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Meteorite Times Magazine Contents by Editor Featured Articles Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin Meteorite Market Trends by Michael Blood Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish Micro Visions by John Kashuba Norm’s Tektite Teasers by Norm Lehrman Mr. Monning’s Collection by Anne Black IMCA Insights by The IMCA Team 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 2002–2014 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 Juvinas: An Easily Distinguished Commune Contribution Martin Horejsi We are just six short years from the bicentennial of the fall of the Juvinas, France meteorite. Back in 1821, an enormously important meteorite contribution fell from the sky. As a 90kg eucrite achondirte, it became a staple in meteorite laboratories all over the world and throughout the past two centuries. The story of the fall was detailed in the groundbreaking book Minerals From Earth And Sky, Part 1: The Story Of Meteorites by George P. Merrill. The 1929 tome contained important facts about Juvinas fall that still resonate today. Merrill reprinted the translated words about the fall from the Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy (Vol. 20, pp. 73-74) that was published in 1822. The well-known and now widely distributed Juvinas stone, which fell on June 15, 1821, has been the subject of numerous notices, from among which the following is selected for reproduction. We, Mayor of the Commune of Juvinas, Canton d’Antraigues, Arrondissement de Privas, departement de I’Ardeche, report, that on the 15th of this present June, warned by a frightful noise, which was heard in our commune, and those which surround it, about three o’clock in the afternoon, we apprehended that some great and extraordinary event was about to effect a general destruction in nature, which obliged us successively to adopt regulations to satisfy us that no one in our jurisdiction had been the victim of the phenomenon which at first appeared to be inexplicable. At length, after some days had elapsed, we were informed that a meteor, of which history furnishes no similar account, had burst upon the mountain de I’Oulette, in the hamlet of Cros du Libonez, forming a part of our commune; and, according to Delmas, who is seventy years of age, its appearance was preceded and announced by two strong explosions, occurring nearly together, resembling the discharges of two large cannons, and followed by a frightful noise, that continued for more than twenty minutes, which spread alarm and consternation amongst the inhabitants, who believed they should be immediately swallowed up by some abyss ready to open under their feet; the flocks fled, and the goats and sheep collected in groups. H. A. Ward noted in an article about the “Values of Meteorites” published in 1904 that, “The meteorite of Juvinas, France, of which there was originally upwards of fifty kilograms, has been broken up and distributed among sixty- two collections, of which three report one gram each and nineteen others less than ten grams each.” Eucrite is a Greek word for “easily distinguished.” While I don’t doubt that is an appropriate translation, I find eucrites to often be less than “easily” distinguished. If in a pile of chondrites, the eucrite might be easy to pick out, but in a pile of earth rocks, especially of the igneous type, with few exceptions, eucrites blend in like any other geologic citizen of this planet. Some eucrites including Chervonyi Kut and Millbillillie are exceptions with the snowflake interiors, but most others are a fairly uniform crystalized grey. As a meteorite collector who specializes in historic witnessed falls, it is especially enjoyable to skip back in time using century-old texts as the stepping-stones. Arriving at the fall with crusted specimen in hand only makes the journey more memorable. As my specimen of Juvinas was marching through time to meet me, it picked up a souvenir along the way in the form of an original specimen card from the Museum National D’Historie Naturelle in Paris. Although my specimen only represents about one-third of the mass listed on the card, I did acquire the sample from the research collection to which it was originally provided. …Until next time. Meteorite Times Magazine The Meteorites of Summer James Tobin Summer 2014 is just about gone. I did not do any meteorite hunting yet this year. Astrophotography has been taking up most of my out of town time. But, I might try really hard to get one trip in to hunt in the fall if I can tear myself away from the scope and camera. But, even though I did not get any hunting in this has been a great year for meteorites. I have cut enough to make another big bag of dust. I have organized what I have to still cut. Organization not being one of my strongest suits that is saying something. Each individual stone in its own box. Wow. I almost never cut any stones that are very beautiful on the outside. They are usually ugly broken jagged chunks with little fusion crust left. Or they are round lumps of rock best described by the term “space potato” with little going for them in appearance. But, as the old saying goes about judging books by their covers, never judge a meteorite from its old broken or worn later stage of terrestrialization. Each one is both a challenge and a opportunity. And this spring and summer have presented some great examples of both. Most of the really attractive stones just get a window lapped onto them or at most a single clean up cut and then a lap. This does not give the same opportunity to see as much of the insides as cutting off many slices. I really like it when I find something truly interesting and can see it in several slices. Starting small and growing and then diminishing back to small again. It is like what happens in a CAT scan. I get a little glimpse into the way the extra large chondrule or inclusion was situated in the stone. Some stones are so oddly shaped that getting them lined up in a good way to cut them with the least waste and the fewest resets can take some time and effort. Some stones have cracks and you know before you start that it is likely that the stone will fall apart when the cracks are reached by the blade. So standing there ever vigilant for the moment when a chunk falls loose or worse shifts position makes cutting interesting. I had a few of those this summer. Last week I cleaned iron meteorites for half a day. I can see the bottom of the box on those now after a few years. I doubt that there will be many more of that location coming along. I have really enjoyed having them to work on but that is the way of this business and hobby. We have a meteorite location for a while and then the supply is absorbed into the collections of the world. Then we offer another to bring more wonder and fascination to collectors. I cut into a few stones thus far this year that were ugly on the outside and extra wonderful inside. Most notably I guess is NWA 8384 which was not attractive in any way and had very little fusion crust left. But, when I made the first cut and saw all the tight packed pristine chondrules it suddenly became one of those days that instantly goes stellar. I cut a couple more slices and took one to the lap and smoothed it up. Washed this slice off in 99.9% alcohol and went inside to take some images to send to UCLA. I had two slices and a chunk in FedEx the next morning to get classified. This stone went from a formless chunk of unclassified meteorite to “wonderful best hope” for fulfilling my goal of getting a beautiful type 3 classified. And it did all that in about two minutes of saw time. NWA 8384 as it became designated did turn out to be a LL3. That was another happy day for me when I got the email of the classification. But, I cut into some other very nice stones in the last few months. One that has not been classified and that I began calling “metal rich black” was another nondescript, nothing special stone until the endpiece fell free after the first cut.

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