Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Day

Explanation:

Today's "Picture of the Day" shows Kim Cathcart's 119 gram find (RchDL 024) exactly as he found it, meaning still "in-situ".
If you are having trouble finding this meteorite, Click HERE for a visual clue where to look, or
Click on the above image in order to see a scaled, Close-up image of Kim's find still in-situ.
A complete story about the recovery of this and other Roach Dry Lake finds can be found on the Jensen Brothers Cool Stuff web page.

There have been 10 previous "Nevada Meteorite Pics of the Day" and it was our intention to show an image of the 10TH Nevada Meteorite find here today, but I can only find one image of it, and it has already been discussed on a previous NvPOD. Of course, I'm talking about that little meteorite with the unforgetable name, Beer Bottle Pass! It was found on 1999 May 02 by Mr. John Gwilliam and has been classified as an L5. It was the first meteorite find from the East side of Roach Dry Lake.

So! Instead of showing Beer Bottle Pass in today's "Picture", we're seeing today an image of another meteorite find from the East-side of Roach Dry Lake - Roach Dry Lake 024.
This image depicts the find as it was found (in-situ), and its proximity to the northeastern shoreline is indicated by the patch of sand and gravel in the upper right-hand corner of the "Picture". This is literally where the playa ends and the alluvial fan begins. The alluvium is pinkish in color due to high percentage of microcline and orthoclase feldspars in the predominantly granite-rich gravel. This contrasts with the beige mud/silt and the grayish black clasts of basalt. This sharp demarcation between the dark basalt and the lighter colored alluvium is important to note. Because there is a continuing debate as to how all the various Roach Dry Lake meteorites are accumulating. That these finds are accumulating by being transported to the shoreline is not disputed. What has yet to be determined is whether these meteorite finds are being washed down the alluvial fan and out onto the playa shoreline, or whether they are being washed onto the shore from the middle of the lake? It is this writers contention that they are migrating across the lake (along with the basalt clasts), driven by the predominant S-Southwesterly winds while there is standing water on the lake.

Everyone who has made a find here at Roach Dry Lake and has reported on their observations of the immediate find locality, is contributing to a greater understanding of these geological processes, and will bring us sooner to the eventual answering of these questions.

(Scale is variable - unscaled. Close-up image uses a US quarter-dollar coin for scale.)