Maroc Meteoritics Home page | Independent Meteoritic & Planetary Science Research Group Focused on A

Time 2020-11-10 12:03:44

Web Name: Maroc Meteoritics Home page | Independent Meteoritic & Planetary Science Research Group Focused on A

WebSite: http://www.marocmeteoritics.com

ID:111181

Keywords:

Independent,Meteoritic,Planetary,

Description:

Focus - Agoudal Shatter Cones MeteoritesMaroc Meteoritics is an independent meteoritic and planetary science research group working to better understand the hypervelocity impact that created the shatter cones of Agoudal, and its eroded impact structure. We are also investigating the lakes, Isli and Tislit, as possible impact structures. Agoudal and the lakes are in the Imilchil area of the High Atlas mountains in Morocco. There is a widely held belief in the meteoritic community that the 'Agoudal' iron IIAB hexahedrite meteorite is associated with at least one of these structures, typically the lakes. At present, while the circumstancial eveidence for a relationship with the Agoudal crater may be strong, we know of no peer reviewed publication describing a scientifically defensible conclusion of such a relationship. This by no means implies there is none, it simply represents a more accurate description of the current state of investigations into the Agoudal meteorites, the Agoudal shatter cones, and the Agoudal impact structure. At present our primary role is in the collection and documentation of shatter cones, meteorites and other impactites in and around the structures. Education Public OutreachWe find we spend a great deal of our time educating local hunters and dealers on the importance of documenting finds with GPS coordinates and insitu photos. At the moment, GPS is generally deemed irrelevant and too expensive, even as many of these same 'poor' hunters are often self equiped with expensive and sophisticated metal detectors. This is clearly a job for a new meme...we frame it as such: GPS makes your finds worth more money and gets you foreign partners to help sell your finds on the international market . We would prefer to frame it as a 'science first' meme, however it is a reality here in Morocco that most local meteorite hunters are motivated purely by profit.Maroc Meteoritics will be seeding this new meme with a 'hardware carrierwave' by handing out inexpensive GPS units to known hunters with previous success. We will be training them in their use, and offering a higher price for material if it comes with coordinates and insitu photos.Our Story Team Meteoritics and Planetary Science fills a spectrum from basic fieldwork here on Earth, to deployment of humankind's most advanced and sophisticated analytical equipment throughout our Solar System and beyond. Maroc Meteoritics evolved naturally from a deep love of these areas of study, meteorites of all types, and science in general.Early on, Dustin Dickens, Mounir Khaziba, Kathryn O'Flynn, Ivan Sanchez, and Sandra Aguayo, combined their time, budgets, and respective skill-sets to form a business dedicated to the collection / aquisition, analysis, classification, naming and eventual sale of NWA and Moroccan meteorites. At the time our primary goal was to profit while saving as many meteorites as possible with genuine Moroccan provenance, from undue NWA naming status. Oliver, Mounir, Dustin shores of Isli | Photo by: Sandra Aguayo Mounir Khaziba Agoudal Strewn Field | Photo by: Dustin Dickens Maroc Meteoritics' Agoudal Team Chilling | Photo by: Mounir Khaziba This quickly led us to the recently, but already discovered / named, 'Agoudal' meteorite and its strewn field. As fortune would have it, Imilchil is just up the canyon from our home and field headquarters in Ait' Youb. Its proximity being highly serindipitous, and the mystery of the impact crater(s) too enticing to resist, the Agoudal questions captured and held our attention. Our intense curiosity when presented with the Agoudal questions quickly solidified into a commitment to help uncover the secrets of the shatter cones, the crater and the Agoudal iron meteorite. We are now devoted to the longterm scientific study of the Agoudal crater, its impactites and the Agoudal meteorites. Much of our work involves walking the areas of interest looking for examples of breccias, glass, shatter cones, obvious radial fractures and other impactite witnesses. An impact mentor of ours in the US recently clued us into also looking for possible iron spheriods which may have condensed shortly after impact and fallen to the ground to become part of the local regolith. Expeditions We look forward to mounting an expedition in 2014 dedicated to locating Agoudal sphereoids, if they exist. There is no guarantee they are out there, but we will never know if we don't look. Maroc Meteoritics and our local field team regularly search the known Agoudal strewn field using varied techniques, including deep seeking metal detectors. We have documented and recovered many new Agoudal meteorites of all shapes and sizes, as well as shatter cones, and several types of breccias. Dustin with the Pulse Star Pro II - Photo by: Mounir Khaziba Maroc Meteoritics has recently mounted its own local expeditions outside of the Imilchil area in efforts to identify existing but previously undiscovered meteorites and their strewn fields. We are always looking to head-off unnecessary NWA designation for meteorites with a genuine Moroccan provenance. Not an easy task, but we feel it's well worth the effort.New Maroc Meteoritics' Morocco FindsFinally in late 2013 our efforts were rewarded with a new chondrite, with a strewn field near our Morocco headquarters in Ait' Youb. Hard won relationships with local meteorite hunters allowed Dustin, his six year old son Oliver and Mounir to visit the find site where they found and documented multiple pieces with GPS coordinates and in-situ photos. A total of 418g has been recovered to date. Preliminary analysis points to a low metal 'L chondrite' classification for the new meteorite. We hope to have a defensible analysis soon and have it ready for writeup and submission to Nom Com in early 2014. We will be requesting the name Amellago , as it is the nearest town to the strewn field. We will update this entry as we learn more. New chondrite found by our team near Amellago - Photo by: Dustin Dickens Analysis Updates December 1st update - we currently have 4 samples out to Dr. Mikhail Nazarov head of the Laboratory of Meteoritics Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry in Moscow, Russia. December 15th update - We have feedback on two of the four. One turned out to be terrestrial oolitic limonite, which Dustin was certain was meteoritic...live and learn! The other was unknown to Dr. Nazarov and had neither terrestrial nor meteoritic analogues and is thought to be industrial in origin. Initial field analysis had it as a possible lunar. Meteorwrong thought to be of industrial origin - 6% K2O, 43% FeO, SiO2 33%, it also contains Magnetite and K-rich Feldspar. It has a glassy porous matrix. Photo by: Dustin Dickens We are never surprised at just how far off our initial expectations can be sometimes...this is why we always send samples to labs who's meteoriticists have extensive experience with typical and atypical meteoritic specimens, not to mention top quality prep and analysis equipment. December 16th update - We have a large new iron and are very excited to be working with Dr. John Wasson of UCLA on analysis in the coming months. New iron meteorite found near Amellago - Photo by: Dustin Dickens Meteorites For Sale Maroc Meteoritics self funds its Agoudal research by acquiring desireable suspected unclassified NWA and Moroccan meteorites, analyzing classifying them, facilitating defensible writeups, submitting to Nom Com and finally reselling those we decide not to keep for our collection. Science is always first with us. Whenever possible, we donate larger than required masses to the institutes / labs we work with. We currently only sell to a select group of Institutes, Dealers and Collectors. We do not sell direct to the public at this time. Location Spotted From: Town of Ait' Youb, Morocco Date / Time: Sunday, December 1st Approx. 2:00 AM (local Morocco time)Angle of Fall: Steep, at approx. 20 degrees off vertical Spotter: Sandra Aguayo, George the Tractor Driver, and many hundreds of others in the area. Suspected Fall Location: Tafflat Maroc Meteoritics | Independent Meteoritc Planetary Science Research Group | TEL: 212 (0) 676 419 942 Reach Out To Us - impact@marocmeteoritics.com | Maroc Meteoritics of Ait' Youb, Amellago 52272 Morocco

TAGS:Independent Meteoritic Planetary 

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