[meteorite-list] What's with these weird Campos?

[Michael Gilmer]

Hi Bob,

AFAIK, these are made by taking a low-grade ruster or "dog" and
freezing it in liquid nitrogen.  Then frozen meteorite is then
shattered and it fragments along the crystal-plane boundaries of the
taenite and kamacite - the result is these "crystals" with a polished
appearance.

This process works best with coarse octahedrites of lower value like
Campo and Nantan.

Some people like them, some people don't.  I think they are a neat way
to "upcycle" a lower grade piece into something more marketable, but
they are also a bit misleading because newbies may tend to think iron
meteorites naturally look that way.

Best regards,

MikeG

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Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites

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On 1/19/11, Bob King <nightsky55 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> This has been bugging me a while, but I've noticed lots of smaller
> Campo del Cielos on eBay recently that look like very melted
> Sikhote-Alins. Does anyone know what's going on with these? Is someone
> blowing up Campos and melting down the pieces. Here's an example:
> http://tinyurl.com/4nuvhwn
> Thanks!
> Bob
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