Lost Lake by Robert Verish

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Contents by Editor

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

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

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.

No reproduction of copyrighted material is allowed by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Meteorite-Times Magazine

Beyrout, Lebanon: Ending the year with a Bang. Literally! by Martin Horejsi

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Updated: Martin Horejsi’s Meteorite Books Website

A December 1921 Witnessed Fall: Beyrout, Lebanon Beyrout, Lebanon Ending the year with a bang. Literally!

As a “hut” hammerer, a New Year’s Eve fall, a LL3, a historic fall, and the only meteorite from its homeland, Beyrout has it all. Well, all except, much remaining material. With only 21% of the original 1100g accounted for, a piece of any size in a meteorite collection is is a welcomed addition.

What is better than a witnessed fall? An LL3 witnessed fall! And what’s better than that? An LL3 witnessed fall that crashed through a house! And adding icing to this particular cosmic cake are the facts, that the meteorite has an extremely low total known weight (made worse through years of bad curation), and it is the only witnessed fall in its country’s history. Oh, and on top of all that it fell on New Years Eve and is world’s only fall on that day. According to the standard report, at 3:45 in the afternoon on December 31, 1921, a single stone of 1100g fell through the roof of a “hut” not far from the University of St. Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon. But like all meteorite falls, there is more to the story.

The Catalogue of Meteorites lists only a single entry in any collection anywhere in the world, a 51g specimen. If that is really the case, then over the past 90 years, 79% of the initial mass has been lost. The one and only collection entry in the Catalogue for Beyrout is the Natural History Museum in Paris, a location that is quite understandable due to history.

Thumbprints as Fingerprints

Crust is an important if not imperative feature on historic meteorites. The presence of crust, while not proof of authenticity, does provide a unfalsifiable piece of information.

Many witnessed falls have distinct crust that can easily be compared to other known samples. In fact, many seasoned collectors experienced with crust across both time and classifications can quickly assess a specimen’s potential as an authentic historic with the same skill as most others have discriminating between Campo, Canyon Diablo, and Sikhote-Alin. To those in the know, its obvious.

Interestingly, the entry in the Catalogue of Meteorites lists Beyrout, Lebanon as falling in Syria. Had the fall happened two years earlier, the actual country of landing would not be in question, and would without a doubt be Syria. But that neck of the global woods was in turmoil back then. Not that I was around at that time, but someone was and here’s what the CIA Factbook has to say about it:

Following World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French separated out the region of Lebanon in 1920, and granted this area independence in 1943.

Clear as mud, right. I guess with that kind of explanation either Syria or Lebanon will work as the home country for Beyrout. Heck, I’m still trying to figure out what “acquired a mandate” means. But since the land of Lebanon was identified as separate in 1920 and the fall was in 1921 I think this meteorite should be rightfully claimed by Lebanon.

Either way, its understandable how the only sample listed in a collection happens to be in a French museum. Like Earth compared to Jupiter, the sliced chondrules visible in this face represent a sizable portion of the surface area. Of course a larger face would eliminate this problem, but with the rarity of Beyrout material, more real estate is not an option.

Beyrout’s entry in the Meteoritical Bulletin lists it as an LL3.8 with a total known weight of a mere 1100 grams, while the Catalogue of Meteorites adds, “only two small fragments preserved.”

I’ve avoided adding small specimens to my meteorite cabinet since making the arguably brutal collecting shift exclusively to historic witnessed falls. At eleven years shy of a century being historic was not an issue for Beyrout, and the fact Beyrout is a hammer did help, but a sub-two gram slice was pushing my unwritten collecting rules. Then again, specimens such as Beyrout come along only rarely if ever in the big picture of meteorite collecting so acquiring it allowed me to question my motives while passing on it would have set me up for later regrets.

Regardless of its diminutive size, as an LL3.8 Beyrout does have some great chondrule activity. I just wish there was more surface area to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful to be the temporary caretaker of this locality, but a larger slice would have certainly been welcome and easier to justify given my picky collecting habits. Small specimens of a gram or two have not gained traction in my collection over the past few years. I tend to avoid the smaller pieces figuring that they are more placeholders in a collection rather than full fledged members. But when something like Beyrout comes along, the terms placeholder and membership are synonymous.

So how did this piece of Lebanese history come to into my collection in the first place? It just took a few bits of luck for both a long-time meteorite dealer and for me. The story picks up at the Denver show back in the early 1990s. Apparently a professor from the University of Beirut with more than a passing interest in meteorites just happened to be in Colorado during the show. And this professor just happened to have with him a small piece of the Beyrout meteorite. And the dealer mentioned above just happened to cross paths with the professor while at the show. The professor was actually more interested in a trade for his precious Beyrout, but material as rare as Beyrout requires an equally rarified specimen in exchange. Luckily in this situation a large sum of cash carried the same significance as rare meteorite material.

The slice of Beyrout remained in the personal collection of the meteorite dealer for over a decade before a slice was removed. With my nose always sniffing for rare material as the meteorite winds drift around, I jumped on the piece the instant it became available.

Since then, a pleasant swing in the trends of meteorite collecting over the past few years has generated an exaggerated interest in the so-called hammer stones. Not only have the prices for such samples skyrocketed, but the general awareness of hammers as a collecting genera–as well as their routinely small TKWs–have led these special localities to increase in monetary value by a magnitude or two…or even in some cases three!

Everything is large under magnification. Whether through loupe, scope or macro lens, the telling nature of an LL3 shows through.

Alas, with all explosive price amplifications, there is an ugly side to meteorite collecting in that some unscrupulous collector-dealer-robber-barons (CDRBs) have gotten a hold of important meteorite material including rare historics, or hammers (or both) and are offering millispecs on eBay from a seemingly never ending supply. Of course if one of these CDRBs got their greedy hands on, say a couple grams of Ensisheim or Orgueil, and broke the grams into milligram or centigram pieces, the singularly rare sample is now dozens of nothing more than souvenir meteorite samples barely related to the locality upon which it claims ancestry.

