[meteorite-list] Radioactive Meteorites?

From: John Gwilliam <jkgdiver_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:42:06 2004
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.20010129205313.009749d0_at_pop.primenet.com>

Thomas and List,
Thomas, I'm assuming you're asking about radioactivity from exposure in
space. However, I believe you might find this story humorous if not
interesting.

Last Saturday night in Tucson, I went out to dinner with meteorite hunting
friends John Blennert, from Tucson and Ivan Koutyrev and Vladamir Stepakov
from Russia. Also with us was Jean Afanassieff, a French documentary film
maker and alpine mountain climber.

  During dinner, the subject about possible radioactive Brahin specimens
came up. Evidently, part of the Brahin strew field is within the "hot" zone
at the Chernobyl reactor accident site. Warning markers show where the
boundary of the "hot" zone is. Blennert told me that a few years ago, Ivan
told him a story about hunting near this line of markers while hunting for
pallasites. Certainly those meteorites closer to the actual power plant
melt down would be radioactive. The odd part of this story was not about
meteorite, but rabbits. Ivan claimed to have seen numerous 5 foot tall
rabbits in the same area. While looking across the table at Ivan. I asked
him if these monster rabbits might not have actually been closer to closer
to 2 feet tall. I've seen some pretty big jackrabbits out here in the
Western United states, so I could believe the story if the rabbits were two
feet tall. "No", was Ivan's reply, "five feet". I tried not to laugh
while counting in my head how many beers he had drank up to that
point. Looking back at Ivan, all I saw was more straight face.....
poker-faced straight if you know what I mean.

Now, if you want to here the rest of the story (sorry Mr. Harvey), stop by
Ivan's room (#112) at the Ramada - it's kitty corner to Blaine Reed's
room. I'll be back down in Tucson starting Thursday morning. When you
stop by, spend 30 minutes and watch Jean Afanassieff's film segment about
hunting the Chinga ataxite. Jean's work is outstanding and this is a great
film about Ivan and Vladamir with several scenes of actual meteorite
recoveries. The only problem with the film is that it is in
Russian. There will be a couple of extra chairs available, but bring your
own popcorn.

See you in Tucson,

John Gwilliam

At 10:49 PM 1/29/01 -0400, webbth_at_appstate.edu wrote:

>List members,
>Do any of you know if there are any known meteorites that exhibit
>radioactivity?
>Thanks,
>Thomas
>
>
>
>
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John Gwilliam Meteorites
PO Box 26854
Tempe AZ 85285
http://www.meteoriteimpact.com
Received on Mon 29 Jan 2001 11:50:27 PM PST