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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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"Ural Gold!"

Joe

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"There be gold in them there holes!" (sorry.)

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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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I'd certainly love a sample of that one!!! Wonder how strict the laws are in Russia, for meteorite hunters?

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Me 2, i wonder if they will find a boat load of fragments like they found from the Sikhote-Alin meteor.
Certainly hope the people are all ok, seen reports where over 1,000 were injured.

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There are a few respected Russian meteorite dealers. I am contacting them now to find out what the laws are in Russia regarding this, and if any specimens have been found yet.

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Mike, please keep us up to date on this!

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Beware any meteorites being offered for sale from this new fall - they are probably fakes. It will take some time before genuine specimens show up on the collector market, if they do at all.

There are a few respected Russian meteorite dealers. I am contacting them now to find out what the laws are in Russia regarding this, and if any specimens have been found yet.

One lesson here - we need to keep funding our sky-watch programs.

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Technically, while it was "over Russia" it was a meteor. The bits that hit the ground, though, became meteorites. It did partially come apart at some point as there are bits and pieces being reported around the region.

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In any case, very cool...that they believed it was a meteor, I mean. We were worried when that top secret test missile went haywire shortly after launch.

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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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I'd certainly love a sample of that one!!! Wonder how strict the laws are in Russia, for meteorite hunters?

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Me 2, i wonder if they will find a boat load of fragments like they found from the Sikhote-Alin meteor.
Certainly hope the people are all ok, seen reports where over 1,000 were injured.

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This bolide weighed 7000 tons according to NASA. About 30% of the Sikhote-Alin meteor was recovered (30 tons out of an estimated 100 tons). If they can approach that recovery rate then there is a lot of meteor material that can go on the market.

The rate won't be that high since Sikhote-Alin was iron, and easy to identify. But still, it is winter and rocks on snow or ice are easy to notice.

Really weird that all four of the largest known falls over land in the past 200 years or so are all in high Northern latitudes, and 3 in Siberia (Tunguska 1908, Sikhote-Alin 1947, Chelyabinsk 2013, and Whitehorse 2000.)

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According to that article they've already found 3 craters! I wonder how many of the meteorite hunters are already on a flight there?

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I'd certainly love a sample of that one!!! Wonder how strict the laws are in Russia, for meteorite hunters?

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This is the New Russia! Everything is for sale if the right authority gets a cut.

There will be hundreds of tons of material recovered from this rock.

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Beware any meteorites being offered for sale from this new fall - they are probably fakes. It will take some time before genuine specimens show up on the collector market, if they do at all.

There are a few respected Russian meteorite dealers. I am contacting them now to find out what the laws are in Russia regarding this, and if any specimens have been found yet.

One lesson here - we need to keep funding our sky-watch programs.

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Here you go Mike.... Buyers beware....

e-bay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Meteorite-from-Chelyabinks-Russia-2013-meteor-fall-as...


Davio R.

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<$1000US, and free shipping

or

maybe I should wait for Mike's sale

edj

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Chelyabinsk was a closed city as recently as 1994. The entire area is loaded with Soviet-era military facilities and nuclear sites. It is also one of the most contaminated places on Earth and the site of the terrible (but little-known) Kyshtym nuclear disaster. Much of the area is completely off-limits to foreigners or highly-radioactive. There is a better than even chance that very little or none of this meteorite will make it to the collector market outside Russia. I hope I am wrong and I would love to have a piece, but I am not holding my breath until I see more recoveries. Right now, if the supposed recoveries are indeed confirmed, then TKW is very small. Of course, this could change at any moment if a large mass is found or if many more smaller stones are found.

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I.want.a.piece.right.NOW!!

/Ira

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The NYT is...the same publication that put out that hit-piece against meteorites last year where all of us were declared as a "black market" of illegal activity. It was little else besides slanderous statements, half-truths, and propaganda...

I recall the IMCA even wrote an official statement to rebut the lies and errors in the NYT article. You know an article is really really bad when the meteorite community feels it necessary to put together and release an official rebuttal.

