Chuck, There are a lot of pictures of NWA 2377 L3.7 on the web. No doubt this is because it’s such a good example of a chondrite. It’s got a dark matrix with large contrasting well defined chondrules. Mike Bandli (collector, dealer, hunter) sees “a candy filled chondrule matrix”. Yes, I’m adding another part slice picture to the worldwide cybermass.
Chuck, Just the exotic name made me want it. Efremovka. It’s a CV3 thin section and looked different so I bought it. (It wasn’t cheap.) The stone was found in Kazakhstan in 1962. Back then it was called the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The sample on the thin section is a good size and has two large features that caught
Chuck, Last time, I went on about my fitting pictures together when my microscope doesn’t have a low enough power. That’s when the object is too big to fit into the field of view at my lowest power – with best image settings (least distortion, best resolution etc.) I take pictures of portions of the object then electronically paste them
Chuck, When you’re shopping for a new ‘scope or looking to upgrade the one you have I suggest you try to include glass that will let you take low magnification pictures too. When I’m looking at slices or thin sections I move them around to get an impression of the overall piece. You can’t share that impression with folks with
Chuck, While you’re saving up money for that d’Orbigny angrite thin section you’ve been wanting I suggest you buy a chondrite TS or two, just to stay on your game. They don’t have to break the bank. One I’d suggest is Saratov if you can find one. The cost is usually reasonable and it always seems to have a good
Chuck, Thank you for the baggie of NWA 869 slices. I’ve gone through them all at least twice with a 10X loupe. I found a few interesting things to show you. Some of them we talked about last time. I have to admit that it took me a while to make some of these pictures. Metal and other shiny things
Hey Chuck, Please look for fine grained inclusions, too, when you’re slicing those NWA 869s. They look like little gray patches of unmixed Portland cement. Folks have been calling them achondritic inclusions but that might not be what they are. There’s a recurring rumor that something’s going to be published about them but I haven’t seen it yet. NWA 869
Chuck, Thank you for slicing up a few of my NWA 869s for me. Per our deal I’m sending half the slices back to you. You say you’re going to give them away to kids but you ought to keep that one with the armored chondrules to show around. I put it in a membrane box to keep it separate.
Chuck, Let me point out another place to see good thin section pictures. Jeff Hodges has a great collection of slides and a very good microscope. He loans thin sections to Tom Phillips (we talked about Tom last time), particularly polished sections (no glass cover slip) that Tom really likes working with. Jeff’s evolving site is: http://meteoritethinsectiongallery.com/index.html I just got
Hey Chuck, I hope you still check out Tom Phillips’ pictures. He’s still doing awesome stuff. Several folks have commented on pictures he posted last month. I particularly like the first one in the series, a low magnification shot of a barred chondrule with a chunk blasted off. You can see it by going to the menu frame at the
Chuck, I guess you saw where that gent was asking about breccias. I trust he found his way to Wikipedia. They even have pictures he can use in the talk he’s going to give. He was talking about rocks he’d seen at an impact structure and here we talk about micro stuff but the definition is the same. This is
Hola Chuck, Yes, I like Type 3 chondrites but I don’t think I said they were pristine. Maybe you heard someone else say that. I think I said they are the least changed by heat and water. I admit that I was being careful with my wording because I know that some chondrites that the smart people tell us are
Hi Chuck, Like I said, I usually don’t write to strangers but in your notes to the “The List” you sound like a well sorted out new collector. First, let me know if you got the big example of a common chondrite you were shopping for. Yeah, that will be a good stand in for the 80% of rocks waiting
