[meteorite-list] Re: hunting

From: Normal user <ceweed_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:43 2004
Message-ID: <000201c0b59d$22b739a0$02000003_at_colinwad>

Hi Kelly
you continue to astound with the info you have .

I met another prospecive " meteorite collector " , Rashid Al Kuwari , hoping
to find some pair samples for my stone ... He had some very nice iron
bearing rocks , one even had a recognisable crust , but sadly nothing that
whispered meteorite . he was qiute amazed to see the cut samples I'd brought
& I left him with my prints from the fine web pages the list members produce
.The photies from the Sahara with the black stone in the desert struck a
chord .
He knows the curator of the Qatar National Museum , so it looks like the
majority of my stone will head there when I have the classification report .
I may even get to see the Nahkla fragment thro air instead of glass .

Took the opportunity to do some desert tracking back from our southern field
sector , heart was skipping a few beats when the Diff lock light wasn't
showing & the sand was getting softer , but once on terra firmer I found the
light to be on but struggling in the arabian sunshine !
After about 20k of rarely tracked desert ? ( green & flowering ) I found a
crescent of hills & low flat basin .Scattered amongst the marl & sand small
iron oxide glass/ amorphous fragments . We have the same near Dukhan ,
larger fragments crystalline ( not quite cubic )
I'm becoming more convinced these are impact related ,( no vulcanism in the
area ) .We have veins of calcite / siderite mixtures which I surpose would
possibly produce iron oxide on melting & glass or xtal depending on the
cooling.
re the time out of water . this site was 15km inland & still had a clam sea
shell on the surface , So the lowlying sectors may not even have been out of
water 8000 years
The average 1 / km^2 would need a clustering factor applied otherwise I'd
be tripping over meteorites .

When it comes to meteorite hunting ,
 I'm not giving the day job up
& I'm practicing the guitar in case that fails

Congratulation to Rhett , the media star, before long there'll be a fee to
be on the list

re meteorite assoc.
seems a good idea but I detect the progress from equals to some more equal
than others , and as MC says the Society does seem to be the one to be with
.
The list itself is a good forum
nuf waffle
allthe best
col
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: "colin wade" <ceweed_at_qatar.net.qa>
Cc: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 8:23 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Re: hunting


> Hi, Colin,
> When I wrote, I hadn't had the chance to check up on Qatar and the
Gulf's
> past, but you're right: it's the Arabian Plate's shallow interior basin,
flooded
> cyclically. That's where all the clay comes from, depositation in shallow
seas
> (also the limestone, shale and sandstone, if you got'em, and that stinky
black
> goo too, which we know you got).
> I could find references to the eastern Arabian peninsula margin being
> flooded from 5 to 2 million years ago, then the current ice ages drew down
> sealevels about 100+ meters below today's levels, uncovering the present
coast,
> but with every big interglacial, the sea level comes back up and floods
again,
> then drops again.
> Also, the plate motion (north with a clockwise twist) tilts your edge
of the
> plate up. The plate boundary's over inland in Iran 100 miles or more, so
the
> Gulf's an interior basin, perfect for clay deposits. A lot of the midwest
of the
> US is the same -- formerly flooded interior basin. You can drill through
700
> meters of clay in some places around here (and sometimes find that stinky
stuff,
> but rarely enough of it). Lovely moasaur and whale fossils in Kansas. We
got no
> camels, though...
> To be on the safe side, I'd guess that during a glaciation Qatar would
have
> been a lot cooler and wetter than today, so perhaps you could only count
on the
> last 8000 years for really good preservation, which time period would have
> accumulated about 1 stone per square kilometer. Of course, at this point,
I'm
> down to eyeballing estimates based on estimates based on... etc. Part of
the
> problem is that conditions would have cycled with the ice ages, see-sawing
back
> and forth.
> As for desert damage to meteorites, I have this little 30 gram Dhofar
020
> from Oman that's a flattened shape. One face is eroded, chewed, crusted
with
> caliche and god knows what else, but flip it over and the rest of the
stone is
> perfect, good as new crust. Partial burial evidently protected it, at
least
> that's how I read it.
> McSween's book (Meteorites and their Parent Planets) has a photo of a
1993
> find in the Jiddat al Harasis plain in Oman which is a limestone white
pebble
> desert. The chondrite is this big black pyramidal stone which sticks out
like a
> sore thumb. I mean, it does everything except get up and wave to be
noticed.
> Yet, within 20 meters, were the recent tracks of nine different motor
vehicles,
> none of whom had noticed the oddity of a big black stone alone in a snow
white
> desert. McSween says "it testifies to the low probability of meteorite
discovery
> by individuals not specifically looking for them."
> Yup, "In Search of Dilmun" is the book I meant, a fascinating story,
even
> though it was written about 50 years ago. A good mystery stays a good
mystery
> until it's solved, and I am a sucker for anything lost, lost cities, lost
> empires, lost meteorites, you name it.
> Good hunting!
>
> Kelly
>
> colin wade wrote:
>
> > HI Kelly
> > I knew I could rely on you to crunch the numbers for me
> > & thanks for raising some interesting points
> >
> > The predictions encourage further searching ,,, the dog runs for cover
now
> > if I reach for the metal detector & GPS !
> >
> > >From what Ive seen , the whole country was sea bed , the hills we have
> > resulting from folds in the sandstone & chalk deposits .
> > There are reported finds of shark teeth & flint arrowheads in the area
(
> > others have shown how easy it is to make a fresh arrow head & scatter
them
> > about ) But if people hunted here , presumably the wildlife would have
had
> > to survive without water tankers , & would require a food chain fron
> > vegeterian to carnivore .
> > The ground is remarkably fertile given a sprinkling of water ,& when wet
the
> > clay content swells & holds the moisture for ages , is the clay a sign
of
> > previous vegetation ?
> > We had one year when the rain persisted so much , the local children
were
> > using inflatable dingies in the middle of the country , at the Shahania
> > camel metropolis .The wild barley fruited twice that year .
> > Since the loss of the vegetation the wind & sandstorms seem to be the
force
> > for geographic change , Ive even found a Rolls Royce with the paint
> > sandblasted off one side ... so the chance of finding a good fusion
crust is
> > probably lottery numbers .
> >
> > The mention of Dilmun brings to mind our only visit to continental
europe ,
> > whilst in spain we met a lovely old lady & forgive me but the name has
gone
> > .... her brother did the illustrations for " in search of dilmun " ,
which i
> > think was Bibby's work .She was quite thrilled that someone had heard of
> > Dilmun , we had stayed at the hotel of the same name whilst in Baharain
&
> > they are keen on unearthing the ancient history .
> >
> > Thanks again for the info
> > I'm off to bed to nurse my second cold of 2001 .( puttin a lump
o'meteorit
> > under the pillow to see if it cures it )
> > all the best
> > col
>
>
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Received on Wed 21 Mar 2001 09:47:15 AM PST