Gunnison Crater Tektites, Colorado Options

[CP]

We have a discoverer in our midst folks! With over 2 decades of field experience in prospecting/mining across several different mineral and gem arenas including diamonds, gold, etc. We are all very lucky to not only have his personal participation and knowledge shared here, but we are also able to see first hand what new discoveries can produce!
This is a very rare treat these days in my honest opinion. My grandfather was one of the men who discovered jade in Wyoming (mid 1930's) and I wish very much I would have had known him better and his personal experiences/history of discovery times!

So lets get on with the information (there will be lots)
Johnny (Astrobleme) through many exhausting hours of work I'm sure, discovered an ancient crater formation here in Colorado around Gunnison. Now named the Gunnison crater, and has produced some very interesting tektites. Being part of Johnny's discovery I would imagine they helped prove out his crater theroy. (feel free to correct me if wrong Johnny) Tektite origin itself has been quite a discussion over years past and still is, but they are very very "dry" rocks. The pressure and heat that creates them are mind boggling!

Here is a link to the Gunnison Country Times article / news release.

Recently Johnny was looking for lapidary artists to work some tektites and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to work some into cabochons and jewelry. We are very happy to say that we (Denise and myself) got to be the first lapidary artists to work any of these tektites.
While I was cutting the slices to use for cabochons I noticed there were some metal inclusions which Johnny later examined under magnification and...........well I'll let him tell you about the possible new information found. It's very exciting!

Here are a few pics to go along with this thread which I'm sure will be one to keep up on for the future!
These 2 pics (courtesy of Johnny) show arial views of the crater.





This is a pic of some rough pieces you all may recognize from the "what's this #28" thread.


After getting his cabochons in hand he could examine them a bit more closely and sent us these 2 pics too share with everyone.





All this hypervelocity impact discussion has my mind goin' for sure!!

More pics of the finished pieces made from these to follow.........
CP

[ASTROBLEME]

Hello Everyone:

The New Year is underway and I hope everyone is safe and warm this winter.

I am now finalizing arrangements to have the composition of the metallic fragments that are trapped in the melt matrix determined. The high resolution accuracy of the data needed dictates which laboratory has the equipment and personnel expertise to perform the testing in order to get the job done properly. Please understand that this is a privately funded research effort but once the data is in, I'd be willing to share it with any of you that are interested.

Sincerely,

Johnny F. Tonko
President
Tonko Mining Company, Inc.
http://www.meteoritecrater.com/