[meteorite-list] Searching for more of Nakhla

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:09 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E2B9_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Ron wrote:

> I've already pointed out on several occassions on the possibility
> of a large Nakhla strewn field. If a dog was hit in Denshal,
> 33 km from El Nakhla, then that would indicate a large
> strewnfield between the two. As far as I know, Hume nor
> anyone else knowledgable of meteorites have looked for
> meteorites in Denshal or anywhere between El Nakhla and
> Denshal.

So what's stopping you (or anyone else) from doing just that? With
all the time (time=$$$) spent on this subject over the last three
years, you could have flown to Egypt first class and hunted for
a week. Others, including Bob Haag, have tried on more than one
occasion and have come up empty. I don't know if he or anyone else
searched outside of El Nakhla district ... perhaps not.

For those of you who think this area is open desert, it isn't.
The area is in the Nile delta, which means it's fairly heavily
developed. It also means that it gets seasonally flooded --
not a good thing for meteorites, especially Martian ones. After
91 years, I doubt the stones remaining to be found have nice
black crusts, which is going to hamper recognition. Magnets
are useless as a discriminant -- well, actually not useless:
any rocks that ARE magnetic obviously aren't Nakhlites.

A number of today's dealers won't even blink before flying to
Morocco/Algeria to acquire specimens of a newly fallen LL6, so
I find it curious that one or more of them don't follow up on
a much more valuable Martian meteorite -- and a nahklite at
that. Do the Egyptian export rules prohibit foreigners from
removing meteorites from the country? If not, I'll gladly accept
investment capital for an expedition to go over there and try to
extend the strewnfield toward Denshal. ;-) After all, if the
strewnfield ~does~ extend much further to the south, the big
pieces will be found there.

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Fri 09 Aug 2002 03:33:14 PM PDT