Lets take a quick detour to do the numbers. Imagine a two-gram slice of Beyrout. Hit it with a hammer. The two gram piece is now 2000 milligrams. Many of the CDRBs offer samples of about 0.05g. There are forty 0.05g samples in 2g. If the CDRB sold each millispec for say $20, then the total selling price (40 times $20) would be about $800 (not subtracting the eBay and PayPal fees). At an average of $10/sample (not unusual with typical market saturation and limited interest given the small size), the total selling price is $400. Of course some of the first samples to be offered my actually fetch upwards of three figures, but none of this matters. Instead, it is the global loss of important material forever through the avaricious actions of slob collectors.

The rich chondrule distribution would benefit from a nice polish, but given the size of this specimen, the mechanics of polishing would be both risky and cut into this specimen’s already low mass. however, in a close up picture such the texture of some some chondrules shows through the saw marks.

Sadly, the city of Beirut is a place that rarely makes the global news scene for anything good. But you can change that. From now on, when you raise your glass to toast the coming new year, raise it just one notch higher for Beyrout, Lebanon and say a quick thanks for the only recorded meteorite fall on New Year’s Eve.

And then push your glass even higher and silently make a wish that next year will bring good things to the young country of Lebanon, the only home the Beyrout meteorite will ever know.

Until next time….

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

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

The Ravages of Time by Jim Tobin

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Iron shale was once the most common meteoritic material to be seen around the area of Meteor Crater. But, after way more than a century of collecting not very much is left of the interesting by- product of the ancient meteorites. Typically, pieces of iron shale are flat plates of hard black magnetic rock. The metallic iron and nickel is nearly completely converted into oxide. Though most pieces if ground and examined very closely will have the tiniest specks of metal now and again. It is reminiscent of magnetite in color and luster but has really no cleavage and does not break at all the same way as magnetite. I would doubt that the iron shale would even classify as a mineral since it now lacks any internal crystalline structure. Still, it is the rusted remains of iron meteorites and therefore fascinating Larger pieces may be layered but given enough time in the future these will also decompose further breaking apart on the layers to individual fragments of only a single major layer. In the photo below of two unusually large pieces many layers can be seen. Yet, it is still just flat plate like structure. Any of the original crystalline structure of the meteorite is indistinguishable.

The early work at the crater yielded many of what were called Shaleball Meteorites. These large masses of shale preserved the shape of the original meteorite and when cut did still show the Widmanstätten pattern in the iron oxide. Sometimes these shaleball meteorites still had a metallic core but often they were completely masses of iron oxide. The layers of shale in these were curved somewhat also rather then being just flat sheets. The iron shale exfoliated off the outside of the surface meteorites and was spread by other processes, but for the shallballs which were buried the masses stayed together. In this photo of a large fragment of a shallball meteorite curvature can be seen and there is something of the original Widmanstätten pattern hinted at. But, is is not very clearly preserved. On a rare occasion a piece of Canyon Diablo iron shale will show the Widmanstätten pattern more dramatically. The fragments of shale in the group below have features of the original crystal structure preserved. On some it is very hard to capture photographically. In general it is triangular shapes in the layers that are the first tip-off. Then you will see that the whole area of the piece is kind of pyramid shaped.

Sometimes as in the enlargement of this one fragment there is a well defined Widmanstätten structure preserved. It would seem that even over the span of thousands of years the differences in the Taenite and Kamacite compositions allow for one to be preserved a geologic moment longer. Also, the corrosion that we see in etched slices which follows crystal boundaries seems to result after ages in cracks and the falling out of crystal shaped portions of iron shale. Please note the triangular pieces missing in some of my shots in this article. Here is one more picture for you to consider. See what features of remnant crystal structure you can see.

Of all the impact craters on Earth only a handful have meteoritic material surviving around them. Iron shale is often one of the substances recovered at these few sites. Time and the environment are working relentlessly to breakdown the iron meteorites until nothing remains. After 50,000 or so years not too much remains at Meteor Crater, but we can still see in even the altered and heavily weathered material evidence of the meteorite’s cosmic structure.

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood

Like 3 likes. Sign Up to see what your friends like.

This Month’s Meteorite Market Trends

by Michael Blood

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Lost Lake by Robert Verish

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Lost Lake

Af ter years of planning, I f inally get to search this remote dry lake.

Any meteorite found here would have to remain here! May sound stupid, but it’s true (to the letter of the law).

Well, I finally succeeded in hiking all the way to the north end of Lost Lake, but I still didn’t find any meteorites. Darn it!

Okay, maybe hiking 6 miles (one-way) doesn’t sound like much of an effort, but allow me to explain why it took me four (4) attempts to reach this destination.

For those who are curious, Lost Lake is a small dry lake that is located in the middle of the California Mojave Desert, nestled high in the Owlshead Mountains and situated between Fort Irwin Training Center and Death Valley. Several years ago the southern boundary of the Death Valley National Monument was extended down to the Northern boundary of Fort Irwin and the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, so now Lost Lake is on park land. And the only way to access this valley is via a 50 mile dirt road, which makes it a 2 hour drive north out of Baker, California.

Satellite image of Lost Lake from Google Maps website:

View Larger Map

You can find a “MAP OF LOST LAKE” by going to the new mapquest website.

Part of the reason why it took me four attempts to reach my objective was the variable condition of this “50 mile dirt road”, but another part of the problem is coupled with the variable weather in these mountains. Although there are long stretches of this dirt road that are in great condition, there are many sections that are vulnerable to getting washed out by a local thunderstorm. All it would take is just one nasty “gully-washer” to leave you stranded, and cut-ff from civilization. So, two of my prior failed attempts were the result of this “road/weather” problem. On my 2009 attempt, I was already well down the dirt road when I did a last minute check of the weather forecast (before I lost reception) and it was fortunate that I had checked, because the forecast had just been revised and the weather was taking a turn for the worse, so the trip had to be canceled and I turned around. On a previous occasion I attempted to traverse this road too soon after a storm, but had to turn-back, after seeing first-hand how badly compromised the road had become.

