Hi Paul & all, I bought a "very nice" piece of this at the Tucson Show in 2002 from Eric Olson. That was the show everyone thought it was the hottest new Pallasite ever. Of course, when I contacted him about it, he gave me a full refund. This is one of the benefits of doing business with dealers who have worked a lifetime building a reputation of fairness and honesty. They would never jeopardize that and respond promptly and fairly. I am sure Eric must have lost a good deal of money, but would never pass that loss on to his customers. Here's to Eric and all the honest dealers in the biz. Best wishes, Michael
on 7/7/04 7:51 PM, Paul H at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Marc D. Fries wrote: > >> I'm rather intrigued with Shirokovsky. > > Yes, I agree, it is an interesting X-File type of > object. I might track down some metallurgists, > whom I know, to see what they have to say. Also, my > Russian wife can translate into and type letters > in Russian on my Russified Mac, if needed. > >> In looking at the pictures, a couple of things >> jump out - first off, most of the pieces are shaped >> like loaves of bread, or like ingots. > > In terms of being "...then sand-cast the resulting > melt into fine sand pre-forms roughly pounded out > to look like meteorites.", they seem to be too > ingot-like to have been made as deliberate fakes > formed to look like meteorites. To me, the ingot-like > forms suggest some sort of industrial by-product, > not something shaped to deceive. My (naive?) > impression is that we are dealing with self-delusion > on a massive scale instead of fraud. > > That the olivines are of a type associated with Ni-Cu > ores and of the approximate age of Ni-Cu ores > associated such deposits suggests to me that whatever > created the Shirokovsky material might have something > to do with the smelting of such ores. The local Ural > olivines are far too old and not associated with > Ni-Cu ores from what I can tell and, thus can't be > their source. If Shirokovsky was made simply as a > fake, > the people involved logically wouldn't have ignored > local olivines,in favor of more distance olivines > associated with the Ni-Cu ores. > > (Also, it doesn't look like it has been underwater > for 44 years. (Of course the water is cold, but > still there should be some obvious corrosion.) > >> Secondly, the comment that the olivines did not >> equilibrate with the metal matrix, but rather >> "cooled quickly in a strongly oxidizing environment" >> is interesting. An oxidizing environment such as >> ...air?? > > This is a devasating argument. Quick cooling > in an oxidizing environment certainly puts the > stake in heart, as if it was needed, of the > meteorite interpretation. > > Also, I get the feeling that the promoters of it make > much of a nonexistent connection between the hole > in the ice and what was found on the bottom of the > reservoir. Given that the fall happened in 1956, how > do they know exactly where to search in 2002 some > 44 years later? Are there any records of someone > determining the location of the hole in 1956 with a > survey before the ice melted? > > It would be interesting to find out what sort > boat and barge traffic uses the Kosva River near > Shirokovsky. If there is any sort of commercial > or industrial traffic, there is almost an > unlimited variety of stuff that could get dumped > into the reservoir. I suspect the promoters of this > material as a meteorite likely don't realize that > all sorts of really weird stuff gets dumped into > reservoirs. > > Yours, > > Paul > Baton Rouge, LA > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. > http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list -- "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." George W. Bush -- "It is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." - Hermann Goering -- When Jesus said "Love your enemies" I think he probably meant don't kill them. Anonymous -- For perspective, try THIS: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html -- cool message fro Ben & Jerry: www.TrueMajority.org/oreo -- AMAZING photos of Aurora Borealis, etc. http://faculty.rmwc.edu/tmichalik/atmosphere.htm -- Hubble space telescope - AMAZING photos!: http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm -- http://www.costofwar.com/ -- SUPPORT OUR TROUPS: http://www.takebackthemedia.com/onearmy.html -- Worth Seeing: Earth at night from satellite: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg -- - Interactive Lady Liberty: http://doody36.home.attbi.com/liberty.htm -- Earth - variety of choices: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html -- Michael Blood Meteorites: http://www.michaelbloodmeteorites.com/ ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list