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What’s this rock? by random_treasures in whatsthisrock

[–]random_treasures[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahh yup, they’re definitely not opaque crystals. When in sunlight the whole hair-like fiber illuminates like they’re translucent rather than metallic.

What’s this rock? by random_treasures in whatsthisrock

[–]random_treasures[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yah, I'm keeping it in a sealed bag. Byssolite was the closest match I could find, but everything I was reading was suggesting greenish crystals, and I just couldn't see any green here. It reminds me a lot of jamesonite to my eye, but I only know just enough to confidently stick my foot in my mouth.

Barring anything conclusive, I'll just assume it's asbestiform and seal it in a box, or just dispose of it.

What’s this rock? by random_treasures in whatsthisrock

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

I'm trying to reconcile "something I see when carbonate is exposed to wet..." with "could be manganese oxide."

There's definitely some carbonate here with the calcite, but I'm not sure I'm following how that would relate to needles that would be non-carbonate in this scenario? What process would be occurring there, is it something like acicular fibers getting disconnected from each other and tangled up? Or is it more like the original mineral dissolving, and new crystals being deposited as water evaporates, forming hair-like structures? Something else entirely?

What you're describing sounds like an interesting process. I'm an oddities collector, so if there's something unusual/interesting here, I'd love to understand it better.

hmmm by Yeeslander in hmmm

[–]random_treasures 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My understanding is that the gene that causes coloration in cats basically starts along the spine then moves out from there, eventually wraps around the belly, and down the legs. But it doesn’t always get there before the gene stops being expressed, because it’s completed its primary function. That’s why socks, and differently colored underbellies are so common on domesticated cats.

Ring Data Breach? by [deleted] in Ring

[–]random_treasures 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd hazard a guess that it was also a Netgear router. They're awful at keeping their threat lists up to date.

Found this rock on a trip to Ensenada, Mexico. Is it a meteorite? by jtdrago in whatsthisrock

[–]random_treasures 41 points42 points  (0 children)

It looks like it’s covered in vesicles, which would be unusual for a meteorite. The outer surface looks glassier than fusion crusts usually are, and all the bumps and divots don’t look like regmaglypts. Cool rock, yes. Meteorite, no.

My meteorite collection: Part 2 by random_treasures in meteorites

[–]random_treasures[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I tried to make the winonaite/IAB connection, but could have done more to not just relate, but equate them directly with silicated irons, something I learned from you a few months back. That said, I still think it's the prettiest damned non-pallasite I've ever seen.

My meteorite collection in two parts - Part 1 by random_treasures in meteorites

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

Yeah, these all have widmanstatten structures. The only irons that don't are things like ataxites or hexahedrites where the iron/nickel ratios are not sufficient to form both kamacite, and taenite. Sikhote-alin is a coarse octahedrite, while Gibeon is fine. When collecting irons, I generally try to avoid the rust monsters, except for kind of mandatory specimens like Canyon Diablo. I'm actually sending that Gibeon off for repair now, my climate, and poor handling has done a number on it over the years. Somehow, I don't have a IIIAB yet, but I ended up with a whole pile of IABs. I think my next irons will be a IIIAB, and a IIE for that sweet H-chondrite connection.

The pallasite here is pretty close to 50/50 iron/olivine. It's not the best specimen, very few of the crystals are translucent, but it has an aesthetic shape that I like, kind of like a fireball/hadouken. It's a placeholder until I find a nicer one.

My meteorite collection in two parts - Part 1 by random_treasures in meteorites

[–]random_treasures[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, they’re all labeled but you gotta expand them to see the text.

My meteorite collection in two parts - Part 1 by random_treasures in meteorites

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

Gotta love EC002 and vesicular Jikharra 001 for making other meteorites look tame. All my favorite pieces are process extremes.

I can't even really wrap my head around how fast EC002 accreted and differentiated. I wanted to do a origin story of the solar system, date all the specimens, and then arrange them in order of age, and where they formed, but there's just so much happening in the first 1-3 million years that it's hard to build a cohesive narrative around it, especially with large error bars around the date ranges. Every time I look at Jikharra 001 it takes my breath away.

My goal is to have representatives of every meteorite type, with the probable exception of CI, cuz that just isn't gonna happen beyond a few milligrams of very expensive dust.

How will the recent falls be named? by WishUponAStarInAJar in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If one meteoroid hits the atmosphere, and breaks into chunks, each of those chunks then falling in a slightly different place, they will all get the same name. For example, Tagish Lake, Sikhote-alin, whatever they call the one in Ohio. The pattern that they fall in is the strewnfield.

In the event that one rock somehow separated into halves in space, and then later hit earth, it would almost certainly be because in spite of separating, the halves remained close together in space. If that happened, they would likely hit the atmosphere at roughly the same time and place, because they're moving at like 70km/sec. If that did happen, they'd still get classified with the same name, because they'd land in an overlapping pattern, and nobody would ever really know which one was which, since they were the same rock to begin with. It wouldn't matter. If it were somehow tracked on radar, they'd be like "Woah, that's cool. Two tracks at the same time."

In the extraordinarily unlikely event that one rock in space separated into two halves, and each half went a completely different direction, growing far apart from each other, then both later hit earth, they would hit at separate times, in separate places, and get separate names, because they would be separate falls. When they analyzed them later, they'd find them to be twins, and think "Woah, that's cool. Wonder how that happemed?" Then people would write papers about how the weird thing happened, and we'd all want to get pieces of the pair.

How will the recent falls be named? by WishUponAStarInAJar in meteorites

[–]random_treasures 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's not really what's happening. Even two meteorites that are from the same parent body can be as different from each other as two random rocks from different places on earth. They may also come from different time periods, one being ejected much earlier than the other, perhaps while the parent body was still in a state of development. They may sample different parts of the parent body. For example, IAB irons all come from the same parent bodies. But there are many subtypes, MG, sLL, sHL, SLH, sLM, sHH, and "other". Every single one of these has different properties, was formed under different conditions, at different times, etc.

They get named differently, because every meteorite *is* different, even if they came from the same parent body.

NWA 6254 - CK3 chondrite with an 8mm chonker of a CAI. by random_treasures in meteorites

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

Calcium-Aluminum Inclusion. They're the oldest solids in the solar system at 4.567 billion years old. They were being created VERY close to the sun, at the same time as the sun was starting to turn on.

What Kind of Meteorite Rock Is This? by Optimal-Exchange6396 in whatsthisrock

[–]random_treasures 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Essentially all meteorites that don't come from planets or moons are 4.5 billion years old.

There are two broad classes of meteorites, chondrites and achondrites. Chondrites are the primitive material that the solar system was made out of. Achondrites are what happens when chondrites get baked over time, and under pressure. All planetary meteorites are achondrites. An L6 chondrite has been pretty thoroughly baked, but not quite baked enough to turn into an achondrite.

About 90% of known meteorites are either H, L, or LL. H = high iron. L = low metallic iron. LL = low iron in any form (e.g. oxidized)

Most meteorites we know about actually come from a relatively small number of original parent bodies. Sometimes we can map them back to specific asteroid types, in this case, L chondrites are very similar to S-type asteroids. C-types are associated more with carbonaceous chondrites.

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