This is not to say that the dirt road isn’t properly maintained, because kudos should be given to the National Park Service and the Department of Defense for their prompt maintenance for their portions of this road. But there are many sections of this road that are at the mercy of Mother Nature.

An important side-note: the military is becoming more proprietary about their portion of this road. In fact, the sole reason for the existence of this road is to give access to a solitary microwave installation, which after the boundary was moved south, is now located on national park land. I’m not aware of there being a requirement for this road to have “public access” so it could become gated without notice. And should the microwave installation go away, it would be typical of the park service to close-down the road.

What my failed attempts at accessing Lost Lake taught me was that I needed to keep trying (because the limited access that we had today, could go away completely tomorrow), and that I needed to pick a time of year to go when there wasn’t a threat of winter storms (or the danger of summer heat), but wasn’t too early in the spring before the dirt road conditions had been improved. So I picked the fall season, during that window of time when the day-time high temperatures were below 85 degrees and night-time lows were above 50 degrees.

Keep in mind, “accessing Lost Lake” was NOT my objective. My prime objective was to reach “the north end of Lost Lake”.

The reason for this clarification is because, in the past, I had already “accessed” Lost Lake. Back in 2006, I actually reached the south end of Lost Lake while making a “recon” trip through this area. On that trip I had already hiked into Owl Dry Lake, but after finding that surface unsuitable for searching for meteorites, I now had extra time and decided to hike into neighboring Lost Lake. By mid-morning of the next day, I had reached the south end of Lost, but decided to forgo the additional 2 mile hike to the north end, and instead, spent the remaining hours of daylight searching the south end for meteorites.

What this successful attempt at accessing Lost Lake taught me was that (on my next trip) I would need every hour of daylight in order to make it worthwhile to hike to the north end of the lake AND to search for meteorites. Time to start hiking to the drylake.

Over the intervening years, as each attempt at returning to Lost Lake was met with failure, I fancied the notion that the only logical way to return would be “by air”! I would day-dream about various methods of getting flown into Lost. I would reconcile the expense by figuring-out how much time and effort I would save.

But my dreams crashed to Earth when it was explained to me by, no less than, Scott Johnson, of U.S. AirBorne Sport Aviation LLC fame (and avid meteorite hunter), that no pilot was ever going to risk losing his license and aircraft even contemplating a landing on a dry lake inside a National Monument. Having heard this (bad news), I was now resolved, more than ever, to return to Lost Lake, and that I would have to do it on my own. So, I started planning my next trip and waiting for those “ideal” weather conditions.

I didn’t have to wait long. A quick check of the weather forecast for that area, showed that the conditions were ideal and that I should depart immediately. I drove all night, and by dawn of November 1st 2010, I was already hiking, and by mid-morning I had finally returned to Lost Lake!

Self-portrait before the long hike to the drylake.

Have you ever heard that phrase, “Phone tag”? Well, here it is in the form of, “Drylake tag”. Hey Carberry, “Tag! You’re it!”

Now it’s your turn, so give me a “call”.

I wonder what are the odds that we would all meet accidentally at this drylake? I thought of this unlikely scenario where this couple goes to Lost Lake, trying to get as far away from everyone, as is possible. And then I come walking out-of-nowhere and casually ask, “Hey there, have you seen any meteorites?”

Bizarre!

A good view of the eastern side of the lake in morning light. This tarantuala didn’t have a sense of humor.

A good example of “sliding rocks” on Lost Lake. This rock is in a hurry to get to the western shoreline.

This is where all those “sliding rocks” will end up!

I like this image; it gives a sense of powerful movement. I can picture a massive (yet thin) floating sheet of ice being pushed on-shore and all the gravel in front of it getting “bull-dozed” into a linear feature.

Finally made it to the northern shoreline of Lost Lake.

The “northern shoreline” is actually 2 shorelines, or is better described as being the point where the north ends of the eastern and western shorelines come to meet at the middle of Lost Lake Valley. Each of these two shorelines are described in geologic terms as being the distal margin of an alluvial fan, and since the source of the alluvium in each of these “fans” are from separate mountain ranges (each composed of rocks with different petrology) the gravels in each of these shorelines is distinctly different. In general, the alluvium on the eastern shoreline is a dark-colored volcanic rock. Whereas, the alluvium on the western shoreline is a lighter-colored granitic rock and is predominantly finer-grained. Dark-colored volcanic cobbles that have “migrated” (ice-rafted) across the lake and have been stranded on the western shoreline, easily stand-out against the lighter-colored granitic pebble-gravel (as would any dark-colored meteorite).

The “northern shoreline”, this confluence of the eastern and western shoreline AND the drainage of all surface water to this low-point in the Lost Lake Valley, also appears to be the stranding surface of preference for a variety of objects (both man-made and natural) most likely having been transported to this spot by wave action during those periods when the lake contained standing water. The man-made objects were primarily debris that fell from the sky, i.e., balloons, bullets, flares, shell-casings, weather-balloon parts, etc. By comparison to other California dry lakes, this was a pristine lakebed surface. The natural objects were mostly dead vegetation, algal mats, and of course cobble and boulder-sized rocks. The surface conditions were perfect in order to recover meteorites, but alas, none were found (at least, not by me).

To the best of my knowledge, this appears to be a relict part from an old weather balloon. Most likely, when the weather balloon burst (at maximum altitude) this weather sensor component fell onto the lakebed. Probably not on this particular spot on the north shore (because it would be too much of a coincidence that it just happened to land in the middle of all this other man-made debris) but probably some distance to the south and then transported to the north, here, by the prevailing wind and wave action.

To the best of my knowledge, this appears to be a dried- up mat of red-algae. But then, I have never seen anything exactly like this before. And it was only found at the northern end of this dry lake.

