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DRONINO THE 8TH SPHERE OF MY COLLECTION COMPLETED APRIL 17TH, 2007 Of all the available ataxites I selected Dronino because of it's unique sulfide and schreibershite inclusions. Searching eBay lead me to a seller named Olga. She gave me a really good deal on a 1338 gram cube shaped piece. It was just barely large enough to produce a 50mm sphere but my machinist had no problem milling it into a rough sphere. Once I had it back in the shop I polished it to a mirror like finish. I wasn't really all that impressed. I decided to etch it, even though ataxites don't exhibit any type of Widmanstatten pattern. The etch looked better then I expected, the sphere has an overall holographic look associated with etch iron meteorites. The satin sheen of the surface makes the sulfide inclusions stand out. Some the these inclusions have schreibershite in them which retained their mirror like shine through the etching process. If I had left it polished I would not have noticed this detail so I am glad I decided to etch it.
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Name: Dronino - This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Observed fall: No Year found: 2000 Country: Russia Mass: 40kg Classification: Iron-ung / Ataxite Circumstances of the fall or discovery: A 40 kg iron was found by Oleg Gus’kov, Moscow resident, as he was returning home from collecting mushrooms near the village of Dronino in the Ryazan district. In early 2003, it was taken to Vernad, and identified as meteoritic. In summer 2003, scientific expeditions and meteorite hunters collected more than 600 fragments (the largest is 250 kg) totaling about 3 000 kg and occurring at a depth of 0.2-2 m across an area of 0.5x1.5 km. The distribution of the fragments suggests that the meteorite formed a now-buried crater about 30 m in diameter. This crater is not reflected in the present-day topography of the site. No historical records exist of a meteorite fall, thus it appears likely that the meteorite fell earlier than the 12th century when the area was largely unpopulated. Source: Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 88, MAPS 39, A215-A272 (2004) |
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