[meteorite-list] What It is!

[Robert Verish]

Yes, ladies and gentleman, we have a winner!

Norm is right about "It" being a "gabbro".

Sorry Dave, but I live fairly close to Acton CA and I
can confirm that it is situated at the foot of a
mountain of gabbroic rock of the San Gabriel Mtns
Anorthosite Ultramafic Complex.  It wouldn't take much
effort to find a rock like those in the auctions. 
Predominantly titano-magnetite (ilmenite) with iron-
stained andesine plagioclase and accessory apatite and
zircon.  

The next time you're in SoCal I can show you a
locality where we can find purple anorthosite and 2cm
long zircons!    :-)

Bob V.

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[meteorite-list] What is It?
Norm Lehrman nlehrman at nvbell.net 
Wed Jun 15 23:01:28 EDT 2005 


Slow down Dave,

I didn't say it is a winner;  I just don't know what
it is.  I can't seem to get the picture back up (I
think the auction has been cancelled), but it looked
to me like all the phases were very coarsely
crystalline.  In this case, metal or no metal, it
couldn't be a basalt (which is by definition aphanitic
except for possible phenocrysts).  

With slower crystallization, you can get gabbros and
other coarsely crystalline ultramafics with segregated
sulfides, but once again, the rapid crystallization
leading to basalt formation has little chance to
segregate anything beyond micro-blebs of sulfide.  

I can't believe it could be a basalt.

Norm