[meteorite-list] Bassikounou - a meteorite that blows your socks off

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Hello Hanno, Hello List,

I got my Bassikounou specimen today. Thank you very, very much, Hanno!

If you ever thought you were holding an absolutely fresh meteorite in your hands,
you haven't seen Bassikounou! I have an absolutely fresh piece of the Peekskill
chondrite (from David New right after it fell!), I have Bensour, I have NWA 3045,
I have a 258-gram individual of Hanno's super-fresh NWA 4021, but Bassikounou
beats them all: 

- Velvety, black fusion crust
- not the slightest trace of weathering
- delicate shock veinlets
- brecciation
- shiny, silvery NiFe seems to show "clustering" and
- preferred, parallel orientation (some kind of "banding")
  (as if half-way toward what we see in metal-rich parts of Portales Valley)
- radionuclides so fresh they are consistent with its recent fall: Oct 12 2006.
- totally fresh, silvery FeNi specks are even visible within the fusion crust !!!

http://www.strufe.net/special_bassi.htm


Best Bassi regards,

Bernd (trying to find his socks ;-)