me to check my email every few minutes for a severals days. I happened to be looking at my phone right when she sent the list of rare irons. I quickly emailed her to put several aside for me and waited to hear if this time I had been fast enough to get them. Only about fifteen minutes went by and she wrote back that she was holding all but one of those I had selected. I was pretty sure I had no chance on the single piece of Cape of Good Hope and I had been right. So my acquisition of specimens really started two weeks before arriving in town. A portion of Anne Blacks display cases Anne Black and Paul Harris I found more great irons and other stones all week long. There was a rich selection of meteorites at the show this year. But the buzz was the new Martian fall Tissint. I was surprised a little by the number of dealers that had it for sale. It really is a remarkable meteorite. Martian falls do not happen that often and this was a large enough event to provide pieces for many collectors. Amongst the stones I bought was a large unclassified chondrite from a tent dealer. The price was ok if it actually was a meteorite. A magnet was attracted to it sort of weakly. It looked weird enough that I wanted to get a diamond file and grind off a spot just to check it out. And wouldn’t you know we were never near a tool dealer for the next two days. I did finally get a $2 diamond file and that night ground a spot off the crazy looking rock. Sure enough about an eighth of an inch in I hit a tiny grain of iron which comforted me that I was right about it being meteoritic. I had picked up three other unclassified stones and there was no doubt in my mind about them. The crust and color of the large one was strange. There were little circular rings on the surface. They made me think of bubbles that had been broken off leaving just the bottom ring and cup like depressions behind. When I got home I put it in the saw to get a view of the insides. I cut off an end piece and about jumped out of my socks. Here is where I would usually insert a couple photos of the cut face, but you will have to wait because this one was off for characterization (the same day) to a lab. There will be photos and an article about it later. My weird stone that is a secret for now We always visit a very friendly dealer of tektites and get a flat or two and I usually find one or two individuals for myself. This year I really limited my glass buying. I got one large Chinese dumbbell, and two moldavites with strange color, one of which I gave away. It was that large dumbbell that got my bag pulled aside at the airport x-ray machine. It was tucked away in a zipper pouch and it took the inspector a minute or so to find it. Then he said, “just another rock, thanks.” As I mentioned, this year going early we had the chance to spend some time talking to friends. Most shows they are so busy that we just pock our head in and say hi and let them get back to work. I got to actually sit down and have a great conversation with Edwin Thompson for the first time in years. We chatted about old friends and other things, I found out that Patrick is fascinated by the Titanic story like me. I was so comfortable in one of ET’s chairs that I let Paul go on without me and caught back up with him later. Larry, Patrick and Edwin all pretty happy I think to be back at another Tucson show. There are always some exciting meteorites at the show.

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