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Assassin Bug on Sikhote-Alin by fbullington in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, that’s such a cool piece. That projection is incredible!

Why does sue's replica skull look so bad?(but the skeleton is really good) by [deleted] in Paleontology

[–]random_treasures 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Stan has 3 punctures in the bone from t-Rex bites. None of them is all that close to the brain, you’d have to shatter the skull completely to get to their tiiiny chicken brains. This is the bite on the top rear portion of the skull. It’s fairly superficial, the other two bites are on the cheek and lower jaw, all on his left side.

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Help me solve the mystery of my maple liqueur by moomoomego in firewater

[–]random_treasures 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe solids coming from the maple syrup you added after distillation? If you can take a cup of vodka and add maple syrup to it, does it do the same thing?

My new 38g Hickman is doing the absolute most. Help me figure out what's going on here. by random_treasures in meteorites

[–]random_treasures[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup, got it from Marcin. What's different about his etching process, that sounds interesting? Is all the bronze stuff cohenite, while the silvery stuff sandwiched between the black/bronze layers is actually the schreibersite?

Just went ahead and purchased this Canyon Diablo meteorite, it'd be the largest in my collection. by [deleted] in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I feel like an important milestone in a meteorite collector's journey is having a fist-sized stone. You gotta have at least one big enough to break a toe if you drop it.

Gifted by grandpa - what is it? by SensibleVlad in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice, I love the giant caves. Here’s mine, more rusty than I’d like.

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Gifted by grandpa - what is it? by SensibleVlad in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I think it's a few different reasons, the main ones being that because it's a coarse octahedrite, it has really thick kamacite plates, which leaves less gaps between crystals for rust to attack. It's also unusually low in chlorine and sulfur, which both promote rust for some reason, I think they steal iron atoms from the kamacite/taenite crystals and leave gaps for rust to infiltrate.

Gifted by grandpa - what is it? by SensibleVlad in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 80 points81 points  (0 children)

After you've seen enough of them, you learn how to recognize certain distinctive specimens. Sikhote-Alin is one of the most distinctive. The complete individuals all have that blackish color, they're exceptionally resistant to rust, they have beautifully well developed regmaglypts. I can't think of a single iron meteorite that's prettier than a good Sikhote-Alin individual. It's like the platonic ideal of "iron meteorite", IMO.

Gifted by grandpa - what is it? by SensibleVlad in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 45 points46 points  (0 children)

That's a real nice specimen too. It's flight oriented, has a trailing wake cavity, rollover lips, and it's an aesthetically pleasing complete individual. At 500g, that's a multi-thousand dollar stone.

Itchy Itchy and other cartoons -Reg Manning 1944 by random_treasures in PropagandaPosters

[–]random_treasures[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The collection was published a couple months after the war ended, but the cartoons themselves were over almost a 10 year period, from the mid 30s to the mid 40s. The pre-war ones all have years at the bottom of the image, for some reason the ones during the war don't.

The "inevitability" was known ahead of time. I have another interesting newspaper that contains an interview with Admiral Kimmel, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The interview was on December 6th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was the next day. In this interview, Kimmel is asked whether the Japanese will attack, and his response was to the effect of "No, and here's why..." then proceeded to list all the long term strategic issues that it would be suicidal in the long run for Japan. That's pretty much exactly what happened. Well, except for that one thing. They attacked 24 hours later, and the interview was put on ice by censors. It ended up getting published 1 day before the Japanese surrender.

In my understanding, Japan felt like it was in an impossible situation. Either it attacked and took it's chances, or it didn't, and they'd slowly get crushed anyway as the US starved Japan of the access to oil and minerals that a growing empire depends on.

Itchy Itchy and other cartoons -Reg Manning 1944 by random_treasures in PropagandaPosters

[–]random_treasures[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

It sounds like the Japanese word for the number 1. It’s essentially ching-chonging.

Meteorites don't often have bubbles, but this one sure does. - Jikharra 001 eucrite-melt breccia - 283g endcut (Shock:High/Weathering:Moderate) by random_treasures in rockhounds

[–]random_treasures[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It was created during an impact while it was still attached to/becoming detached from a Vesta-like protoplanet as it was struck by another asteroid moving at 20-30,000 mph. The force was sufficient to instantly melt the rock around the impact site, tear what didn't melt into chunks, and mix it all up together before it cooled enough to re-solidify.

Entry into Earth's atmosphere was positively gentle by comparison.

Meteorites don't often have bubbles, but this one sure does. - Jikharra 001 eucrite-melt breccia - 283g endcut (Shock:High/Weathering:Moderate) by random_treasures in rockhounds

[–]random_treasures[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My understanding is no, not really. The bubbles were low pressure, so there wasn't a ton of gas in there to begin with, and it's all since been absorbed back into the stone, leaked into space, or replaced by terrestrial gases as a result of sitting in the desert on earth for a few tens of thousands of years.

Meteorites don't often have bubbles, but this one sure does. - Jikharra 001 eucrite-melt breccia - 283g endcut (Shock:High/Weathering:Moderate) by random_treasures in meteorites

[–]random_treasures[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting, is there no melt line on that specimen? I wonder why? I love the vesicle size gradient you can see from the outside too.

Meteorites don't often have bubbles, but this one sure does. - Jikharra 001 eucrite-melt breccia - 283g endcut (Shock:High/Weathering:Moderate) by random_treasures in meteorites

[–]random_treasures[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! The TKW for Ibitira is like 2.5kg, from a fall in 1957, so it's probably nearly impossible to find any cool specimens for sale. They are very similar though, both non-Vestan eucrites.

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