Meteorite hunting

[Bobbylikesgold]

Just wonder how many prospectors know or hunt these valuable rocks .

Best part about meteorites is they can be found anywhere , less vegetation is easier hence deserts are best .

Joke is that certain countries have bans on collecting & exporting them , But until they go through the long proses of classification they can't be called a meteorite .
Therefore because of these stupid laws a re birthing industry properly exists .

 

[steve herschbach]

Joke is that certain countries have bans on collecting & exporting them , But until they go through the long proses of classification they can't be called a meteorite .
Therefore because of these stupid laws a re birthing industry properly exists .

A favorite subject of mine. Unfortunately the news is not all that good. On private property the meteorite belongs to the property owner. Most states interpret finds on state land as belonging to the state. And the Feds are tightening up due to recent publicity. http://www.blm.gov/or/programs/minerals/noncollectables.php

Had a friend just make what might be a significant find this summer while nugget detecting.

Steve Herschbach

 

[deliveryboy]

I am fascinated by them as well and apparently AZ is a great spot to find them. I find it absurd the "government" has so much power over the people who supposedly elect them into office.

 

[tvanwho]

A meteorite doesn't have to be magnetic does it? I found a rock in a farm field shaped like an Apollo space capsule with a paper thick black crust.
The farmers plow knocked off a piece was how I saw the paper thin black layer.Inside it is dull gray with sparkles like a stony meteorite.
Unfortunately, my magnets will not stick to the rock.
Glad I picked it up tho as there is now a parking lot there.
I had what I thought was a meterorite one time before.Even the geology dept at a college nearby told me it was.
Wrong !! It was a piece of magnetite!! I had metal detected the heavy black rock near a patented gold mine near Payson,Az.I was told the dead giveaway was the red spots from hematite.
Meteorites don't have red spots like that. A magnet will stick like glue to magnetite.
I bought a few meteorites off Ebay for samples.My best piece is from Arizona, an iron, that is paper thin at the edges and bulbous at the thick part,looks sorta like a comet in shape.
I got a 1 gram piece of a stony meteorite that landed a few towns away from Chicago in 2003.It looks a lot like the Apollo shaped rock, dull gray inside with sparkles , and the paper thin black crust BUT, a magnet will stick to this one.

-Tom V.

 

[steve herschbach]

No, meteorites do not have to be magnetic.

How To Identify a Meteorite

http://epswww.unm.edu/iom/ident/index.html

Steve Herschbach

 

[fredm]

While it is true that metorites donot have to be magnetic...all of the common types are to some degree. Most geologists have little working knowledge of meteorites. Iron meteorites are among the least common but are most
commonly found and suspected of being extraterrestrial by casual finders...ebay and ilk are full of suspect offerings, so, buyer beware.

I all the years I have detected I have found many meteorite wrongs, some Gold basins and Franconias and most of the tkw from SBW fall...but only one bonifide wild meteorite...it does not happen all that often.

fred

 

[steve herschbach]

Since most meteorites are tested with a magnet, and anything not magnetic ignored, more likely found meteorites are statistically skewed towards those that are magnetic. Just my opinion.

Steve Herschbach

 

[tvanwho]

Who can I turn to ? Hmm, last time I had this issue, I did post an online photo, and somebody told me it was NOT a real rock from space based on the red spots on the rock.
Both my digital cameras were trashed this summer when I sat down in the river to cool off and fergot I had em in my pockets and on 2 different ocasions, so much for senior moments!!
I think I might have a GE 15x digital camera someplace.I will look and see if can get it working and take some pics to post here.
I've got home made sluice box pics to take too.

-Tom V.

 

[steve herschbach]

Well, Like Fred pointed out, non-magnetic meteorites are very rare, so the odds are against you. Photos on websites will get you nothing but opinions. If you want to know for sure you need to put it in the hands of someone who knows. Maybe these folks can point you in the right direction - http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/

Steve Herschbach

 

[fredm]

Tom; it is easy to get opinions, much more difficult to obtain facts. As Steve mentioned non-magnetic material is usually discarded as terrestrial...but Mars and Lunar meteorites could fall in that catagory...Books by O Richard NOrton such as Rocks from Space, The Field Guide to Meteorites and several others will help you learn...as will the various websites. There are meteorite Forums not on Finders that help loads. The best thing is go to Outings where other, more experienced hunters are gathered...You can go to a special event bya clooege or museum and show you stone. You can also send it or better still a piece of it to a credible lab and have it tested...
Since this mainly a prospecting forum I will mention that any one spending time detecting should have a minimal knowledge of space rocks; and will usually have a pile of meteor wrongs....
If you have any questions you can send me a private message...I don't know much but will certainly help you if I can...

