[meteorite-list] Hunters?

From: Michel <Michel_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:40 2004
Message-ID: <00ae01c319f1$01db0710$2101a8c0_at_nomedrlg3eut06>

Hi Robert, Hi list

I agree with your position, Robert.

In my opinion the real hunt is when you are the first human to grab from the
ground a new meteorite. ( a meteorite never identified by any human before
as a cosmic gift)

    - You can either track a ( new of course ) fall on clues given by
watchers. I recovered the Oued al Hadjar 1986 fall in 1998.

    - You can either prospect a favourablea area. Gold Basin , Dar Al Gani,
HaH , others . In these you may find meteorite that are paired with already
known ( and published ) meteorites. But you can also find new ones. I found
the first CM2 and the first CR2 of DaG, among others.

For me the noblest hunt is the fall hunting. I only found one of that kind.
Please note that in the Oued El hadjar case, I was guided on the landing
field by autochtones but I was the one we found the first fragment and
showed it to the people around. After that in a couple of hours we recovered
1200 g of it.

I think that people going on already known strewn fields are also hunters.
It 's easier, you can buy from a reknown dealer a specimen to adapt your eye
to what you will hunt, which is not at all the case for new meteorites YOU
discover.

Last point: I also think that the most difficult thing to do is to find a
( new of course ) favourable strewn field. In the last years I can list:
Acfer,and some other algerian related fields, (far from the "famous" border
with Morocco where few really know what is going on,), Gold Basin, DaG HaH,
Oman. Do I miss major ones ( except Antarctica ) . The community should
reward this ( these ?) anonymous finder who disclosed these fields. ;-).

Are there more fields like that ?

Best regards.

Michel FRANCO
Caillou Noir
100 chemin des Campènes
74400 Chamonix France
http://www.caillou-noir.com
+ 33 450 53 17 57
+ 33 671 626 928

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com>
To: "'Michael Farmer'" <farmerm_at_concentric.net>;
<meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 6:47 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Hunters?


> Hi Mike,
>
> > I have to disagree Robert, I have been hunting in Burkina Faso, Lesotho,
> > Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Portugal and many other places, and I
> > have found many.
>
> I probably should have been more clear in my definition, or at
> least made a distinction between "cued" hunting and blind hunting.
> There is a subtle difference between hunting the strewnfields of
> new falls -- Thuathe (Lesotho), Bilanga (Burkino Faso), Ourique
> (Portugal), and most recently Park Forest, and older strewnfields
> (Holbrook, Correo, Imilac, Allende, Gold Basin, etc.), versus
> striking out into open desert (or wherever) and making a new
> discovery.
>
> I think of strewnfield-hunting as retrieval, in the sense that
> no strewnfield is ever completely hunted out, and consequently
> the hunter has a psychological advantage knowing that he or
> she is not wasting their time in a possibly fruitless area.
> Sooner or later, finds will be made. This is especially true
> of a new fall.
>
> That is not to say that hunting strewnfields, new or old, is
> an easy task. Aside from the expense and travel to far-flung
> corners of the world, you can't just show up and expect to
> find meteorites with no difficulty. It is a skill that is
> acquired, as I'm sure you will attest from your own experiences
> around the world.
>
> But making new finds (or being the first to discover a meteorite
> from a new fall -- e.g. Neuschwanstein) requires another notch
> of commitment and a completely new set of skills. You don't
> know what your quarry looks like, and you don't know where,
> when or even if you will find it. About all you DO know is
> *how* you'll go about it.
>
> I see in the latest Meteoritical Bulletin that a new meteorite
> find is credited to you: Pitino (H5) from Argentina. So if I'm
> reading the Table 1 correctly, then you *are* a meteorite hunter
> in the purest sense of the term, and I stand corrected.
>
> Congrats!
> Rob
>
>
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Received on Wed 14 May 2003 04:15:39 AM PDT