Location: Roosevelt County, New
Mexico, USA, fall centered: 34º10.5'N 103º17.7'W
Fell: 1998 June 13, ~07:30 MDT (~13:30 UT)
Type: Ordinary chondrite (H6)
Description: After detonations
were heard and smoky trails seen in the sky, a shower of
meteorites landed near Portales, New Mexico. 53 objects
have been recovered, with a total mass of 71.4 kg. The
largest pieces weighed 16.5 kg (witnessed to fall by Nelda
Wallace and Fred Stafford), 17.0 kg (found by Elton Brown), 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, Fa19.3±0.4; pyroxene, Fs17.2±0.3
Wo1.36±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%). Specimens: type specimen,
49 g, and thin section, UAz; 16.5 kg mass purchased by consortium
including FMNH, SI, UCLA, and UNM. 17.0 kg mass with
finder; much of remaining material is being sold by commercial
meteorite dealers. (From the Meteoritical
Bulletin No. 83, 1999)
Sold out. Sorry. We are buyers!
Click on the photo to see a larger photo. Grid is in millimeters
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| # POR6-2 | # POR10-9 | # POR11-7 |
| Weight: 6.2 gm | Weight: 10.9 gm | Weight: 11.7 gm |
| Features: Unpolished part slice. | Features: Unpolished part slice. | Features: Unpolished part slice, corner broken. |
| sold | sold | sold |
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