[meteorite-list] Rocks On Your Head (Valera Meteorite)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:48 2004
Message-ID: <200201190111.RAA19443_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4337489,00.html

Rocks on your head

Meteorite collectors are up in arms, and all over a dead cow. Duncan Steel
explains why.

The Guardian (United Kingdom)
January 17, 2002

Each day about 100 tons of cosmic detritus arrives from space. Most burns up
high in the atmosphere. But every so often a rock makes it through.

Asteroid impacts are dangerous because such behemoths hit the ground at
phenomenal speed, releasing a vast amount of energy when they do so: an
explosion that could kill millions, even billions. Just ask the dinosaurs.

Smaller rocks from space are decelerated by the atmosphere and reach the
ground at the same terminal velocity as a heavy object dropped from an
aeroplane. These we call meteorites. And the community of those who collect
and study meteorites has been much perturbed of late by a
particular lump of space rock.

Meteorites could be hazardous, if you were unfortunate enough to be hit.
Only a handful of meteorites reach the ground each day, and human bodies
cover a tiny fraction of the planet's surface. A decade ago, a boy in Uganda
was struck but not badly hurt. In 1954 one punched through the roof of a
house in Alabama and severely bruised a woman's arm. The casualty rate is
low.

There are many records of buildings and cars being struck. This is no bad
thing for the owners: the value of the meteorite may be greater than that of
the damaged car. A car that was damaged by a fall near New York in 1992 was
sold for a considerable sum as a museum exhibit.

Stories of meteorites hitting animals are legion, attaining mythological
status. One story is that a dog was killed by the Nakhla meteorite, which
fell in Egypt in 1911 (and is one of the 16 meteorites known to have come
from Mars). Recent investigations seem to show that the story is apocryphal,
rather than apocalyptic. A meteorite that fell at Ohio in 1860 reportedly
killed a colt or a pony. Again the story has never been validated.

But now a "death by meteorite" rumour has been confirmed, a Venezuelan cow
having been the victim in 1972. The meteorite fell on a farm to the east of
the town of Valera, and in consequence takes that as its name, as is the
norm. It is almost three decades ago but the object has only just been
listed in the Meteoritical Bulletin, the standard publication, because the
eyewitnesses thought little of it at the time. Only through later detective
work were the circumstances pieced together.

On the evening of October 15 that year a bright light was seen in the sky,
and a loud noise heard. The next morning three people found a dead cow, one
of its forequarters crushed by the impact, with three fragments of the
broken meteorite next to it on the ground. These weighed about 50kg
altogether: enough to kill any animal, if dropped from a great height. One
of the three -- a physician -- believed the rock had fallen from the sky and
caused the cow's death. The two smaller fragments were taken indoors, the
larger left outside, the people having no idea of the potential value of
their find. The cow was eaten.

Recently, Dr Ignacio Ferrin, an astronomer at the University of the Andes,
traced the witnesses and the pieces of the meteorite. Bits have been
distributed to professional meteoriticists. Much is now in private hands,
with collectors clamouring for good samples. You could buy a slice
(meteorites are often sawn into thin samples to be displayed), a typical
cost being about £5 per gram. That gives the original 50 kg a value of
£250,000.

The value of the Valera meteorite comes from its new reputation as a
cow-killer, and samples come with a copy of an affidavit vouching for its
validity, signed by the medic involved, Dr Arginiro Gonzales. Some meteorite
enthusiasts observe that Valera's value has been boosted 10-fold by the
connection with the cow, and suggest that a different type of killing might
be being made.

There is another twist. Many meteorite collectors possess samples of a large
fall found in the Atacama Desert in Chile, in 1861. More than 80 fragments
have been identified, many in recent years. These weigh about four tons, so
there has been plenty to go around. These pieces were strewn around a dry
riverbed called Vaca Muerta, giving this meteorite its name.

Vaca Muerta means "dead cow" in Spanish. So the Venezuelan meteorite is
being called Vaca Muerta II by some. The cynics see a more invidious
connection, thinking the name of the famous meteorite from the Atacama may
have provided the inspiration for a bit of money-making further north in
Latin America.

-Duncan Steel teaches space and astronomy subjects at the University of
Salford.]
Received on Fri 18 Jan 2002 08:11:01 PM PST