Coaldale Crater Gemstones, Meteorite Impact Produces Rare Specimens Options

[ASTROBLEME]

CP,

Your work efforts on the Gunnison Crater Tektite ^TM all those years ago instilled in me a lot of trust for both your expertise and honesty. You're still the best lapidary artist I've ever dealt with and I respect your ability to craft difficult rock into beautiful gemstones! The extra effort you're taking to preserve material for further study is greatly appreciated. Since there is such a limited amount of the meteorite recovered from the Coaldale Crater structure, keeping as much as possible intact for further study is very valuable.

My family is sure looking forward to seeing the final product from your cutting and design efforts. For my tastes however, the equilateral triangle blanks prepared from meteorite are getting me very excited.

Please accept my sincere thanks for addressing concerns in this project,

ASTROBLEME

[ASTROBLEME]

Here's a link to a news release that explains how the glassy chondules form in some meteorites. I hope this gives everyone a better understanding of the green and blue glassy spheres observed in the Coaldale Meteorite.

Glassy Chondrule News Release

ASTROBLEME

[CP]

Thank you Johnny for the fine compliments! I'm very excited to be working these materials and I'm hopeful they will turn out well too without losing too many more from this point to finishing.

After a final trimming on the saw I was able to recover the inclusion pictured above as well as a few more meteorite pieces and thin slices trimmed off from the saws table. Only 1 of the stones trimmed today ended up culled out ....lost a piece of it's shape/mark where it came apart. Better now than later though, and could probably be remarked/cut for a slightly smaller stone still.

The rest are all looking good so far.....now it's off to the dop stick stage for cabochon shaping and polishing.

Thanks for the link too, very interesting read and does help understand that formation process. There is just so much we are still learning from or about space, and about our galaxies evolution and influences on earth, which many times when something new is learned/proven now forces us to rethink some previously believed theories.

Same thing with the extinct meteorite article you shared with me, very interesting indeed and just so recently released news too. Very cool stuff!

[ASTROBLEME]

Slickensides:

Earlier this year (without revealing the specific crater location at that time) I posted information about slickenside features that I had observed at what is now named Coaldale Crater. There was some interest expressed in slickenside development in impact craters earlier in this thread, so I'm posting the link for those that want further info.

World Record Specimen?

Now I'm wondering if valuable gemstones can be crafted from some of these "world record slickenside" specimens. There must be a way to reveal a hidden beauty that far surpasses the natural stone. If so, perhaps they could be marketed in order to fund further research ....

ASTROBLEME

[CP]

Cutting project progress update.........This week I've finished the "rough" stages having shaped out their intended cut shapes and ground down through step two to remove rougher step one grind marks. For the rough stages only 2 of the tektite samples had to be culled from the lot.

Some pics of the work at this stage both dry and wet to show what "polished" will hopefully look like at the end of the process.

Meteorite cabs roughed into shape, stones dry in pic






Meteorite cabs roughed into shape, stones wet in pic (polished look)







Tektite cabs roughed into shape, stones dry in pic







Tektite cabs roughed into shape, stones wet in pic (polished look)







Next it's off to the prepolish stages for the lot and hopefully they'll all hold together and finish out to polish.

[swizz]

Exceptional work Dan and truly unique and amazing specimens Johnny!
Out of this world!!

[ASTROBLEME]

Dan,

Those specimens are truly becoming gemstones thanks to your expert craftsmanship. Looking great so far...hope they hold together for the final process.

ASTROBLEME

[CP]

Thanks Chris and Johnny , glad they've come out good so far too, and yes hoping they hold together for finishing now! Should have them finished out very soon and I'll post up the finished/polished pieces. Inclusions are popping out to view and are incredible looking in hand too!!

[ASTROBLEME]

Dear CP,

When I read your post that the inclusions were popping out... I freaked out. After having problems with my old worn 10" diamond saw popping out inclusions when I was cutting into the field specimens to determine what they were, I became very concerned about the final product. After re-reading your update, I was so very happy to hear that the inclusions were "visually" popping out. If these specimens hold together through your gemstone creation efforts, we will all see something that (as swizz recognized) is truly out of this world.

Carry on with your steady hand my friend.

Happy Labor Day!

