Meteorites that do not look much like meteorites
I have perused the Meteorite Picture of the Day website to find photos that show the exterior of real stony meteorites but have sought meteorites that, as pictured, violate many of the recognition principles that I emphasize on this website.
Gold Basin – L4 ordinary chondrite (Arizona, USA)
Only a small patch of fusion crust remains.
Bjurböle (1) Bjurböle (2) – L/LL4 chondrite (Finland)
No fusion crust.
Knyahinya – L/LL5 chondrite (Ukraine)
Fusion crust is not obvious but a sawn face shows metal grains.
Wellman – H ordinary chondrite (Texas, USA)
Fusion crust is not self-evidently a meteorite fusion crust in the photo.
Dalgety Downs – L4 chondrite (Australia)
Heavily weathered exterior.
Tulia (b) – L6 ordinary chondrite (Texas, USA)
Heavily weathered exterior.
Thuathe – H4/5 ordinary chondrite (Lesotho)
Observed fall (45 kg) with fusion crust, but the surface is not smooth.
Tatahouine (1) Tataouine (2) Tataouine (3) – diogenite (Tunisia)
An observed fall (12 kg), but the fusion crust is not self-evidently a meteorite fusion crust. The surface is rough. The meteoroid broke into hundreds of pieces low in Earth’s atmosphere where the meteoroid‘s velocity was too low to create enough heat to cause substantial melting of the surface. Because diogenites consist mainly of the mineral orthopyroxene with a bit of olivine and plagioclase, they resemble terrestrial rocks known as orthopyroxenites. Only about 0.8% of stony meteorites are diogenites.
Erg Chech 002 – ungrouped achondrite (Algeria, desert)
This a good example of a meteorite from Northwest Africa that has lost its fusion crust completely, probably by wind erosion.
Erg Check 008 – CR2 chondrite (Algeria, desert)
Another meteorite from Northwest Africa that has lost its fusion crust completely from wind erosion.
Loulan Yizhi 034 – Ureilite (China, desert)
Little or no fusion crust. Fusion crusts on achondrites are not as dark as those on chondrites.
Baqiangzi – Enstatite chondrite (China, desert)
Atypical fusion crust.
Clarendon (c) – L4 ordinary chondrite (Texas, USA)
Another weathered meteorite missing some fusion crust but regmaglypts remain.
Golden Gate Mountain – H4 ordinary chondrite (Arizona, USA)
This heavily weathered stone would have been easy to overlook.
Northwest Africa 14019 – Lunar feldspathic breccia (northwestern Africa)
I love lunar meteorites, but the exterior of this rock is just plain ugly. I think, but do not know for certain, that the shiny coating is not a fusion crust but a desert varnish. The MetBull description does not say.
Northwest Africa 15237 – Enstatite achondrite (northwestern Africa)
It is a breccia and there is some fusion crust remaining.
Northwest Africa 14918 – H7 ordinary chondrite (northwestern Africa)
Exterior not smooth.