Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Month
(for the Month of May 2011)

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 March 31, 2011:
See Explanation.


Name of Nevada Meteorite: Very recent "cold-find"! Meaning, there is no provisional-name, let alone a classification.
Images by finder (author of this webpage).
Credit: All images taken by author. Please request permission from this author before use.

Explanation:

This "cold find" was made on 2011 March 31st (just a couple weeks ago), so there is very little that can be said about this 82.5 gram Ordinary Chondrite, other than it has had its fusion-crust sand-blasted away. My guess is that this is probably an equilibrated L-chondrite that has been sitting out in the open desert for many years.

I like this image because it shows how hard it is (at times) to spot these weathered chondritic meteorites, even when they are lying-out in the open on a dry lakebed surface. They tend to accumulate onto stranding-surfaces along with other similar-sized-masses (pebble gravel). Then after weathering and losing their fusion-crust, they tend to look like the other (igneous) rocks in the vicinity.

For Reference:

The Editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin is, Dr. Michael K. Weisberg.


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)