[meteorite-list] message from Eddie Garza

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu May 13 14:13:49 2004
Message-ID: <BCC8F9FE.9BBC%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Hi Michael,
This story is good for a laugh, but kind of makes me feel sorry for the guy.
Coincidentally, tuesday when the story came out I was already going to give
a presentation about meteorites to my local Civitan Club. I was going to
contact the reporter or the man who found the meteorwrong and give him a
specimen to encourage him in the right direction. However, today this
article is published and I don't think that would be a good idea anymore.
I'd like to FWD the atricle to the Meteorite-List but Im having trouble with
my POP mail. could you fwd it to the list for me?
Thanks,
-Eddie A. Garza

----
"Man says his meteorite breaks clocks, jiggles
He says attorney told him not to let geologists look at rock
By Matthew Sturdevant Caller-Times Contact Matthew Sturdevant at 886-3778 or
sturdevantm_at_caller.com
May 13, 2004
The Corpus Christi man who said he found a recently fallen meteorite early
Sunday in northern Arizona initially wanted local geologists to check out
his find, but the man later balked when the geologists showed up at his door
Wednesday.
Joe Suarez of 1001 Vaky St. - where a fiery red and yellow sign in the front
yard reads "Home of the Meteorite" - said early Wednesday that he encouraged
anyone to take a look at the oval-shaped, pockmarked rock he found. It is
about the size of a computer monitor and weighs more than 200 pounds.
Two geology professors at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Grady and Kit
Price-Blount, accepted the invitation to look at the rock. But when they
arrived at Suarez's home at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Suarez said his attorney
advised him that he shouldn't let anyone look at the rock without speaking
to the attorney first. He also said he didn't want to contact the attorney.
Suarez, who said he had three doctorates from the University of California
at Los Angeles and an Ivy League school, hopes to sell the rock to a museum,
and said he has had offers from tabloid newspaper for hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
Suarez's tale began about 3 a.m. Sunday as he and his wife, Diane, drove
from California back home to Corpus Christi on Interstate 40 about 100 miles
east of Flagstaff, Ariz. There, he said, they saw a meteor streak through
the sky.
Suarez said he and his wife walked about a half-mile off the side of the
interstate and found the meteor, "glowing orange."
"There was steam coming out of all these holes," Suarez said Monday,
pointing to pockmarks on the exterior of the rock. They put the rock onto a
blanket, hauled it a half-mile to their Chevrolet Cavalier, put it in the
trunk and drove it home, Suarez said.
However, no news of a meteor reached Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.,
a privately owned astronomical research institution founded in 1894 by
Percival Lowell, the man who discovered the planet Pluto.
"If there really was a meteor as big as he says, it would have been
spectacular," said Brian Skiff, a research assistant at Lowell Observatory.
"It would have lit up the sky like daytime. That would have been a big light
in the sky observed by hundreds of people."
Since Suarez brought the rock into his home, he said, strange things have
happened.
"All our watches have gone haywire," he said.
"The clocks in the house either go way far ahead or they stop."
Suarez also said the rock repels magnets and even has jiggled.
Grady and Kit Price-Blount looked at a photo of the rock Monday and Tuesday
and said it appeared to be something that has been on the desert floor for
quite some time.
A white splotch on the bottom of the rock appears to be a coating of calcium
carbonate, which would indicate that the rock has been sitting on the Earth
for a considerable period, according to the Blounts.
Allan Treiman, a scientist who specializes in meteorites at the Lunar and
Planetary Institute in Houston, looked at a photo of the rock Monday and
said he was "100 percent" sure it was lava rock - the same type of rock
people use in barbecues. "
Corpus Christi Caller Times

Received on Thu 13 May 2004 01:10:06 PM PDT