Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Month
(for the Month of August 2012)

Discover the Solar System - right here in the Nevada desert! Every month a different image or photograph of a NEVADA meteorite will be featured, along with a brief explanation written by a meteorite-recovery expert.

Image taken December 28, 2011:
See Explanation.


Name of Nevada Meteorite: A recent find! Meaning that, although there has been a provisional-name approved for this locality, there still has been no number assigned, and it still needs to be classified.
Image by author of this webpage.
Credit: All images taken by finder. Please request permission from this author before use.

Explanation:

This find was made on 2011 December 28th, which is less than 6 months ago (as of this writing), so there is very little that can be said about the classification for this 3.55gram Ordinary (or possibly, Carbonaceous) Chondrite. This was the fourth find made on that day, but more importantly, this is considered to be the eighth find from this locality. It is my contention that this fragment is too small in order to make a reasonable "guess" to its probable classification. And until it is classified, this small specimen CANNOT be considered paired to any previous find. Also, it CANNOT be physically-paired to any of the previously discovered meteorites at this locality, because it is a whole individual. Granted, this meteorite does appear to be much less equilibrated than any of the previous finds, but to confirm that will require cutting this specimen. This specimen is atypical from most of the other meteorites found at this locality (up to this point), because its groundmass appears to be gray-colored, which hints at this stones composition as being carbonaceous, possibly. This webpage will be updated after this specimen has been micro-probed and characterized.

Obviously, there will be much more written about this and the other fragments in the future, but in the meanwhile, this locality will continue to undergo an intensive and extensive search.

For Reference:
To Report a New Nevada Meteorite - Contact the Editor of the Bulletin, Laurence Garvie at lgarvie at asu.edu
Or use Met. Soc. NomComm web form

Got images?:
Would you like to see your image displayed here? Feel free to submit your image to the editor's email address below. Any and all submissions of Nevada meteorite images are welcome.

The previous Picture of the "Day" is HERE !


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Authors & editors: Robert Verish (Meteorite-Recovery Lab)