ASTROBLEME

Thanks Chris and Johnny , glad they've come out good so far too, and yes hoping they hold together for finishing now! Should have them finished out very soon and I'll post up the finished/polished pieces. Inclusions are popping out to view and are incredible looking in hand too!!

[CP]

Hey Johnny, whew, glad you got the re-read and didn't wear the floor out worrying today. All is good and they've all made it off the sticks without problems and no ill side effects from the solvent.

Yes I can understand the concern with the chrondites coming out as some did still but there are many left with some dandy "windows" into their layered formation indications or inclusions what have you. Can't wait to see what you find in some of these.....One of the large rectangle cut stones has a larger chrondite (if i'm using the term right), on he back that as great definition of the colors/layers. I'll try to give that back side a semi polish to view that nodule also, looks like an item of interest for study too! Some of the color I've caught in the nodule windows with a 10x loop remind me of peridot or olivine?

I'll get some finished pics taken hopefully tomorrow with a semi polished back of one rectangle too!

I'll be really excited to see and hear about what you find in them under study examinations later!

[ASTROBLEME]

[quote name='CP' date='Sep 5 2016, 08:28 PM' post='43875']
Some of the color I've caught in the nodule windows with a 10x loop remind me of peridot or olivine?

Dear CP,

From your observations, it sounds like you might agree with my opinion that some of the nodules contain an unusually high level of iron...much like terrestrial olivine or peridot. I can't be sure of what we are working with at his time but let me explain my thoughts to others that are following our efforts to this point.

Under magnification, my father's large stone (pictured earlier in this thread) shows a very tiny steak of what looks like rusty iron near the center core. That steak is strong evidence of a unusually high iron content. The impact pressures of in-space collisions, the volumes of material involved and the temperature regimen endured during the formation of the very large meteorite mass while it was still orbiting within our galaxy and solar system controls the final form of the solid body that eventually impacted near Coaldale. The valence of the iron atoms exhibited in my Dad's gemstone as compared to the nodules that we're working up at this point is still in question. Perhaps the inclusions are a chemical match to peridot but I'm thinking that the data will show a closer to resemblance olivine. We should all keep in mind that there are numerous trace elements that have blended together in a manner that isn't seen in common Earth rocks. Lots more money for testing is needed to make a final determination of what the inclusions contain.

Your desire to better understand what we are working on is well understood by me. But for now, I'm satisfied in just knowing that given your expertise, this material can be crafted into beautiful gemstones.

ASTROBLEME

[CP]

Yep Johnny, can't tell in these pics either but there are some that for sure carry that tint/hue in them. That's why I just had to semi polish the larger one on the reverse of one rectangle for study....after blowing it up on the computer I could see several (4 actually) colors/layers and center form/color that's heart shaped even. You can see in the reverse side pic that it also appears there could be small metal flakes spread through out the piece too. All show the same flakes but it's harder to spot them on the rounded side surface, for some reason they appear more readily on a flat cut surface. More for study and proof of origin I'm thinking.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the final determination is after further study/testing is completed soon too, should be very interesting and educational for us all! There all unique with many characteristics to individual stone.

Here's some completed cabochon pics of what made it through finish processes, mother nature wasn't lighting friendly when I took these sorry, little cloudy out.

Meteorite cabochons






and the reverse side inclusion of one larger rectangle cut stone....study interests







the tektite and breccia cabochons.... the one furthest lower right does have an obvious fracture showing but it held together until finished. I did carry a "crown" cut so to speak to full top center on one rectangle tektite cut which almost gives it a faceted look.

[swizz]

Very interesting, I'm following for sure. I enlarged pic 2 and saw the tiny heart in the inclusion you described, very cool. What are the white-ish inclusions on the upper pieces?

[CP]

Another great question for the extended study on these Chris....I'm not sure on those white-ish inclusions you mentioned but there is one with right angles on the same rectangle stone shown in pic 2 reversed. Should be quite interesting finds I believe. Hopefully Johnny has a much better magnification and photography set up than I do too.

[swizz]

...I'm not sure on those white-ish inclusions you mentioned but there is one with right angles on the same rectangle stone shown in pic 2 reversed.

That's what caught my eye and peaked my interest... that shape.