767 views

Over 15,000 photos and growing!


  12 - June - 2021

This Month       Today's Picture       Select a Month

Submit a Picture

Where is My Picture?!

The Queue


Select by   Contributor

Met Name

Met Type

Thin Sections


Recent Comments

 
2021 Fall Date Project

The MPOD Caretakers want to present meteorite falls on their fall dates. For example, Sikhote Aline on 12 February.

This Project will not dip into the MPOD archives so the Caretakers will appreciate anything you can contribute.

To reserve a date just let us know. Thank you in advance :)

Fall Calendar           Dates reserved so far

 

 
Punggur   contributed by Steve Brittenham, IMCA 2184   MetBul Link


Roll Overs:     #1   #2   #3   #4   #5   #6   #7   #8   #9   #10   #11   #12    


Click the picture to view larger photos

View all entries for   Meteorite (3)   Steve Brittenham (108)


Copyright (c) Steve Brittenham.
59.7 gram slice.   H7-melt breccia

TKW 6.6 kg. Observed fall 28 January 2021, Lampung, Indonesia.



Note from the MPOD Webmaster on 3-D Viewing:
I cannot fuse the stereo-pair images as presented. They are too large for my aged eyeballs to bring together. If you have the same problem, try this:

1) Click on the picture to view the full-resolution photo.

2) Click the 'Smaller' button 10-15 times to shrink the picture to the point where you can fuse the images.

3) Hold the mouse over the 'Bigger' button, fuse the pictures, and click the mouse while keeping the images fused to see how large you can go.

More Info on 3-D Viewing


 


Steve writes:
The Punggur meteorite fell on January 28th, 2021, at 9:53 PM local time, becoming the first witnessed fall of the year. It fell onto the central Lampung area of Sumatra Island, including Astomulyo Village in Indonesia’s Punggur district (hence the name of the meteorite). Residents as far away as North and West Lampung reported hearing a thunderous crash from the sky and seeing a bolide traveling from west to northwest, leaving a dust cloud that persisted for several tens of minutes. The bolide’s detonations were recorded by the Indonesian InaTEWS Tsumami Early Warning System’s southwestern UTSI, KASI, and PSSM sensors (the timing of each sensor’s detection provided the meteor’s northeastern trajectory). Later, five stones ranging from 32 grams to 2.2 kg and totaling 6,559 grams were found spread across an almost 3.5 mile range.

The 32 gram stone bounced off of a roof. A 138 gram stone crashed through another roof and landed on a child’s bed, purportedly tearing a hole in the bedsheet (but fortunately, unlike the Sylacauga meteorite, the bed was uninhabited at the time). A 2.5 kg stone was found in a rice paddy, with a 1.7 kg stone found almost completely submerged in a deep hole in another (the finder of the latter and his wife are Muslims who had always wanted to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca – the subsequent sale of their stone made that journey possible).

But the most interesting story is of the 2.2 kg stone that fell onto the roof of an Astomulyo Village house owned by 60-year-old Mujilah and her 68-year-old husband Muhtajam. Just before the fall, they heard rumbling noises and three loud reports, which Mujilah initially thought was an exploding car tire. A bang followed at the backside of their house, and going outside to investigate, they found a 25 cm long meteorite that had bounced off their roof and partially buried itself next to the kitchen’s outer wall.

The meteorite had fallen on an important date for the local religion, as well as just after Muhtajam had prayed for help with his long fight with kidney disease. Because of the timing, local religious leaders thought it was a supernatural sign and advised Muhtajam to submerge the stone in aquarium water and share the cocktail with friends and family with the expectation that drinking this “cosmic tea” would bring them luck and good health. In the days that followed, he generously put samples in plastic bags and gave them to anyone who wanted to benefit from the purported magical healing powers of the meteoritical concoction.

This gifting continued for several days until a team of atmospheric and planetary sciences researchers from ITERA (Sumatra’s Institute of Technology) visited the site and declared the rocks to be meteorites, thus denying their supernatural powers. They then cut an approximate 400 gram piece off of one end of the stone, which exposed its unique interior and further bolstered their claim it was a meteorite. Then on February 16th, they published an article about it on their website where they proposed the name Astomulyo Meteorite to “perpetuate natural phenomena in the village”. They also stressed the point that townspeople shouldn’t drink water after soaking the meteorite in it, citing several easily-oxidized heavy metal elements they found in the meteorite that can damage body tissue if consumed in sufficient quantities.

In March, Muhtajam’s 2.2 kg stone was sold and exported. Then, after classification at ASU by Dr. Laurence Garvie, the meteorite was registered in the April 23rd, 2021 edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin database as the first ever H7-melt breccia.