This is opposite-side of that same dried-up mat of red- algae, after I eventually got the nerve to pick it up and turn it over. Notice how convoluted is the surface, just like our brain, which means this small mat probably represents several square meters of the original, paper-thin film of floating red algae. Notice the alluvium; this is actually the northwest edge of the northern shoreline.

This is a good example of what the northeast edge of the northern shoreline. Notice what appears to be a small, old monument of volcanic cobbles. Looking in the opposite direction from where the previous image was taken, shows the real color of the shoreline gravels and the “pile” of cobbles that I interpret were purposefully placed here (not recently, but some time ago) and were intended to be used as a “monument’ to mark the spot where a jeep-trail from the north enters the lake. This is a very ephemeral trail (I could not spot it on Google Earth) and I would not have found it except for the fact that someone had driven a vehicle (illegally) on this trail and accessed the lakebed some time ago (but probably less than 4 years ago).

These tire tracks are probably less than 4 years old, but could just as easily be 14 years old. “Potato chips”! It’s just the name that I have given to that top layer of clay on a dry lakebed after it has dried and curled-up, and then detaches itself from the underlying layer of silt. This common phenomenon occurs after rainstorms wash-in a new supply of mud onto the lakebed. Depicted in this image are broken fragments of once- larger “potato chips” that were blown by the prevailing wind onto the north shoreline. This is an important process because it represents a significant portion of the sediment that is deflated from dry lakebeds.

Looking back into the setting sun; makes it hard to identify rocks. The sun setting behind the nearby mountain range makes sunset come early. Looking in the opposite direction from where the previous image was taken, shows the real color of the cobbles that have accumulated on the beach gravels due to a combination of ice-rafting and wave action (not to mention, getting washed down the alluvial fan during a flood). This is just one of more than a dozen such (natural) accumulations of cobble stones (gravel bars).

Can you say, “ice-sheet bull-dozing” boys and girls?

I thought you could.

At sunset; shadows start to crawl across the valley. What a heart-breaker! It was at the end of a long two days of searching and I was starting to resign myself to the fact that I would be going back home soon without finding a meteorite. Then I saw these from a distance and my heart jumped into my throat. But upon closer examination, this turned-out to be a strewn field of pseudo-carbonaceous chondrite… in reality, organic meteor-wrongs… But this only served to remind me how pristine was this small, remote dry lake. Thinking back, I realized that I encountered very few of these kind of animal droppings. And I remembered that I found very few pieces of man- made trash, and most of those arrived by falling out of the sky

Time to start hiking back to the truck and heading home.

On my way back to my truck, I had plenty of time to reflect on my effort at Lost Lake. I felt that I covered enough of the lake that, if there was a strewn field on its surface, I would have found evidence of it. I figure that there must be at least a solitary meteorite still waiting to be found, because I’ve found meteorites on even smaller playas. (Of course, there is always the possibility that a meteorite has already been found from there, in which case, I hope the finder does the right thing.) I am satisfied with my effort because I know that I pushed myself to the limit for a person of my age and condition. I am not happy that I’m not getting any younger and that I may not be able to replicate this physical feat. I resent some of the restrictions to accessing large portions of public lands, now that I’m old enough to have the time to enjoy the desert, knowing that over time I will be increasingly less able to access that enjoyment.

That is why I went to all of this effort, even knowing full-well that I would NOT be able to remove any meteorite [ or anything else for that matter] . So, there’s no need to write to me and to remind me that Lost Lake is now within the boundary of the Death Valley National Monument, because I’m very much aware of that. And by the way, as long as you don’t do any digging, hunting for meteorites isn’t prohibited. What is prohibited is the “removal” of any rock!

And one more final note, I must admit to being very disappointed that I didn’t find a Lunar meteorite. Now, that would have really made my millennium! (I found Los Angeles in the previous millennium ;-) I would have loved to have found a Lunar! I would have recorded the recovery data; taken the in- situ images; then try to find a small sliver for a type specimen; then leave the main mass in place; then try to find some way to protect it (but probably would cover it up); and then upon my return notify the Department of Interior that I found their Lunar meteorite in one of their national parks but that because of their regulations, I wasn’t permitted to remove it, so I had to leave it behind.

I wonder what would happen next?

Ref erences:

Link to the Google Maps website for a satellite image of:

Lost Lake San Bernardino County, California

Link to the website with geographic and hydrologic information:

California Groundwater Bulletin #118 Lost Lake Valley Groundwater Basin Description – 1975 (Last updated 2/27/04)

Link to website with “ultralight trike” information:

U.S. AirBorne Sport Aviation LLC – Eagles Nest Airpark c/o Scott Johnson, Sport Pilot C.F.I WSC-L WSC-S

For more information: [email protected]

Office 509-780-0554

Cell 509-780-8377

My previous articles can be found *HERE*

For for more information, please contact me by email:

Bolide*chaser

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

IMCA Insights – December 2010 by IMCA TEAM

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

IMCA Insights – December 2010 Introduction to the New Board of Directors by the IMCA Board of Directors

This special edition of IMCA Insights is an introduction to the new IMCA Board of Directors. The nine new and old IMCA Board Members introduce themselves in the following essays – enjoy!

Martin Altmann Board Member

Born and still living in Munich. Very early my interest for astronomy and watching the night sky became noticeable and soon I passed through the typical career of an amateur astronomer. From the first “observations” with a lorgnette in the age of a kindergarten child, via the first small warehouse refractor to the 8”-SC as an adolescent.

My meteoritic arousal happened in 1980, when to my elation I found meteorites offered at the Munich mineral show, which weren’t, to my surprise, locked away in the vaults of science or in the displays of the museums, like the German piece of the Apollo Goodwill rock, which I had so often visited in the Deutsche Museum in Munich. The cornerstone of my further passion was a small Mundrabilla individual, acquired from Walter Zeitschel.

