[meteorite-list] Loaves and fishiness

[Marc D. Fries]

Greetings

   I'm rather intrigued with Shirokovsky.  In looking at the pictures, a
couple of things jump out - first off, most of the pieces are shaped
like loaves of bread, or like ingots.  Secondly, the comment that the
olivines did not equilibrate with the metal matrix, but rather "cooled
quickly in a strongly oxidizing environment" is interesting.  An
oxidizing environment such as ...air??  As in, someone melted some
Ni-Fe, added crushed olivines, then sand-cast the resulting melt into
fine sand pre-forms roughly pounded out to look like meteorites.  The
cooling time would be a matter of minutes.  A little wire wheel action
with a mild acid bath encore to clean it up, and voila - a "pallasite".
 In some ways I find this more interesting than an actual pallasite,
and I'd like to get my mitts on a piece.  Anyone have any to sell? 
Cheap?  (I'm a stingy bastard)
    There are problems with that scenario, among them - are there any iron
meteorites with almost 30% nickel?  I went looking for matches beween
Shiro. and other irons like Nantan for a source of metal but came up
empty.
   Also - is it common for meteorite finders to ask to remain anonymous?  
...like the "anonymous finder" who discovered Shirokovsky?

Cheers,
MDF

-- 
Marc D. Fries, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Geophysical Laboratory
5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW
Washington, DC 20015
PH:  202 478 7970
FAX: 202 478 8901