Blackhawk Mountain (b)        34°24.8’N, 116°46.4’W 

California, United States

Find: 2016 Jun 18

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L6)

History: While visually searching for meteorites near the toe of the Blackhawk Landslide in Lucerne Valley, Mark Bittmann recovered a 52.4 g fragment of a chondritic stone which had only a slight attraction to a magnet. Found 2.3 miles west of the Bessemer Mine Road on the surface of an alluvial fan, that is mapped as "older alluvium", and not on the more recent, disturbed-surface of the nearby landslide. A conscientious search by a team of recovery experts did not result in any additional finds.

Physical characteristics: The flat, half-dome-shaped, brownish-orange fragment has two surfaces; one is a well-preserved exterior surface, by evidence of having retained the curvature of an outside corner and a relict fusion-crust. The second is a hackly, more recently broken, lighter-colored, brownish-orange surface. The cross-sections of chondrules are readily visible through the relict fusion-crust, but not discernible on the broken/hackly surface. A cut surface reveals a mottled pattern of various sized chondrules (1-3 mm) and metal-grains (up to 1.5 mm) in a yellowish-orange groundmass. Metal-grains (and troilite) have stained the neighboring matrix to a dark-brown color.

Petrography: (D. Sheikh, FSU) Chondrule boundaries blurred (496 μm, N=1). Recrystallized coarse-grained matrix with plagioclase (>60 μm).

Geochemistry: Olivine, Fa_24.0±0.2 (N=25); orthopyroxene, Fs_21.6±0.2Wo_1.7±0.2 (N=25).

Classification: Ordinary Chondrite (L6)

Specimens: 10.6 grams at UCLA; main mass with Verish.