After studies of language and literature, with a focus on astronomical medieval source texts, I decided to choose the rocky road and to turn that passion into a profession. And with the Golden Age of meteoritics on the horizon unleashed by the beginning finds in Sahara and Oman, which opened undreamed-of possibilities for the collectors and researches, I started as a full-time meteorite dealer.

In 2005 together with my colleagues Stefan Ralew and Andi Gren we founded Chladni’s Heirs and are since mainly specialized in newly recovered materials of the rare and rarest classes. So that finally, the dream of a little boy, to hold a piece of the Moon in his hand came not only true, but that we became able to share the fulfillment of this dream with so many people around the world.

Anne M. Black President

It all started when Dr. Alain Carion, the well-known French expert, asked me to translate his book “Meteorites” from French to English.

I am a French native, who lived ten years in Africa, as a child, then in France and then moved to the USA many many years ago. I was supposed to teach French but I gave up on that quickly and joined the corporate world. Being in Colorado, I soon started picking up pretty rocks all over the mountains, then I discovered the Denver Mineral show and I met Dr Carion who was willing to tell me what all those pretty rocks were. I started helping him during the Denver Show, I did that for some 15 years and learned a lot just talking to him and listening to his explanations, and eventually he got me interested by meteorites too. That led to the translation of his first “Meteorites” book, and then a few of his articles. And it also led to the creation to my website, www.IMPACTIKA.com, almost twelve years ago

I am now retired and thoroughly independent, I travel when possible, and I attend a few shows: Tucson, Ensisheim (Yes, I am a member of the Confrerie de Saint Georges des Gardiens de la Meteorite de Ensisheim!), and of course Denver. My website has grown by leaps and bounds as I got more involved in consignment work. And a few years ago I added thin-sections to the inventory. I have also been involved with the invention and original publication of “Meteorites from A to Z”, and I recently translated Alain Carion latest “Meteorites” book; all the while watching the phenomenal growth of the IMCA.

Bob Falls Board Member

Let me tell you a little about myself and meteorites. I began the journey into meteorite collecting in 2003 when Carol (my wife) gave me a 42.3g oriented Sikhote-Alin as a gift. We are both amateur astronomers and have spent many nights in the mountains of Colorado watching meteor showers which inspired her to purchase the Sikhote sample for me. She had no idea what that little sample would start! The first day was spent fascinated with this sample viewing it with an eye loupe to examine every regmaglypt and flow line it would show me. I just could not get over what this sample represented and the journey it had traveled to end up in my hand. This led to many hours searching the Internet for more information about meteorites, leading me to the Denver Gem and Mineral show and then on to Tucson. Through the research and shows I have met many, many outstanding people in our meteorite community and one of them, Anne Black, introduced me to the IMCA and I became a member.

I really enjoy participating with the IMCA through supporting the Encyclopedia of Meteorites and now as a board member. Through the years I have met many IMCA members at both the Tucson and Denver shows and look forward to meeting more of you!

Dave Gheesling Board Member

I am chairman and CEO of FEI Group, America’s largest residential trade contracting organization, based in Atlanta, Georgia (www.feigroup.net). I am also is a co-founder and director of The Scotty Foundation (www.carecuredream.org), which helps pediatric cancer patients and their families both directly and through Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, The Ronald McDonald House and Camp Sunshine. I live in Milton, Georgia, with my 7-year-old daughter Maddie and a few rocks from space. I am also one of the a founding members of the Meteorite Association of Georgia (www.meteoriteassociationofgeorgia.org), if you live in this part of the US, let me know if you would like to join us.

A few years ago I developed an Outreach program, and I know do Presentations to schools as often as possible. I love introducing the subjects of meteorites and meteoritics to several thousand students in Georgia each year, using specimens in my collection as examples. Some of my collection and the work I do with students can be seen at www.fallingrocks.com. The picture above is of one of my favorite and prized specimens: a 277.6-gram complete L’Aigle individual.

Maria Hass Treasurer

I have been a meteorite collector, hunter, and IMCA member for seven years. My meteorite collection started innocently enough with a sculptural 200-gram Sikhote Alin shaped like a perched buzzard. Now it houses a boot, Scotty dog, comma, bullet, canoe, whale, angel wing, peeper frog, a flock of seagulls, five hearts, a duck playing hockey, a dolphin, flying saucer, and a dead-ringer for Bob from the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. I am a small-time hunter who now lives in Arizona, where there is no shortage of strewnfields to peruse. One of my proudest moments as a hunter came several years ago when I hit the Arizona Trifecta, having found a stone in each of the Holbrook, Gold Basin, and Franconia fields plus an iron in Franconia, all within a span of four days. The credit for my finding that particular Gold Basin goes to Jim Kriegh, who practically sent me to the exact spot where I would find that stone less than twenty minutes after having arrived there.

My background is that of an Organizational Consultant, from which I have gained much experience managing many different types of businesses and many types of business-related difficulties. I also have a sales background and experience fundraising. I have been the IMCA “Treasurer to the Stars” since 2007 and value many IMCA members and non-members as my greatest friends.

Jef f Kuyken Vice-President

I remember growing up in a semi-rural town called Somerville located on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, Australia. But there was one night I remember in particular. I was dragged outside by my parents one cold night during 1986 to see something called Halley’s Comet. My father showed me how to use the big cumbersome binoculars and I could distinctly make out the white fuzzy object hanging in the dark starlit sky. I was told it was a comet zooming through our solar system and something that I would not see again until I was an old man. Wow I thought! And that set off an interest that would persist through to the present. Some 15 years later I was browsing the internet one day and stumbled across Jim Strope’s website selling Sikhote-Alin meteorites. Like many people, I was amazed to discover that there was a whole world of meteorites out there and better yet… you could actually own them!!! I still have that first small Sikhote I bought from Jim and will always hold onto it. I wanted to know all I could about meteorites and learn as much as possible but in those days there were not a lot of websites and good photos of the various meteorites were few and far between (even in books). It was through that pursuit of information and decent photos of meteorites that my website Meteorites Australia was born. If I couldn’t find it then I’d make it myself. My plan for Meteorites Australia right from the beginning was to build a site slowly over time and use that goal to teach myself about meteorites along the way. It’s almost a decade since then and now a number of scientific institutions use the website as a reference so I guess it has now come full circle.

