Portales Valley H6 Chondrite Meteorites for Sale

Location: Roosevelt County, New Mexico, USA, fall centered: 34º10.5'N 103º17.7'W

Fell: 1998 June 13, ~07:30 MDT (~13:30 UT)

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (H6)

Description: After detonations were heard and smoky trails seen in the sky, a shower of meteorites landed near Portales, New Mexico. [More than] 53 objects have been recovered, with a total mass of [more than] 71.4 kg. The largest pieces weighed 16.5 kg, 17.0 kg , and at least nine others over 1 kg. A 530 g fragment went through the roof of Gayle Newberry's barn and embedded itself in a wall, indicating a trajectory west to east. The elliptical strewn field is approximately 7.7 ´ 2 km, trending N60–65ºE, although recent reports may extend this somewhat. Mineralogy (D. A. Kring, J. D. Gleason, and D. H. Hill, UAz): olivine, Fa_19.3±0.4; pyroxene, Fs_17.2±0.3 Wo_1.36±0.27; kamacite contains 0.55 ± 0.03 wt% Co; compositions indicate H-chondrite affinity; olivine indicates shock stage S1, plagioclase indicates S2–S3, and abundant opaque shock veins suggest S3 or higher (discrepancies may be due to annealing). Macroscopic description (D. A. Kring, UAz): Some individuals are crosscut by an unusually high number of metal-rich shock veins, and some specimens are composed dominantly of metal. These metal-rich samples appear to be large single veins, or pockets of metal produced by intersecting veins. Angular chondritic clasts may have moved a few millimeters along metal-rich veins. Etching of centimeter-sized metal areas reveals a fine Widmanstätten pattern, bandwidth = 0.02 to 0.81 mm (average 0.32 mm). The composition of kamacite in metal-rich regions is the same as metal in chondritic areas (0.56 ± 0.05 wt% Co). The source of the metal in the shock veins appears to be the H-chondrite host, which is depleted in its normal complement of metal (4.4% rather than 15–19%). (From the Meteoritical Bulletin No. 83, 1999)

Link to Meteoritical Bulletin Database.


# POR10-4	# POR13-0	# POR16-0	# POR17-2	About Scale: Each photo has a small one centimeter cube. That's a little less than a half inch on a side. The coin above is a US dime.
Weight: 10.4 gm	Weight: 13.0 gm	Weight: 16.0 gm	Weight: 17.2 gm
Features: Part slice, etched iron	Features: Part slice, etched iron	Features: Part slice, etched iron	Features: Part slice, etched iron
Price: sold	Price: sold	Price: sold	Price: sold

# POR20-7

Weight: 20.7 gm

Features: Part slice, etched iron

Price: sold