by Joel Schiff of METEORITE Magazine

Now Appearing in Meteorite (Jan/Feb)

On the Road to Safsaf  by Adam Hupé. Now it’s Adam’s turn to narrate their latest adventure to Morocco, not without incident of course, and plenty of new meteorites. If it weren’t for the giant centipedes I might have gone too.

The Sweet Smell of Orgueil by Mark Sephton, Victoria Pearson, and Jon Watson. Three scientists explain where some of those smells in Orgueil come from. And it is not from outer space, but a lot closer to home.

Manmade Artifacts of Tektite Glass by Guido von Berg and Axel von Berg. Although tektites are very rare, it turns out the prehistoric man sometimes made use of them in order to make primitive tools.

Rob Elliott – The Empire’s Lord of the Sky by Kevin Kichinka. Rob is laird of the sky with a meteorite collection bigger than Texas. In this entertaining piece, you will discover the joys of haggis and have a strange encounter with Uri Geller along the way.

Our Centerpiece by O. Richard Norton will feature Part 3 of a reader friendly course in Polarized Light Microscopy. You will finally learn what birefringence means, and using this, be able to work out the interference colors of minerals like olivine, diopside, and quartz. Trust me, you will be able to do it!

Brenham Revived by O. Richard Norton. Here Richard Norton tells how Bill Mason managed to salvage the most deteriorated piece of Brenham you ever saw and bring it back to a state pristine beauty.

Secrets Revealed by the Temperatures of Ordinary Chondrites by Valerie Slater. Our 2002 Meteorite-Brian Mason Award winner explains how it is possible to calculate peak temperatures in asteroid bodies by looking at the calcium diffusion between diopside and enstatite. Valerie makes it all quite simple so that even I could follow it.

From the Strewnfields by Martin Horejsi & Marlin Cilz.  The authors discuss the dispersal of personal meteorite collections, of which there have been several notable ones lately. We are talking about huge slices of historical falls and more.

A Pallasite from the Eleventh Century by Aly Barakat. A thousand years ago exactly, a 280 kg meteorite fell in Afghanistan and the author has strong evidence that it was a pallasite. There are a few problems though with going to look for it.

Exploring Meteorite Craters from the Air – Part 3, by Charles O’dale. Canada is full of meteorite craters, big ones too, so that you need an airplane just to see them. Come fly with Chuck.

Renazzo by Matteo Chinellato. This is a very important fall, being the type specimen for CR chondrites. But most of the fall mass is missing. Where did it all go Matteo?

Was it a Cow or a Meteorite by Mica Calfee. Was the Great Chicago Fire and Peshtigo, Wisconson Fire of 1871 started by a meteorite? Not very likely is the firefighting author’s conclusion. I knew that.

Georgiaites Worked into Artifacts by Early Man by Hal Povenmire. It seems that the American Indians also worked some tektites into flaked tools. Seems everybody was doing it.

Book Reviews: Meteorites: A Journey through Space and Time, by Alex Bevan & John De Laeter. This book gets a glowing review. And, Meteorites, Minor Planets and Meteors, a CD ROM by Phillip Bagnall. This item was also much like by our reviewer.

And there’s even more…