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Breccia From Heaven

Brecciated NWA complete slice
This amazing NWA-something-or-other is a Ringwoodite-rich brecciated L6 chondrite from the hot desert. More than a few pieces similar to this were recovered a decade or more ago, but very few contain an oriented brecciation like this one.

 

Brecciated NWA
The curvature of the fragmentation is unusual given the extreme violence applied to this slice’s parent body in order to produce such breakage.

 

Brecciated NWA
Black shock veins and nickel-iron nodules surround many of the fragments. As I’ve noted before with breccias, this a geologic photograph of a impact forever preserving the record of its rough childhood.

 

Brecciated NWA
It’s interesting that the rectangular fragments have a similar form in many ways. I fancy it a small Stonehenge from space with blocks on blocks in ordered arcs.

 

Brecciated NWA
Like streets through a city, the shock veins mark the traffic lanes around the building and open space. Once flowing like rivers, the filler between fragments cemented position for billions of years until exposed to light only recently.

 

Until next time….

Martin Horejsi

Martin Horejsi

Dr. Martin Horejsi is a Professor of Instructional Technology and Science Education at The University of Montana, Missoula. A long-time meteorite collector and writer, before publishing his column "The Accretion Desk" in The Meteorite Times, he contributed often and wrote the column "From The Strewnfields" in Meteorite Magazine. Horejsi is also the Lead Technology Reviewer for The National Science Teaching Association, and just celebrated his 22th year working with NASA and the JPL in education and public outreach (EPO), and is a NASA Solar System Ambassador. Horejsi specializes in the collection and study of historic witnessed fall meteorites with the older, smaller, and rarer the better. Although his meteorite collection once numbered over a thousand pieces with near that many different locations, several large trades and sales and trades have streamlined the collection to about 250 important locations with all but 10 being witnessed falls. Many of the significant specimens in Horejsi's collection are historic witnessed falls that once occupied prominence in the meteorite collections of Robert A. Haag, James Schwade, and Michael Farmer. Other important specimens were acquired through institutional trades including those from The Smithsonian Institution, Arizona State University, and other universities. Horejsi was awarded the Harvey (Nininger) Award in Tucson in 2006, The Brotherhood of Guardians of the Ensisheim Meteorite in 2011, a JPL Inspiration Person, on the JPL STARDUST Team that was awarded the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Annual Trophy in 2008, and former board member of the International Meteorite Collectors Association, and the Northwest Council for Computers in Education.
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