Of course, this NYT article will get picked up by tons of news wires and aggregators who will republish and churn it back out endlessly. While it's new, unknowing people will repost and "like" or "recommend" the article on Facebook, further spreading the misinformation via social media. It's like a dirty...virus and I'm sure I won't be the only one today playing "damage control" on Facebook with this latest NYT torpedo-job.

This type of event is what makes me excited to wake up every morning and be involved in some small way with the world of meteorites and meteoritics. It's the reason almost everyone reading this is a member of a mailing-list like this - because Cherbarkul is what meteorite falls are all about. This is good good stuff and I loathe to see another rehash of the slanderous BS put out into the media. So if you are reading this, and later on you see a discussion in a forum/list/site somewhere about this event and somebody is quoting or referencing these error-filled NYT articles - please chime in politely but firmly and correct the misconceptions. It will be tedious, but it's necessary.

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The problem is, there are a few bad apples in the meteorite world. But they are an extreme minority in relation to the greater numbers of reputable and decent people involved with meteorites. That is true for every group of people on Earth, no matter how big or small. If one chooses to be biased, selective, and narrowly-focus on a single negative anecdote, then anything can be made to look bad. The art of the "spin"....

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I tried to edit my comments to bring them into compliance with Cloudy Night's TOS. I hope I succeeded while getting message across.

Best regards,

MikeG

PS - in other words, private meteorite collecting and trading is NOT illegal and is far from it.

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Well Mike; I'll be on your list for one, when you start aquiring some fragments!

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Make sure you get me one also

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The NYT has a history of printing misinformation and bias against the private meteorite community.

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Nice stone Peter. Thanks for sharing it. I am very anxious to receive mine.

Other news, the meteorite is official today :

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Writeup from MB 101:

Chelyabinsk 54°49’N, 61°07’E (approximate centroid)

Chelyabinskaya oblast’, Russia

Fell: 15 Feb 2013; 3:22 UT

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (LL5)

History: At 9:22 a.m. (local time) on February 15, 2013, a bright fireball was seen by numerous residents in parts of the Kurgan, Tyumen, Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk districts. Images of the fireball were captured by many video cameras, especially in Chelyabinsk. Residents of the Chelyabinsk district heard the sound of a large explosion. The impact wave destroyed many windows in Chelyabinsk and surrounding cities. Many people were wounded by glass fragments. A part of the roof and a wall of a zinc plant and a stadium in Chelyabinsk were also damaged. Numerous (thousands) stones fell as a shower around Pervomaiskoe, Deputatsky and Yemanzhelinka villages ~40 km S of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite pieces were recovered and collected out of snow by local people immediately after the explosion. The snow cover was about 0.7 m deep. The falling stones formed holes surrounded by firn snow. Largest stones reached the frozen soil. A stone may have broken the ice of Chebarkul Lake, located 70 km W of Chelyabinsk. Small meteorite fragments were found around the 8 m hole in the ice but divers did not find any stones on the lake bottom.

Physical characteristics: The meteorite stones and fragments are from <1 g to 1.8 kg in weight and from a few mm to 10 cm (mainly 3-6 cm) in size. The total mass collected by local people is certainly >100 kg and perhaps > 500 kg. Fusion crusted stones are common. The fusion crust is black or brown and fresh. Broken fragments are rare. The interior of the stones is fresh but in some pieces there is evidence for weak oxidation of metal grains.

Petrography: (D.D. Badyukov and M.A. Nazarov, Vernad). The majority (2/3) of the stones are composed of a light-colored lithology with a typical chondritic texture. Chondrules (~63%) are readily delineated and set within a fragmental matrix. The mean chondrule diameter is 0.93 mm. The chondrule glass is devitrified. The main phases are olivine and orthopyroxene. Olivine shows mosaicism and planar fractures. Rare grains of augite and clinobronzite are present. Small and rare feldspar grains show undulutory extinction, planar deformation features, and are partly isotropic. Troilite (4 vol.%) and FeNi metal (1.3 vol.%) occur as irregularly shaped grains. Accessory minerals are chromite, ilmenite, and Cl-apatite. A significant portion (1/3) of the stones consist of a dark, fine-grained impact melt containing mineral and chondrule fragments. Feldspar is well developed and practically isotropic. No high-pressure phases were found in the impact melt. There are black-colored thin shock veins in both light and dark lithologies.

