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Met Name

Met Type

Thin Sections

  EL3

TKW 525 grams. Fall not observed. Purchased 2022 from a dealer in Riverside, California, who had obtained the material from a Moroccan source.


 

John writes:

Pictures of 525-gram stone and 305-gram end cut after cutting NWA 15359, an EL3 chondrite.

The NWA 15359 meteorite was purchased by me in 2022 from a well-known Ebay dealer as just another typical Type 3 or 4 hopeful NWA buy. The seller took my offer and this 525-gram stone just fell into my hands by sheer luck, like winning a lottery with buying only one ticket. 

My impression was that it might be a H, maybe a type 3 or 4...though the reddish coating was intriguing to me. When I cut this new stone, I soon had a pretty good idea what it might be but had little reference to look at others that looked like it...a possible fresh type EL3 enstatite chondrite. Every other EL3 I could think of was weathered and multi-colored. 

After some research of various sources, I found three fresh EL3's to look at. One was a fresh Almahata Sitta meteorite fall specimen, clast MS-MU-002 a small EL3 stone. Also, in the last couple years two other fresh EL3's (W0 or very fresh) NWA's were classified that includes NWA 12308 and NWA 12821. Now another one, this new NWA 15359 stone. I hope you enjoy and now understand what to look for in a finding a new fresh EL3. Three stones classified in the last few years suggests there may be other stones with sellers or collectors uncut that look like this one does on the outside. The seller stated the stone was from Algeria. Good luck with your/our search for fresh EL3 stones.