MeteoriteTimes.com - Bob's Findings

by Robert Verish

Abstracts presented at -
The 34th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC - 2003)

This month's "Bob's Findings" article is about the 2 abstracts that I wrote for the 34th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC - 2003) held at League City, Texas.
This subject was to have been last month's Article, but it was been POSTPONED - due to the events following the Columbia Shuttle Re-entry Disaster. Because the search for the missing "tiles" from the Shuttle Columbia was of such high priority, I made the announcement that I had formed the -

Debris-Locators List - as the subject of last month's article.

As of the end of March, no Shuttle tiles, or any other debris has been recovered west of Texas. But since the computed Shuttle Columbia's re-entry "ground-track" passes over several locations in southern Nevada where there are currently meteorite-recovery searches on-going, (such as Delamar Dry Lake and Dry Lake Valley), there exists the possibility that meteorites could be found during the effort of locating Shuttle debris. Therefore the Debris-Locators List seconds as a meteorite-recovery discussion list, since most of the subscribers are members of a Nevada Meteorite-Recovery Group and have the expertise to identify meteorites in the field.
To see a current LIST of *known* NEVADA METEORITES "Click", HERE!

The 34th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference was held March 17th–21st, this year. All technical sessions, both oral and poster, were held at the South Shore Harbour Resort & Conference Center, 2500 South Shore Boulevard, League City (near JSC -Houston), Texas.
How to access the abstracts for the - 34th LPSC 2003:

MEETING SCHEDULE

Scheduled Program and Abstracts

Downloadable Files from Sessions

Author Index of Programs Presented

Since I have written three previous articles about "craters" (Panamint Valley and Elko Crater Field),and Glorieta Mountain Micro-meteorite Craters), I suppose you could call this installment "Craters - Part 4".

This article will revist the Elko Crater Field, one last time. The "first author" of the following abstract is, John McHone.

"Click"...

HERE! - for latest Elko Crater Field Abstract as presented at the 34th Meeting of LPSC

This article also announces the "new classification" for the Dale Dry Lake meteorite.

"Click"...

HERE! - for my "DALE DRY LAKE - NEW CLASSIFICATION, REVISED RECOVERY INFORMATION" Abstract as presented at the 34th Meeting of LPSC

After this abstract was submitted, the editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin has raised the question of whether Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) is paired to Zulu Queen (L3). A sample of Dale Dry Lake was obtained from ASU, and a sample of Zulu Queen was graciously supplied by the University of New Mexico. The following images are of thin-sections that were made from those samples. This pairing study is still on-going, so a final determination is still pending:

Sample No.:

Dale Dry Lake

Sample No.:

Zulu Queen

Thin Section (, 2) Description: Robert Verish
These two sections consist of large (up to 2 mm), well-defined chondrules in a matrix of finer-grained silicates, sulfides and very abundant olivine. Both of these meteorites are little weathered. The meteorites are both L3 chondrite. [These images were taken by me at UCLA in a hasty fashion, and I have since lost my notes as to what scale they were taken - sorry! Nevertheless, on some images a very faint graduated scale can be seen.]


Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) Cross-polarized Light	Zulu Queen (L3) Cross-polarized Light

Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) Cross-polarized Light	Zulu Queen (L3) Cross-polarized Light

Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) Cross-polarized Light	Zulu Queen (L3) Cross-polarized Light

Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) Cross-polarized Light	Zulu Queen (L3) Cross-polarized Light

Dale Dry Lake (L3.7) Cross-polarized Light	Zulu Queen (L3) Cross-polarized Light