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GAO-GUENIE THE 9TH SPHERE IN MY COLLECTION COMPLETED APRIL 20, 2007 I never really planned to make a sphere from Gao but a trade opportunity presented itself that I couldn't pass it up. Another collector named Wayne Walton was interested in some Seymchan I had for sale. We agreed on a fair trade & he sent me a 400 gram specimen, unfortunately it was too small. After some brief re-negotiations I received a second 500+ gram specimen that looked like it was barely enough material to make a 50mm sphere. It was from the Guenie site, which may have been for the best since I was told those specimens have more iron. Before we finalized the trade I sent the specimen to John at The Rare Earth Trading Company for evaluation. He confirmed that he could get a 50mm sphere so I closed the deal & waited patiently for John to make the it. John notified me via email when the sphere was finished but that it had an issue. I called him to discuss it. He explained it looked amazing but you could feel the metal flecks all over the surface which he thought was bad but I got very excited. This was the 3rd sphere John had worked on for me & he always tells me it's unlike any other material he's worked with, so I kept my expectations in check. When I received the sphere I realized John had not exaggerated, it was amazing. Unlike most materials, he couldn't really get this one to have the mirror like surface because there was so much metal but that is what makes this sphere very interesting. What I thought would be a very bland sphere actually has a very unique sparkle, and a speckled color that isn't common for a Chondrite Sphere. You can actually feel the metal on the surface. Even though this trade didn't go as smooth as expected, I'm very glad it worked out. Wayne Walton was great to work with & an asset to the community. I'm very glad I had the opportunity to meet him via email & I'm very pleased with the sphere our trade produced. |
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Name: Gao-Guenie - This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Observed fall: Yes Year Observed: 1960 Country: Burkina Faso Mass: Unknown Classification: Ordinary chondrite H5 Circumstances of the fall or discovery: With the recent paper by Bourot-Denise et al., the Meteorite Nomenclature Committee has decided that a new, collective name, Gao-Guenie, will be bestowed upon all meteorites formerly identified as either Gao (Upper Volta) (frequently truncated to Gao) or Guenie. It had been reported that two meteorite showers occurred one month apart in 1960 in the country now known as Burkina Faso. But the new work confirms suspicions that the two meteorites are indistinguishable from each other and that there was most likely only one fall (1960 March 5). The confusion about this meteorite has been compounded by the fact that new stones continue to be found ~40 years after the fall and are given arbitrarily one or the other name. Henceforth, the official name for all meteorites from this shower will be Gao-Guenie, with the names Gao (Upper Volta) and Guenie as recognized synonyms. Source: Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 83, MAPS 34, A169-A186 (1999) |
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