[meteorite-list] from Bernd

[Larry & Twink Monrad]

>
> Hello Robert and All,
>
> I purchased my smallish 3.9-gram P.V. slice from Cap'n Blood back in 2001 
> and it still looks
> as fresh as it did 9 years ago. No rust but I found a golden-colored, 
> yellowish merrillite or apatite
> (they are both phosphates after all!) crystal at one of these 
> metal-silicate interfaces. Regarding the
> possibility that this might be rust, ...well, one look at such crystals 
> through a microscope (16x will
> be sufficient) should reveal their true nature. This yellow crystal in my 
> slice is a genuine, translucent
> crystal that betrays its nature through its form, its color, its 
> crystallinity (in my slice an elongate
> prismatic crystal) and the fact that it is embedded in the metal silicate 
> interfacial area. Rust would be
> bubbly, blisterous, grainy or powdery - it would not be translucent, it 
> would have the typical color
> of rust (reddish-brown), and, it would protrude from the surface of my 
> slice or if it was really
> incorporated into the matrix/metal interface, if it did not protrude from 
> the cut surface, it would
> still be reddish-brown instead of displaying those typical colors of 
> apatite (green, gray with bluish
> or yellowish tints - at least in hand sample).
>
> Best wishes from
> Germany,
>
> Bernd
>