[meteorite-list] Ensisheim Meteorite show - brief account

[Dr. Svend Buhl]

Good evening folks,

inquiring minds wanted to know so I take the liberty to offer a brief 
account on what was going on on in Ensisheim.

We arrived late friday evening just in time to witness the culmination of a 
red wine taste celebrated by a mixed US-Moroccan-German table in the back 
yard of La Couronne hotel. Mike Farmer, Mohammed, Dave Schulz, Andi Gren, 
Harald Strehlik and Jim Strope shared a number of adventures jumping from 
Tokio to Tucson to Las Vegas to the Hamburger Reeperbahn and to some other 
bizarre coordinates that slipped through my memory.

The next day presented a concentration of cosmic matter of unseen density in 
the historic town hall. People rushed in the exhibition hall like sharks in 
a feeding frenzy. For some dealers the show paid off within the first hours. 
The competion was massive.

About five or six tables backed up by the Erfoud, Midelt and Zagora 
commection were completely focussed on NWAs, most of them uncut. This meant 
a lot of work for Marcin who had set up his saw in the yard. As I stepped 
by, a croud gathered around the lucky buyer of a freshly cut NWA that 
suspiciously resembled a diogenite.

Classic locations were presented in lower quantities, at least that was my 
impression. Almost no Sikhotes, just here and there a few, very few Gibeons, 
only a handful of Tazas. Campos of course were the exception. Hans Koser, 
the king of Campos, had about fifty on his table, beside some nice Uruacu 
individuals representing his recent finds. As a surprise he brought two 
large slices of the new Brazil meteorite Santa Vitoria do Palmar 
(provisionary) with him. That material was offered for 5 EUR /gm.

Beside the planetary and achondritic rarities displayed on the tables of 
Mike Farmer, Marcin, Martin Altmann, Stefan Ralew (who was honoured and 
accepted as a new guardian of the Ensisheim meteorite)and the other usual 
suspects, the tables of Hanno Strufe and J. Nauber need to be mentioned. J. 
Nauber displayed a magnificent >2 gm fragment of Chasigny and an 
exceptionally well prepared 12gm slice of a striking lunar regolith breccia.

But the killer was a 32 gm slice of a newly classified diogenite that was 
unlike any other I have seen. The yellowish slice looked like an assembly of 
humongous centimeter sized pyroxene crystals embedded in a Thai curry 
colored matrix spiced with distinct green olivine sparks. Another piece of 
exceptional beauty was a yet unclassified meteorite displayed by Andi Gren, 
that has chances to enter the Bulletin as the next bencubinite. The creme de 
la creme of rare historic US-localities could be found on the table of Anne 
Black, I'am convinced her asortment represented at least one third of the 
Texas and New Mexico localities.

Compared to the recent years only few tables were set up by Russian dealers. 
Surprisingly and in contrast to the general opinion regarding the recent 
Oman issues there is still fresh material coming out of Oman. Of exceptional 
quality were some heavily shocked and very fresh looking Eucrites from the 
Dhofar region. The jet black crust just coated by a fine layer of caliche 
twenty potatoe sized individuals lay on a table - a beautiful sight.

The 1st day ended with the traditional festival, powered by the 
Meteor-brewery and the local accordion orchestra. Just in time after a 
beaaitiful and hot sunshiny day a deluvian drove everybody into the large 
tents where the party continued until the early morning. While one half of 
the accordion orchestra continued to play under the portico a group of four 
players seperated into the tent and started to battle their opponents. It 
was the trumpets of Jericho against the trumpets of the Last Judgement. The 
sound was so tremendous, Manfred Dannapfel was scared the olivines may fall 
out of his newly acquired Fukang pallasite.

There is much more to tell and those actors I did not mention may forgive 
me, as this account is just an impression and by no means representative. 
I'am sure others will share there stories and pictures as well.

best regards

Svend

www.niger-meteorite-recon.de