[Rockhounds] enstatite (was) Meteor(sic) releases poison gas

[Pmodreski at aol.com]

Elton, Kitty, Lis,
 
I did notice that the fragments the fellow was holding looking white, yes,  
perhaps like that kind of meteorite; or, like some kind of sulfur-encrusted  
volcanic deposit???  (I guess I'm still using "multiple working hypotheses  
about this phenomenon.)
 
It did make me think about how some kinds of carbonaceous chondrites  COULD 
potentially contain a variety of gaseous/volatile hydrocarbons or  
nitrogen/sulfur compounds, that could conceivalbly produce unpleasant or toxic  volatile 
fumes...
 
And Kitty, I'm still puzzling over whether that poem (and I googled it  and 
found it on Richard Dale's website too, but not much of anywhere else) is  
really something in its original version, or is it a mineral collector's  takeoff 
on something "classic"?  Of course, I never heard of R.P. Lister  before, nor 
Richard Dale either (sorry, sir).
 
Ah, the things this List gets in to, and the things we learn from it!
 
Pete M.
 
In a message dated 9/18/2007 6:38:16 PM Mountain Daylight Time,  
kahako at hawaiiantel.net writes:

At 02:22  PM 9/18/2007, Elton wrote:
>Some of the fragments I saw being picked up  in the
>video appeared similar to the meteorite Norton County:
>an  Aubrite, which is almost pure enstatite, MgSiO3.

The following poem  would undoubtedly be posted by Richard Dale if he 
weren't getting ready to  go on vacation tomorrow:
Aloha,Kitty

The Judgement

I dreamed  the judgement came to me by night
They stood around my bed, severe of  mein
And asked one question "what is enstatite?"

"It is an  orthorhombic pyroxene,"
I said, and as I spoke I heard the jangle
Of  planets crashing down the cosmic seas.

I added hastily: "It's cleavage  angle
is eighty-seven (more or less) degrees.
If it were fifty-six, not  eighty-seven

We should, quite clearly, have an amphibole."
At this  they swept me, singing up to heaven,
Where angels' hands received my  battered soul.

R.P. Lister, 1960







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