Keck Museum–Moon Rock Exhibit–Begins December 13
University’s Keck Museum to exhibit Nevada’s moon rocks
Public invited to open house/unveiling Dec. 13 in historic Mackay School of Mines building
By Mike Wolterbeek (Nevada Today, November 21, 2013) http://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2013/moon-rocks-at-keck-museum
“The W.M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum is hosting an open house and unveiling of a new exhibit of Nevada’s moon rock collection on Friday, Dec. 13. The museum is located in the Mackay School of Mines building at the north end of the University of Nevada, Reno Quad. The State of Nevada’s official moon rocks, brought back to earth by astronauts in the Apollo moon-landing missions, will be on display at the University of Nevada, Reno’s W. M. Keck Museum. The public is invited to the unveiling of the new exhibit from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 13.
The Keck Museum is in the historic Mackay School of Mines Building at the north end of the Quad. Its new extraterrestrial rock exhibit will include meteorites found in Nevada and tektites, gravel-sized natural glass formed by the impact of large meteorites on Earth’s surface.
“We’re excited to get this exhibit for the public to enjoy,” Garrett Barmore, administrator of the museum, said. “These great specimens, plus a small American flag that was on the moon with them, are a wonderful addition to the Keck Museum. It’s great to be working so closely with the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, which is loaning us the moon rocks for the public display.”
The unveiling will be held in a small public ceremony during the open house. The display is in partnership with the University’s Planetarium, which will be having its own meteorite collection on display at their facility explaining how scientists use the rocks to determine the age of the universe.
The Keck Museum houses an outstanding collection of minerals, ores, fossil specimens and photographs, in addition to mining related relics. The original mining museum opened in 1908. The museum is also home to some of the spectacular Mackay Silver Collection, created by Tiffany & Co., for John Mackay and completed in 1878.”
Meteorites in Nevada–Read More
If you want to read more about meteorites in Nevada, here are a few publications that might interest you:
Nevada Meteorites, by David A. Davis (chapter from Minerals of Nevada, pages 84-90) http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/sales/pbsdtls.php?sku=SP31
Megabreccias and Impact Breccias of East Central Nevada, Charles W. Gillespie and Steve Foster, editors (2004 NPGS Fieldtrip Guidebook NPS19). Five papers and road log focusing on the Alamo impact breccia, Ragged Ridge paleokarst breccia, and subsurface breccias in Railroad Valley. Seven reprints comprising the critical literature concerning the Alamo breccia. 196 p. Available only as a softgood download from Dropbox. Please call 775-682-8766 to order.
A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada and Arizona along U.S. Highway 93, with GPS Coordinates (pages 71-73 on the Alamo impact breccia). Use this guidebook to plan a trip to visit the site of a Devonian meteorite impact that created a crater 27 to 40 miles wide and a tsunami that may have been 1,000 feet high. http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/sales/sp35_cart_details.pdf
Please call to order these two books, or you may pick them up at our office:
Rocks from Space (Second Edition), by O. Richard Norton and Dorothy S. Norton
What’s So Mysterious About Meteorites?, by O. Richard Norton and Dorothy S. Norton
O. Richard Norton is the former director of the Fleischmann Planetarium at the University of Nevada, Reno.