[meteorite-list] Spanish Meteorite

From: Herd, Richard <herd_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:33 2004
Message-ID: <3E3C279AF3F9D411BAA00002A529150E5016DF_at_s0-ott-x10.nrn.nrcan.gc.ca>

Dear List:

As many out there in list-land know, this fall referred to by Walter =
Branch
was in June, 1994. A car (BMW) was struck by a rock and the driver =
slightly
injured. I have the original newspaper article in Spanish. =
Subsequently
there was a report in Sky & Telescope. Somewhere it was reported that =
50
kilograms were recovered from near where the object hit the car. The =
object
said to be a meteorite looked remarkably un-meteorite-like in the
accompanying S&T photo. In Tucson the following February I asked some
contacts about the "fall" and was told rumour had it, it was not a
meteorite.

I have heard that since 1994, researchers have been trying to prove =
that the
material was meteoritic, but cannot. Very sophisticated chemical and
isotopic analyses have been performed in labs around the world at the
request of the Spanish researchers. This would appear to be a situation
where something was mistakenly identified as a meteorite, and turned =
out not
to be.

If this is so, those making the initial identification and basking in a =
lot
of publicity, are unwilling to say they were wrong. Not admitting you =
are
wrong can cause a lot of trouble, as those of us who are getting on in =
life
realize. It should be a requirement of scientists that they admit it =
when
they are wrong, but alas...so don't believe everything you read in =
books, or
newspapers, either!

I am familiar with this supposed fall near Madrid, because it happened =
just
after the real fall of the St-Robert meteorite, on June 14, 1994, east =
of
Montr=E9al. Two falls and recoveries in a month seemed extraordinary. =
Was
Earth being targeted? How come 50 kilos were recovered right away!? =
Etc.

Remember to say Happy 8th Birthday (arrival on Earth day) to St-Robert
tomorrow.

RKH
_____________________________________________________

Dr. Richard K. Herd,
Curator / Conservateur,
National Collections / Collections nationales,
Geological Survey of Canada / Commission g=E9ologique du Canada,
Natural Resources Canada/Ressources naturelles Canada,
601 Booth Street / 601, rue Booth,
Ottawa K1A 0E8
Received on Thu 13 Jun 2002 01:19:47 PM PDT