[meteorite-list] Celestial Bounty Comes With Touch Of Star Dust

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:36 2004
Message-ID: <200310301559.HAA06218_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10428413&BRD=517&PAG=461&dept_id=473182&rfi=6

Celestial bounty comes with touch of star dust
KEVIN LEWIS
The Plainview Daily Herald (Texas)
October 29, 2003

It's common to spot farmers, bird hunters and boll weevil counters roaming
the vast West Texas cotton fields.

It's not that common to spot folks like Matt Morgan and Gary Curtiss.

They're real life, bona fide, in-the-flesh meteorite hunters, and they were
in the area this week seeking treasures billions of years old.

"This is sort of a special area because there are so many (meteorites),"
Curtiss said. "This area is just loaded with meteorite finds."

Both residents of Lakewood, Colo., near Denver where they work as geologists
for the state, Morgan and Curtiss spend much of their spare time traveling
the country seeking meteorites, some of which are named for towns in the
area including Plainview, Hale Center and Abernathy.

"Our goal is to recover meteorites," said Morgan, adding that they keep most
of what they find for their collections but "we do sell to collectors and
dealers to cover expenses."

Given a good find, Curtiss said they also "provide information to museums
and research institutes."

Mostly, though, the pair deals with farmers. That's because farmers are
their best source for meteorites.

"Most meteorites around here have been plowed up," said Morgan. "Lots of
them have plow marks on them (because) farmers have been hitting them for
years."

In fact, Morgan and Curtiss - who as part of his job safeguards the
thousands of abandoned mine openings in Colorado - usually start their
searches by seeking out cafes where farmers get together. Someone will know
someone who found something, they say, and before long the meteorite hunters
will have numerous leads.

"Usually what happens is it snowballs. People here are extremely friendly
and love talking to us. They get pretty excited," Curtiss said. "Someone
always remembers when so-and-so found one on the farm."

They also track down leads at newspapers and museums and visit with science
teachers and members of rock and mineral clubs. Plus they distribute flyers
informing anyone with a meteorite that they're in the market to buy.

What they pay depends on the size - they can range from as small as a pea up
to the size of a basketball and larger - quality and uniqueness of the
meteorite.

Curtiss remembers paying $10-$20 a pound when he first began collecting in
the early 1970s. "At the time they were pretty cheap," he said.

Now, many of those same meteorites can go for $100-$150 a pound. That can
turn into serious money considering the size of some pieces, including a
75-pound meteorite which measures around 18-by-18 inches that's owned by a
farmer in Anton and on display at Texas Tech University.

The rarest of meteorites, containing lunar or Mars material, "can go way on
up, almost priceless," Curtiss said.

But those are extremely rare. Most meteorites in this area are known as
ordinary meteorites because they're the most common. That includes the
Plainview meteorite.

"Plainview is a fairly common meteorite still because they found so many of
them," Morgan said, adding that the Plainview shower - believed to have
fallen in the early 1800s - extends through Hale Center all the way to
Cotton Center some 15 miles away.

"They're named after the nearest town or geographical area," Curtiss said,
adding that other meteorites are named after Hale Center, Abernathy,
Dimmitt, Shallowater, Anton and Spade. In all, there are more than 16,000
different classifications of meteorites, they noted. Curtiss owns 200
meteorite samples and Morgan 350.

Many of the ones in this country have been ignored, they said.

"A lot of dealers go over to Africa and other parts of the world. It seems
like the U.S. has kind of been forgotten," Curtiss said. "We want to get the
word out again."

Chances are Morgan and Curtiss won´t get rich recovering meteorites, but
that's not why they're among the approximately 2,000 people worldwide who
collect meteorites.

"I've always liked astronomy, so I love the science," Morgan said. "Finding
them is one of the fun parts. It's an adrenaline kick.

"Plus it's a good escape from your job."

Curtiss said it's also the thought of discovering something "that was
floating around out there. To think you can actually hold something that's
been in the asteroid belt is exciting . . . to think you've got something
from out of this world."

----
www.coloradometeorites.org
(Kevin Lewis can be contacted at 806-296-1360 or
kevin_at_plainviewdailyherald.com).
Think you found a meteorite?
How to know if you've discovered a meteorite:
According to meteorite hunters Matt Morgan and Gary Curtiss of Colorado,
meteorites - which date back to the origination of the solar system 4.6
billion years ago - are usually much heavier than rocks, up to three times
as heavy.
The surface can be blackened due to the extreme heat it encountered entering
the earth's atmosphere. The surface may also be covered in "thumb-prints,"
indentations that form when minerals within the meteoroid melted at
different temperatures. In the later stages of weathering, a rind of
oxidized material can form around the meteorite that looks similar to rust.
Size varies greatly, but most are the size of a baseball or larger, up to a
few feet in diameter.
Inside, most meteorites exhibit small flakes of shiny metal and a gray
matrix. Over time, this metal may oxidize and disappear into the matrix
material which turns tan to brown.
The inside of iron meteorites look completely metallic.
Due to the abundance of metal in most meteorites, they will attract a
magnet, with a few exceptions. This can be a great test to use in the field
as even a kitchen magnet will be attracted to a meteorite.

Received on Thu 30 Oct 2003 10:59:42 AM PST