I have for many years had an up-to-date database of my officially recognized meteorites. And I maintain that very carefully adding each new acquisition as soon as possible after it arrives. However, I have not done so with my unclassified meteorites. I have painted identification information on many of them. It is a code that tells me when they were bought, and where, with their weight. But, most of my unclassified meteorites have had no acknowledgment at all except for sitting around visible in my office or being stored in boxes.
Well, I have decided to change all that, and to catalog my unclassified meteorites by at least weight and a serialized number. I am in fact curious as to what that number will be when I reach the end of this project. I have a lot of these meteorites. Some I have windowed. Some have great shape and surface features so I have not windowed them and probably will not. I once thought in the early years of the “NWA meteorite rush” that I would be able to get many of these classified. Now after the rush has mostly passed I have watched the laboratories become so busy with fantastic rare material that I doubt now that they will ever be wanting for material and get back to accepting and classifying submissions in a couple months.
I have come to accept that my unclassified meteorites will most likely remain in that state and I will have to enjoy them for their extraterrestrial origin, aesthetics and the learning opportunities they offer. Which is really enough by the way. I offer this month a glimpse at a small number of these anonymous beauties I have gotten in the last dozen years or so.
I hope you will enjoy what is essentially from this point on a picture book with simple descriptions and weights. I have tried to pick specimens that have not been featured in other articles. But, there may be one of two that have slipped by. I have said often enough that I am a sucker for pretty crusted stones . This small sampling should give you some idea of what an easy sell I really am. Too bad that finds like these are getting so much harder to buy as the years pass.