During that same time period, the IMCA was born and quickly became something I wanted to be a part of and help with. In July, 2004 both Norbert Classen and myself were invited to join the Board of Directors and we became part of the team that would take us from an initial idea to a full legally incorporated international association. I am now in my third term as a Director and holding my second officer position as Vice President. The other position was that of Secretary during my first term. It has actually been a privilege to be part of building something for meteorites that will hopefully be around many years into the future and to make many friends along the way.

Quite a bit has changed since that first small Sikhote. I started collecting smaller specimens of just about everything I could find so I could learn as much as possible about each classification. It took several years but I eventually started to move my collecting habits in a particular direction towards primitive chondrites. I still like to collect interesting pieces of other classes but I find these meteorites to be particularly interesting and important in what they represent. After all we are all just chondrites and stardust!

So where to from here? Well stay tuned because my biggest meteorite project is in the pipeline!”

Larry A. Lebof sky Board Member

Before I retired several years ago, I was a planetary astronomer for 30 years. While I have published papers on Mercury, the Moon, Jupiter’s satellites, Saturn’s rings and satellites, Pluto and its large satellite Charon, and comets, the main focus of my professional research was the study of asteroids—the source of most of the meteorites in our collections. My interest in meteorites came about when I first started studying the reflectance properties of asteroids and was able to identify clay minerals on Ceres and other low-albedo asteroids by comparing their spectra to the spectra of CI and CM chondrites.

Twenty years ago, my wife, Nancy, and I felt that we could use our science and education skills in order to bring the excitement of astronomy to elementary and middle school teachers and their students, and so we became science educators. For this, Nancy and I now have asteroids named after us, 3439 Lebofsky and 5052 Nancyruth. I also was honored by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society with its “Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science” in 2000.

Now that I am retired from my full-time university position, I am devoting most of my time to science education, including five years as editor of Meteorite magazine (with Nancy). However, I still do some observing. I am part of a team of amateur astronomers who are fortunate enough to get telescope time on Kitt Peak’s 2.1-meter telescope to do follow-up observations of Near-Earth Objects, thus improving our knowledge of their orbits so that we can find them the next time they pass by the Earth and try to determine if they will come close enough to provide us with more meteorites or leave a large hole in the ground!

Andrzej S. Pilski Secretary

I live in Poland, in the small town of Frombork, where Nicolaus Copernicus spent most of his life, died and was entombed in the cathedral, where his remains were identified recently. A small crater, possibly meteoritic, is situated close to town. Researchers found that there is four times more of meteoritic dust close to the crater than elsewhere. I spent many hours looking for meteorites around that crater, with no result. It has long been a cultivated area and meteorites could have been removed from the fields together with many common terrestrial stones. According to a recent examination the crater is about 8000 years old, so it is not of glacier origin.

My job and hobby is to show astronomy science for the general public in a small planetarium next to the Copernicus Tower. I have worked here nearly 40 years. I am married, have two children and three grandchildren.

About 20 years ago I realized, that meteorites may be a great way to make astronomy more familiar for people. They offer the possibility to look closely or even touch a piece of a distant celestial body.

My first meteorite, Canyon Diablo, I bought from Bob Haag. Now I am an experienced collector, preparator of irons, and author of many articles (you could read some in the Meteorite magazine) and a few books on meteorites (in Polish). First I wish to help Polish collectors, who are not very fluent in English. While collecting meteorites I have found many friends in many countries and I feel it is a great bonus.

In the picture above: Andrzej S. Pilski and the 35 kg endpiece cut and etched by him from the largest Morasko mass (164 kg).

Sergey Vasiliev Board Member

I am a Russian living in Prague, Czech Republic. My first meteorite hunting trip was in 1992 to the Sikhote-Alin strewn field. In 1993 I came to the Tucson Show for the first time and I was able to see Robert Haag’s meteorite collection. After that I completely moved from minerals into meteorites.

I have made several meteorite hunting trips to the hot deserts. Gobi, Kara-Kum, Sahara, Omani desert, Kalahari. And the picture, above, shows the large mass of Ghubara that I found in Oman.

I like computer coding and creating some online projects. The biggest one so far has been the Encyclopedia of Meteorites.

This article has been edited by Anne Black and Norbert Classen

• IMCA Home Page • IMCA Code of Ethics • IMCA Member List • Join IMCA • IMCA Meteorite Info

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Vaca Muerta Olivine by John Kashuba

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Steve Arnold looked like he was passing appetizers. He was circulating with a tray of gem jars in Tucson. Each one held a cm size morsel of Vaca Muerta olivine. Mesosiderites aren’t known to be olivine rich so these were pretty cool. Yes, please, may I have two?

Vaca Muerta olivine appears to be from the mantel of the mesosiderite parent body, not from the impactor that disrupted it. That PB is very similar to the Howardite – Eucrite – Diogenite PB but there is now evidence that suggests they are not the same. You can Google for details but I suggest you go first to David Weir’s always informative site for an up to date overview. Start with a few words on mesosiderites http://www.meteoritestudies.com/protected_append4.htm#stoiro then go to his Vaca Muerta page. http://www.meteoritestudies.com/protected_VACA.HTM

About two and a half grams each. 21 mm x 18 mm

Translucent at two millimeters thick. One of the two thin sections shown below.

Olivine fragments of all sizes fill cracks between large clasts. The literature on Vaca Muerta describes cracks with fragments in a sulfide rich matrix. That is not the case here. Field of view is 3 millimeters wide. Cross polarized light. FOV = 3mm. XPL

FOV = 3mm. XPL Here the crossed polarizing filters are positioned so the large tan clasts are near optical extinction. The mottled shading is indicative of undulatory extinction. As the filters are rotated relative to the sample portions of the same crystal go to extinction (go dark) at different times. This is because shock has deformed the crystal lattice.

