Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Month
(for the Month of September 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 September 01, 2012:

Name of Nevada Meteorite: Name not approved. This is a RECENT find! Field ID is "BaM01"
Usually that means that it would be too soon to have a classification for this find. But that is not the case this time. We don't have a formally-approved name for this fall, but here is the classification for this meteorite:
L6 - S4 - W0

This "recent find" was from a recent fall:
Battle Mountain, NV Fall of 21AUG2012 (22-aug-2012-0617-UTC)
Not only that, but this was the discovery find, meaning that this was the first stone found from that fall. Since September 1st, there have been more than a dozen more stones found from this strewn-field. For more information about the classification, please read the "Explanation" below.
Image by finder and author of this webpage.
Credit: All images taken by finder. Please request permission from this author before use.

Explanation:

This find was made on 2012 September 1st, which is less than 2 weeks ago (as of this writing), but due to very quick work, we already know the classification of this 19.25gram Ordinary Chondrite. Please read the my announcement to the Met-List:

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 9:41 PM, Robert Verish  wrote:

    Hello All,

    It is my distinct pleasure to report that Dr. Alan Rubin (UCLA)has characterized the BaM01 stone 
    that I found on Sept. 1st 2012 near Battle Mtn. Nevada:

    It is " L6 S4 W0 ". 

    More details are in the description that he sent to me (see below). 

    This "description" will form a part of the table that is required when a name is requested for 
    approval by the Nomenclature Committee (NomCom) of the Meteoritical Society (MetSoc).  
    When this proposed name has been decided and all the data for the table has been completed, 
    I will submit that form to the editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin, who will present the "request" to 
    the NomCom for vote and approval. 

    The type specimen for this meteorite will be comprised only partly by a full-slice of BaM01 - the 
    remainder of type specimen to meet the required 20grams is a fragment from BaM09 and was 
    graciously donated by the finder, Martin Cunningham, a local resident of Battle Mountain.

    More acknowledgements and thanks:

    Thanks to Dr. Rubin (UCLA) for his very prompt characterization of BaM01.

    "BaM01" and "BaM09" are simply field ID initialisms for a meteorite (that is still awaiting 
    formal approval of its eventual name) that fell on:
    22 Aug 2012 0617 UTC
    which was widely observed (with many reports sent to the American Meteor Society)and 
    which was reported by Dirk Ross on his website:
    MBIQ (Meteor Bot Internet Query) 

    The recovery of this meteorite (pieces of which are still being found) was made possible 
     from the research conducted by Marc Fries of Galactic Analytics LLC.  
     Marc should be congratulated for promptly and correctly predicting the fall location of these 
     meteorites.  He and his colleagues are conducting cutting-edge advancements in meteorite-
     recovery through the analysis of Doppler weather radar data.  Kudos to his team.
    More information can be found here:
    http://www.galacticanalytics.com/battle-mountain-nv-22-aug-2012-0617-utc/

    With best regards to all,
    Bob Verish


    --- On Tue, 9/11/12, Alan Rubin  wrote:

    > From: Alan Rubin 
    > Subject: BaM01 description
    > To: "Robert Verish" 
    > Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 2:22 PM
    >
    > L6
    > W0
    > S4
    > olivine Fa 23.2ą0.3 (n=26)
    > low-Ca pyroxene Fs19.8ą0.2  Wo1.3ą0.3  (n=22)
    > Ca-pyroxene Fs7.8Wo43.7 (n=2)
    >
    > The stone is recrystallized with 50-ľm-size plagioclase
    > grains.  Olivine grains exhibit weak mosaic extinction;
    > many chromite grains are extensively fractured.  Many
    > troilite grains are polycrystalline.  There has been
    > localized melting of metal and sulfide.  Several grains
    > of metallic Cu occur inside metal at the boundaries of small
    > (apparently melted) irregularly shaped troilite grains.
    >
    >
    >
    > Alan Rubin
    > Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
    > University of California
    > 3845 Slichter Hall
    > 603 Charles Young Dr. E
    > Los Angeles, CA  90095-1567
    > phone: 310-825-3202
    > e-mail: aerubin@ucla.edu
    > website: http://cosmochemists.igpp.ucla.edu/Rubin.html
    >

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 !

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

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

L6 - S4 - W0

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