[meteorite-list] Cinnabar veins in meteorites?

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

> I have found some historical accounts of meteorites
> with red veins, supposedly cinnabar. Can such things be?

Hello Chris and List,

I f you are talking about  Colston Bassett - the answer is definitely
no because it is a pseudometeorite. The Catalogue says that :
"A boulder lying in the churchyard has been identified as cinnabar,
probably from Peru. Its meteoritic origin appears to be 'purely a
fabrication of local legend', W.A.S. Sarjeant, The Mercian Geologist,
1971, 4, p. 41."

If you are talking about Allende or Murchison, the answer may be yes
because *minute* amounts of Hg (= mercury) have been identified in
them: Allende = 30 ± 1.5 ng/g and Murchison = 294 ± 15 ng/g. Well,
just like iron + sulfur = FeS (troilite), Hg + S = HgS = cinnabar.

References:

LAURETTA D.S. et al. (2000) Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
measurements of bulk mercury abundances and isotopic ratios in Murchison
- CM, and Allende - CV (MAPS 35-5, 2000, Suppl., A095).

RUBIN A.E. (1997) Mineralogy of meteorite groups (Meteoritics 32-2, 1997, 231-247).

ULYANOV A.A. (1991) The meteorite minerals (Brown-
Vernadsky Microsymp. Comp. Planet. 14th).


Best regards,

Bernd