Undulatory extinction. We move through extinction in 7 steps. The outside of this fragment darkens before the center. Total filter rotation over the 7 steps is about 35 degrees. If the crystal was without shock it would darken uniformly.

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Early 21st-Century Meteorite Fall Statistics (2000-2010) by Michael Gilmer

Like One like. Sign Up to see what your friends like.

In the first ten years of the 21st Century, we have seen 57 new meteorite falls (as of this writing). As we close out the first decade of this new century, let us examine some of the facts and numbers surrounding these recent falls. For the purposes of this article, we will only examine those falls which have been officially recognized by the Meteoritical Society. There have been a few documented falls that have not been approved yet (Zunhua and Cartersville), so these falls will not be included in this analysis.

Let us first look at all meteorite falls since January 01, 2000. These falls are listed below. The list is broken down by year, and each year shows the falls by date. For each fall, the following information is listed – date of fall, official name, meteorite type, geographic location, and whether or not that fall is a hammer. After the list, we will take a closer look at the numbers and statistics.

List of all of f icially-approved meteorite f alls f rom January 2000 to December 2010 :

2010 -

Jan 18, 2010 – Lorton (L6 chondrite) : Virginia USA (Hammer) Apr 14, 2010 – Mifflin (L5 chondrite) : Wisconsin USA (Hammer)

2009 -

Jan 17, 2009 – Maribo (CM2 carbonaceous chondrite) : Denmark Feb 15, 2009 – Ash Creek (L6 chondrite) : Texas USA (Hammer) Apr 09, 2009 – Jesenice (L6 chondrite) : Slovenia Jun 23, 2009 – Whetstone Mountains (H5 chondrite) : Arizona USA Sep 25, 2009 – Grimsby (H5 chondrite) : Canada (Hammer)

2008 -

Jan 23, 2008 – Santa Lucia 2008 (L6 chondrite) : Argentina Mar 23, 2008 – Daule (L5 chondrite) : Ecuador Apr 06, 2008 – Berduc (L6 chondrite) : Argentina Jun 12, 2008 – Pleşcoi (L5-6 chondrite) : Romania Sep 12, 2008 – Sulagiri (LL6 chondrite) : India Oct 07, 2008 – Almahata Sitta (Ureilite) : Sudan Nov 20, 2008 – Buzzard Coulee (H4 chondrite) : Canada Dec 20, 2008 – Tamdakht (H5 chondrite) : Morocco

2007 -

Feb 01, 2007 – Dim Dim (H3-5 chondrite) : Turkey Feb 21, 2007 – Mahadevpur (H4/5 chondrite) : India (Hammer) May 10, 2007 – Puerto LaPice (Eucrite) : Spain Jul 02/03, 2007 – Chergach (H5 chondrite) : Mali Jul 06, 2007 – Cali (H/L4 chondrite) : Columbia (Hammer) Jul 20, 2007 – Bunburra Rockhole (Eucrite) : Australia Sep 15, 2007 – Carancas (H4-5 chondrite) : Peru (Hammer)

2006 -

May 21, 2006 – Werdama (H5 chondrite) : Libya Jul 14, 2006 – Moss (CO3.6 carbonaceous chondrite) : Norway (Hammer) Jul 31, 2006 – Jodaya (L5 chondrite) : India Aug 29, 2006 – Kavarpura (Iron IIE-an) : India Oct 16, 2006 – Bassikounou (H5 chondrite) : Mauritania

2005 – None.

2004 -

Jan 04, 2004 – Villabeto de la Pena (L6 chondrite) : Spain Aug 01, 2004 – Maigatari-Danduma (H5/6 chondrite) : Nigeria Oct 05, 2004 – Berthoud (Eucrite) : Colorado USA Oct 28, 2004 – Kaprada (L5/6 chondrite) : India Nov 08, 2004 – Orlando (Eucrite) : Florida USA (Hammer) Nov 22, 2004 – Benguerir (LL6 chondrite) : Morocco

2003 -

Feb 01, 2003 – Hiroshima (H5 chondrite) : Japan (Hammer) Mar 26, 2003 – Park Forest (L5 chondrite) : Illinois USA (Hammer) Mar 30, 2003 – Hoima (H6 chondrite) : Uganda Sep 23, 2003 – New Orleans (H5 chondrite) : Louisiana USA (Hammer) Sep 27, 2003 – Kendrapara (H4-5 chondrite) : India Oct 16, 2003 – Oum Dreyga (H3-5 chondrite) : Rio de Oro Nov 02, 2003 – Kasauli (H4 chondrite) : India

2002 -

Feb 03-14 2002 – Alby sur Cheran (Eucrite) : France (Hammer) Feb 11, 2002 – Bensour (LL6 chondrite) : Morocco Feb 20, 2002 – San Michele (L6 chondrite) : Italy (Hammer) Apr 06, 2002 – Neuschwanstein (EL6 chondrite) : Germany Jun 06, 2002 – Bhawad (LL6 chondrite) : India Jul 05, 2002 – Maromandia (L6 chondrite) : Madagascar Jul 21, 2002 – Thuathe (H4/5 chondrite) : Lesotho (Hammer) Jul 21, 2002 – Kilabo (LL6 chondrite) : Nigeria

2001 -

Jan 08, 2001 – Beni M’hira (L6 chondrite) : Tunisia Feb 08, 2001 – Al Zarnkh (LL5 chondrite) : Sudan Feb 12, 2001 – Devgaon (H3.8 chondrite) : India Mar 02, 2001 – Dergaon (H5 chondrite) : India Jul 09, 2001 – Bukhara (CV3 carbonaceous chondrite) : Uzbekistan

2000 -

Jan 18, 2000 – Tagish Lake (C2-ung carbonaceous chondrite) : Canada May 06, 2000 – Moravka (H5 chondrite) : Czech Republic Jul 15, 2000 – Yafa (H5 chondrite) : Yemen Aug 22, 2000 – Gasseltepaoua (H5 chondrite) : Burkina Faso

As you can see, that is quite a list of meteorite falls, and there are many familiar names that will immediately elicit some kind of reaction from scientists, collectors, hunters, and layman alike. A few of these falls were media sensations and one was a confirmed crater-maker. But hidden behind the names are some interesting statistics and some trends that we will now examine.