The 59.7 gram slice shown in this MPOD came from the 2.5 kg stone. Photo 1 was taken face on and shows its size compared to a 1 cm cube. Photo 2 is of the same face, but at a more glancing angle to better display all of its metal. Photos 3 and 4 show the original polished and rough faces, respectively, under natural light (it has since been polished on both sides).

Obviously Punggur is full of metal (an interesting crystal can be seen in Photo 5’s 3D crossed-eyes image). I received this slice unetched and lightly coated with a clear protectant (Photo 6), but similar to Portales Valley (MPOD 200821 from Tucson Meteorites), it did indeed exhibit crystallization patterns after etching (four examples can be seen in Photo 7, with Photo 8 showing a fifth under two different angles of light; other metal features are illustrated in Photo 9, and Photo 10 shows an interesting metal structure at a silicate boundary). Some of the silicate matrix contains areas with emerald green crystals, as seen in Photo 11 (Photo 12’s) crossed-eyes 3D image shows a nice example on the left, as well as some broken fusion crust at the edge of the slice).
Click to view larger photos

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

Found at the arrow (green or red) on the map below

 


Comment on this MPOD                      
Name
Comment

980 max length

  Please - NO Dealer Ads in the comments
but pictures from dealers are gladly accepted

Tomorrow

Portales Valley
Frank Cressy

This Month

1 picture in the Queue
Murray Paulson
 6/13/2021 11:20:32 PM
Hi Steve: I relax my eyes and look at the left image with my left eye and the right image with my right eye. It sometimes helps to use a post card to isolate the left and right so you can't see the other image with the "wrong" eye. I find it easier to do when I am tired. Nice details in 3D. Thanks for doing it.
John Divelbiss
 6/12/2021 8:09:20 PM
To be clear this specimen looks to be beautifully prepared...which I would expect for this unique Fall. My question/point was in regards to the use of coatings.
Steve Brittenham
 6/12/2021 2:37:46 PM
Murray, a quick thought on 3D. Do you relax your eyes or cross them when viewing the pics? The old SIRDS 3D plots required the former. I could never relax mine enough with them, but I found I could cross my eyes instead and get the effect, only it ended up reversed. So I wonder if someone tries to relax their eyes when viewing my pics whether that will make them appear reversed? (Of course, if you are indeed crossing your eyes to view the images, then my question is moot!)
Steve Brittenham
 6/12/2021 2:32:02 PM
Hi John. Thanks for the comments. I think Anne hit it on the head regarding coatings. While some think it protects the meteorites, if not properly prepared first, it can actually be problematic. I think others do it to give higher contrast and a more polished look, as I find that a lot of stones in particular aren't that shiny, even with a high grit polish. I tend to prefer not to have coatings and remove them -- especially if I'm able to polish out the imperfections that coatings are sometimes used to cover up (that's not a criticism, just a personal preference!). And so far the Punggur has proved to be quite stable, so I'm not worried about having removed the coating.
Steve Brittenham
 6/12/2021 2:25:48 PM
Hi Murray. Thanks for the comments. And the 3D thing is kind of funny. I just went back and looked, and they seem fine to me (and in fact are problematic for me when I reverse them like you did). My wife sees them like I do as well. But a while back, Paul had the same issue with my pairs appearing to be reversed, but I think he said later his wife looked and they worked for her. So I think a lot has to do with the individual. I apologize to those that find them reversed. Maybe I should put both versions up in the future, or just stick with red/cyan anaglyphs? I do think 3D images convey more information, but of course not if some of the folks can't view them properly!
Anne Black
 6/12/2021 2:25:34 PM
John, about coatings, yes I remove them too. Some think it protects iron from rusting, or they like shiny objects. And from past experience I would say that yes, some are there to cover flaws, mostly bad polishing jobs.
John Divelbiss
 6/12/2021 1:17:58 PM
beautiful Punggur specimen Steve. The clear coat is a surprise...is there a concern for protection against serious oxidation? Or maybe oils from fingers? I have removed almost all coatings I've ever received on slices I acquired. A couple are heavily coated and left alone so far. I am not a big proponent of coatings...and I always curious "why" dealers/cutters do it. To protect, to improve look or to cover up flaws?? Maybe all 3.
Murray Paulson
 6/12/2021 11:35:10 AM
Nice images. Quite a desirable meteorite. By the way, your stereo pairs are left right reversed. I copied them and swapped left for right and now they look great. Thanks.
John Lutzon
 6/12/2021 9:16:59 AM
Nice pics and descriptions. Thanks Steve
 

Hosted by
Tucson Meteorites
Server date and time
3/28/2024 6:19:45 AM
Last revised
12/31/23
Terms of Use Unsubscribe