[meteorite-list] Dronino Preservation

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Stefan wrote:

"Just watching the slow disintegration of my little 63g Dronino individual.
 Not the prettiest way of losing weight...Any chance of preserving it from
 total crumbleation?"

Matteo responded:

"Dronino its a horrible rust meteorite, for the moment the 2th only after
Campo del Cielo."

Don't forget Nantan...another rust bucket. I had a nice Nantan individual
that I purchased at a mineral show in Ulm (Germany) in 1999. About two
years later it had rusted and crumbled almost beyond recognition.

Morasko can also be very, very prone to rusting. My little piece from ...
looks jet-black as if HCL had been poured over a lump of sugar :-(

Luckily I was careful enough because I bought only a small 12-gram endcut
which I observed rusting away in spite of the silica gel I used to protect it.

Dronino is a very difficult candidate because of its large amount of sulfides
(about 10vol%!). Moreover, its sulfide nodules are usually surrounded by Fe
hydroxides, ... a fateful combination with regard to hard-to-stop rusting :-(

Cheers,

Bernd