Listed below is every meteorite type that is listed in the above falls. The number of falls for each type is also shown for those types which fell more than once.

Total of Types f rom the above of f icial f alls : CM2 CO3.6 CV3 C2-ung EL6 L5 : four L5/6 L5-6 L6 : nine LL5 LL6 : five H/L4 H3.8 H3-5 : two H4 : two H4-5 : two H4/5 : two H5 : twelve H5/6 H6 Ureilite Eucrite : five Iron IIE-an

Now that we have broken down the falls by date, location and type, let us now explore some of the trends. A few of these trends may be surprising or fun.

Some numbers about the types of f alls listed above :

H5 is the most common type with 12 total falls in the last 10 years. L6 is the second-most common with 9 total falls in the same period. LL6 and Eucrite are tied for third-most common with 5 each.

There are a total of 24 H-chondrites. There are a total of 21 L-chondrites. There are a total of 4 carbonaceous chondrites. Each is different type.

Of the 6 achondrites to fall, 5 of them were eucrites. (the other was ureilite).

There are 6 achondrites out of 56 falls, that amounts to 9.3% ratio of achondrites to other types.

Only one iron has fallen in the last 10 years. (Kavarpura 2006)

There is only one iron out of 56 falls, or a 1.7% ratio of irons to other types.

There have been no pallasite or stony-iron falls in the last 10 years.

Some observations about types and f requency of f alls :

There are only 41 known H4-5 meteorites and only 2 of those are falls. Both of those falls occurred within 4 years of each other between September 2003 and September 2007. (Kendrapara and Carancas)

8 of the 53 known EL6 meteorites are falls. Only one of those falls has happened in the last 50 years. (Neuschwanstein 2002)

First witnessed fall of an H/L4 – Cali 2007. (only 12 approved of this type, also a hammer)

First witnessed fall of a CO3.6 – Moss 2006. (also a hammer fall) There have only been two H3.8 falls and both were in India – Dhajala 1976 and Devgaon 2001.

There have only been two L5-6 falls and both were in Romania – Mocs 1882 and Plescoi 2008.

There are only two L5/6 falls and both have occurred in the last 20 years – Mbale 1992 and Kaprada 2004.

There have only been two CV3 falls in the last 100 years – Allende 1969 and Bukhara 2001.

Stats and observations about f all locations and f requency :

There were 15 hammer falls, or 1.5 per year for the last 10 years.

One-third (5) of the hammer falls were in the USA.

India has 10 falls (including one hammer) in the last 10 years.

Uzbekistan has only two meteorites, and both are falls – Uchkuduk 1989 and Bukhara 2001.

Slovenia has only two meteorites and both are falls – Avce 1908 and Jesenice 2009.

Ecuador has only one meteorite – the Daule 2008 fall.

Turkey had one fall in the last 10 years (Dim Dim 2007), but 11 the of 12 official meteorites in Turkey are falls.

Columbia had it’s first fall in 2008 – Cali (also a hammer).

Madagascar had it’s first meteorite – the Maromandia 2002 fall.

Lesotho had it’s first meteorite – the Thuathe 2002 hammer fall.

The USA has 7 falls (including 5 hammers) in the last 10 years. (approx. 71% hammer ratio)

The USA had zero falls from Jan 01, 2000 until Mar 25, 2003. The goose-egg was broken the next day by the Park Forest hammer fall.

The next big dry spell for the USA came after the Orlando Florida fall of Nov 08, 2004 and lasted until Feb 15, 2009 when Ash Creek fell. A dry spell of over 4 years. Since Ash Creek, the USA has 4 official falls.

Not to be outdone, Canada has only had 3 falls in the last 10 years, but all were “doozies” – Tagish Lake (C2-ung of extraordinary interest), Grimsby (hammer), and Buzzard Coulee (media sensation).

We have now lived through the first 10% of the 21st century, and while we cannot make a solid statistical projection from only one decade, we can possibly expect to see about 5 falls per year. Will this trend survive for long? We only have 2 official falls so far in 2010 and the year is almost over, but there have been a couple of strong candidates that may get approved in the near future – Breja (Morocco), Kosice (Czech Repub), and Varre-Sai (Brazil). If those are approved, then that will make a total of 5 falls for 2010 and that would be right on par with what we saw for the years 2000 – 2009. Maybe if we all wish hard enough, we can get another fall for the holiday season before we ring in the New Year with 2011.

Merry Christmas and may we all have a meteoric New Year.

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Meteorite Calendar – December 2010 by Anne Black

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Gibeon Iron Meteorite by Michael Johnson

Like One like. Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Gibeon iron meteorite exhibiting great regmaglypts.

Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Rizalite Tektite With Overall Anda Structure by Editor

Like One like. Sign Up to see what your friends like. Please Share and Enjoy:

Meteorite-Times Magazine

Meteorite-Times Sponsors by Editor

Like Sign Up to see what your friends like.

Please support Meteorite-Times by visiting our sponsors websites. Click the links below to open their website in a new tab / window.

Meteorites.tv catchafallingstar.com Nakhla Dog Meteorites Labenne Meteorites

Michael Blood Impactika Meteorites

meteoritelabels.com Membrane Boxes Meteorites For Sale .com

Rocks from Heaven Aerolite Meteorites For Midwest Meteorites Sale

Big Kahuna Meteorites Advertise Here Advertise Here

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.