Hamilton Texas, Mystery 1965 OC Meteorite, Micromount

$5.00
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This meteorite is somewhat of a mystery in terms of it's find circumstances and provenance. Usually, when I am writing up a description of a meteorite, it's easy to do some web searches to fill in any missing details that I am not familiar with. A query put through the Meteoritical Bulletin database will typically return enough information to point you in the right direction for further research about a given meteorite. If that doesn't work, a search through Grady's Catalog of Meteorites will almost always return some useful nuggets of info. Failing that, a couple of hours spent using a search engine and clicking through academic papers and blogs will shine some light on a mysterious meteorite. It's not very often that I get blanked on finding out the background of a meteorite. This is one of those rare times that I could not find out much useful information about this particular meteorite.

So, what do we know? Well, according to the COM, the Hamilton meteorite was recovered in Hamilton County Texas in 1965. A single mass of 2.7kg was found. Part (or most?) of this mass resided in the famous Huss Collection as late as 1976. It was classified as "stone" and "OC" (ordinary chondrite), which is an unusually broad and vague petrological description. Beyond those basic facts, the information trail dries up. I searched extensively on the web and could not find out any further information or data about this meteorite. I don't know how or when this was deaccessioned out of the Huss Collection and to who. I know I acquired it from an old wholesale source of mine who has a stellar record of solid provenance and reliability, so I trust his labeling and description. He had some small fragments and crumbs and I bought those to acquire this rarely seen locality. I will continue to ask around and try to find out more about the chain of custody of this meteorite and if I find out anything new, I will update this description.

The specimens being offered here are small fragments (crumb micromounts). They are solid, but small. Probably about 10-25mg each. A few are bigger, a few are smaller. I will pick out the largest remaining fragment to make your specimen.

Refer to the photo. The black centimeter cube is shown for scale and is not included. You are purchasing a small fragment like the one shown. Your purchase will include a labeled gemjar for safe storage.

NOTE : this meteorite is not to be confused with the similarly-named "Hamilton (Queensland)" meteorite from Australia. It is also not to be confused with the Carlton iron meteorite which was also recovered from Hamilton County Texas and is sometimes referred to as "Hamilton".