[meteorite-list] holy grail of martian meteorites

Robert Verish bolidechaser at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 11 19:17:40 EST 2007


Amazing how fast time flies.
Doesn't seem that long ago that a slice of LA 002 was
considered unattainable, and was spoken of as the
"holy grail" of basaltic shergottites.  

Yet it's still a unique and UNPAIRED martian
meteorite. 

But that was Mars rock #15 then, and this is now...

Had to cut a slice of this Los Angeles stone for some
researchers, and look what we found:

<http://marzmeteorite.tripod.com/la2/la2lath56.jpg>

and here is that same slice, but swabbed in alcohol:

<http://marzmeteorite.tripod.com/la2/la2lath56.jpg>

The alcohol darkens the groundmass, causing the
pyroxene grains to stand out in contrast.  The long
pyroxene lath in the lower right corner is over an
inch long (~2.5cm)!  

Has anybody seen a longer crystal in a Mars rock?

Curious,
Bob V.





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