Geochemistry: (M.A. Nazarov, N.N. Kononkova, and I.V. Kubrakova, Vernad). Mineral chemistry: Olivine Fa 27.9±0.35, N=22; orthopyroxene Fs22.8±0.8Wo1.30±0.26, N=17; feldspar Ab86; chromite Fe/Fe+Mg=0.90, Cr/Cr+Al=0.85 (at.%). Major element composition of the light lithology (XRF, ICP-AS, wt%): Si=18.3, Ti=0.053, Al=1.12, Cr=0.40, Fe=19.8, Mn=0.26, Ca=1.43, Na=0.74, K=0.11, P=0.10, Ni=1.06, Co=0.046, S=1.7. Atomic ratios of Zn/Mn × 100=1.3, Al/Mn=8.8. The impact melt lithology has almost the same composition but it is distinctly higher in Ni, Zn, Cu, Mo, Cd, W, Re, Pb, Bi (ICP-MS).

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (LL5), shock stage S4, weathering W0.

Specimens: About 400 stones weighing 3.5 kg in total and a few thin sections are in Vernad.

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Thanks for the kind words Carol and I'm glad you were able to pick up a nice micro! I think anyone purchasing this fall right now, myself included, are paying a premium to have the most pristine pieces although the prices have been trending way down as material floods in. My first piece cost a whooping $70 a gram but it does have some nice flowlines and evidence of orientation as well as rock solid provenance. A couple of weeks later, I picked up my second stone, also a fresh and complete individual, for around $25 a gram. I predict $10 a gram by years end but I am still happy to have a couple of the early specimens from this incredible fall and have no regrets about my purchases.

Jon

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Thank you for the the compliment. My second specimen is en route from a reliable Russian source and I will post a photo as soon as it arrives. And it appears that the price has dropped to $10 a gram much quicker than many thought, likely the result of a flooded market. I believe it was Mike Farmer who commented that this fall has the potential to produce as much or more than the Gao fall so I expect material will continue to be found for years to come.

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No problem. By the way, I agree with Littlegreenman about the sound effects. Cheesy.

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Hi Oblako,

The auction in your first link is for a beautiful oriented meteorite. If it was a larger sample I would bid on it.

The second link is most likely a legitimate meteorite it looks as if it is mostly melt (formally known as impact melt). The melt samples are not as pretty, however they are less common.

Thanks,

Peter

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Hi Peter, thanks for your comment.
If you are to scroll down at this ended auction http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Rare-and-Unique-Chelyabinsk-Meteorite-6-Grams-Ca... you will see a very nice oriented meteorite. BTW did you bid for this one? The shape of the one I linked to earlier does look like a meteorite with a roll-over lips, but the fusion crust looks rather funny. As a matter of fact I have not seen any Chelyabinsk meteorite or any other meteorite for that matter that looks like that. The other one has no fusion crust but lot's of sharp edges. I'd be surprised, if it were a meteorite.

Thanks.

Edited by oblako (04/06/13 10:44 AM)

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Hi Littlegreen man,

Congratulations you have been a meteorite collector longer than most of us. Your sample from Meteor Crater may not be rust, back in the day the sold solid samples(bye the see shore).

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For your eyes only, not for sale.

From Russia with Love :

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Very nice meteorites, Michael!

Today I decided to take an image of my 24.7 grams oriented Chelyabinsk meteorite with some nice background, so we went to a cliff, which is overlooking Pacific. My choice of the background has exceeded my expectations. There were some whales feeding close to the shore. The image is a combination of two images taken from the same place at the same time.


Here's a full resolution:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7304/8719241412_d308a6f581_k.jpg

Another view with some flow lines


A full resolution is here http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/8719486868_76d179c02c_k.jpg

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For your eyes only, not for sale.

From Russia with Love :

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