Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Day

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

2003 July 09

Name of Nevada Meteorite: Roach Dry Lake 031 - NomComm-approved Nomenclature
Credit: Image by Robert Verish, taken 2002 May 6th.

Explanation: The first Primm (H5) meteorite fragment was found on December 23rd, 1997, on a mud playa known as Roach Dry Lake. From that time, up until early 1998, over 100 more fragments (weighing a total of 3.383 kg) were recovered by Nicholas Gessler after an extensive search of that same dry lake. Over the intervening years, seasonal rains and wind storms have helped to exhume even that many more additional meteorite fragments, as well as individuals. Not all of them were of the Primm meteorite fall.
For example, several L-chondrites have been found on this same dry lake:
Roach (LL6)
Devil Peak (L6)
Beer Bottle Pass (L5)
Since late 1999 to the present, members of a Meteorite-Recovery Team have been compiling all of their numerous meteorite finds from Roach Dry Lake onto a table, listing them chronologically with their individual weights and GPS coordinates. Each find that appears to be different from the type specimen of Primm (H5) held at UCLA, is sampled and turned in for classification. This particular specimen
(RhDL 031) shown in today's "Picture of the Day" was found by this author on 2002 May 6 and has been classified as an H6 S3 W3.

(Scale is 6 inches long.)

Tomorrow's picture: more Roach Dry Lake

For Reference:
To Report a New Nevada Meteorite: - use Meteoritical Society - Nomenclature Committee 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 !

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