fred

 

[tvanwho]

Yes, I have this book already, Heck, there was a chance to do some map dowsing for a lost meteorite field in the book related to the 550 pound Anvil Meteorite from Tucson, Arizona found around 1850 I think it was..
I think I have the strewn field located, not saying where of course. The clincher was the name of a ranch I found in the area I marked. I did a websearch and I found 2 notes . One was a pioneer account of a girl who spent the night at the ranch and remembered hearing the sound of stones hitting the roof during a storm one night. Of course, my ears perked right up when I read this account !!! I have not been to the spot yet. Maybe in another year or two and I would defintely want another party with me for security.
Maybe I could con Steve into going when its too cold to metal detect in Alaska? My folks live in Phoenix, so I'd have a good excuse to go see them too.And there is a Pay to Mine site just north of Phoenix, 200 bucks a week with room and board on a 160 acre gold claim., near the old mining town of Cleator, Az.
And, If I REALLY wanted to get off my lazy butt, I could call the train station and see about a trip to the Field Museum in Chicago, 40 miles east of me. Supposedly, the museum has a collection of 1400 meteorites !!! Hmm, I bet Steve and Fred might want to go there to visit too?

-Tom V.

 

[tvanwho]

http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/department/geology/meteorites/history

Check it out.

-T

 

[Robert2300]

Now you all got me wondering if those pesky rocks I toss aside
were meteorites! DANG.
Robt2300

 

[fredm]

Tom...there are several museums I wuold love to vist but I don't get more east than Missouri, and not often there. The Tempe Univerisity has some meteorites on display..not nearly all that they have...

Robt...Prospectors using detectors at Gold basin, Az threw many, many meteorites aside until a more curious person paid attention to what he had found...the Gold Basin Strewn Field has yielded many stones to determined hunters...

maybe, Steve found one when he went there???

fred

 

[steve herschbach]

Hey Fred,

Actually thought I did! But upon recently digging my 30X binocular microscope out of storage and looking at it decided to toss it. I have to admit I m pretty certain that somewhere in my first twenty years of nugget detecting I must have passed on a meteorite or two.

Steve Herschbach

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I have found meteorites in Gold Basin that people had thrown away and they had ended up laying on the brush. With a gold bug 2 and a super magnet, you can't miss.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

I had the great pleasure of meeting O. Richard and his wife Dorothy in Tucson 1985 and on numerous occasions after, due to his fascination with fossils. He was a wonderful man who did a lot to promote interest in all of the sciences. A friend still owns the White's detector that Richard used in his book.

The geology museum I worked at has a large collection and gave me access and let me borrow samples. I did a lot of bench tests back in 2003 and made a website about how detectors react to meteorites of various common types. The machines used are all dated now, but the observations are still valid and some might surprise you. http://www.whiteriverprep.com/meteor/meteor.html

-Ed

 

[fredm]

Hey ED...thanks for the link. I will give that site a good read...I thank you in advance for whatever new things your works gives me.

fred

 

[parrott]

your posts, Guru John B, James Williams (Nevada), Reg Sniff, Jim Straight and many others. This
was a happy time... a friendly group and no sour notes, camaraderie and great "learning."

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Hi Jim,

Yup, great memories and exciting times for me! I preserved it all for posterity pretty much as it was back then. The web has a habit of dropping some excellent content when forums crash and change, so long ago I got permission from everyone to use their posts on my site. It was pretty popular until it happened to me, too. AOL suddenly dropped all website hosting for folks like me. All the search links to my meteorite website went belly up, and there were a lot of them! Even before the AOL axe fell, I rehosted the content on my whiteriverprep.com site, but it never quite regained the same level of interest.

Just the same, I've kept it all on-line, and I hope it still provides some useful info. I haven't done any new tests since then, but I guess I could if I got the urge sometime. I even have a possible new find to get some samples tested. Too many other "irons" in the fire right now, lol!

Glad you enjoyed revisiting our old posts, Jim, and thanks for being a part of it!
-Ed