[meteorite-list] Re: Berthoud hunt

From: Mikestockj_at_aol.com <Mikestockj_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 13 09:22:08 2004
Message-ID: <1ea.2ccc4ab9.2e9e85f5_at_aol.com>

Hi All

Photos of the hunt http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteorfinder/album?.dir=/c72b

Just wanted to fill everybody in on how today's hunt went. The obvious first
question to answer is did we find any and the answer is not really. We did
find a couple of fragments of in the pit which of course were turned over to the
land owners.
 
Several of us including COMETS members Fred Hall, Fred Olsen, Larry Sloan and
myself met Jack Murphy and several of his volunteers from the Museum. When we
first arrived we were happy to see Scott Palo an assistant Professor in the
Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who is heading up the investigation
there as well. Also in attendance were the Land Owners John, Megan and their son
Casper Witesis. But of course the most exciting moment is when Scott showed us
the guest of honor.
 
We set up a little viewing area on the picnic table outside their rustic 1910
built house. What a truly gorgeous place to view the meteorite, with the
Rocky Mtns in the background and a truly exceptional fall day in Colorado.
Immediately as Scott removed the meteorite I was glad I had my sunglasses on. The
fusion crust is incredibly shiny. One is struck by its size as compared to its
weight. Looks like it should be 1.5 kg not just 960 grams. I second thought was
it looks just like a Millbillillie or Camel Donga with tan colored clay
instead of the Australian Red clay.
 
While the mass is somewhat irregular in shape there are obvious flow line
easily visible from a distance. It also has a large piece about the size of half
an apple with some of the lightest secondary fusion crust I have ever seen.
Under a hand lens one can see that only the highest points of the fractured
surface were melted. Along this surface a roll over lip was created. This
obviously happened later in flight.
 
Most perplexing to me is the smaller golf ball diameter chip off the
secondary fusion crusted area. This shows no signs of fusion crust but does reveal the
interior. The interior is a light to white colored matrix filled with a
clearer crystalline material.
 
One disappointment is the piece is filled with numerous cracks. If this piece
had hit harder surface it would have fractured into several pieces. The
surface it did hit was quite hard being a horse corral.
 
Megan actually the saw meteorite in flight at about 25 feet before it hit
from a distance of 100 feet. She saw what she described as the ground move in the
middle of the horse pen. All three of the family members were outside at the
time but John and Casper only heard the sound. They went over to find the
meteorite which took about 25 minutes to find and dig out. All that was exposed
was a small piece that I would guess was 25-30 grams. The rest was completely
buried. John looked over at his wife and said it was not a meteorite. She
quickly asked him if he saw any other rock that looked like that. He'll probably
never live that one down. After trying to dig the piece out with their hands
they discovered it would not budge. Both John and Casper ran to get something to
dig it out. Casper quickly found a claw hammer. You might all be cringing
right now but John was going to get the shovel. This of course would have
completely destroyed the crater. In fact the lower half of the crater was completely
in tact to the point that the piece could be easily placed back in the hole
with the correct orientation. Probably the coolest part of the pit is the bottom
as you can see straw imbedded in the bottom.
 
The areas we walked were an adjoining property owned by another land owner.
Please note all of the land is privately owned so permission should be obtained
before hunting. We were quite fortunate to be joined by both John and Casper
at one time or another. In all 12 people joined in the search. One interesting
aspect of the hunt is the almost total absence of rocks. So you don't find
yourself bending over much to pick up rocks. It is also row after row of corn
that has mostly been harvested. So it was quite easy to follow a straight line.
Unfortunately later in the day the stubble for the corn stalks creates some
wicked shadows.
Something else I was struck by was the size of the their property. It is only
1.5 acres while the property around theirs is 300-400 acres and 1000 acres
across the street. I guess you sometimes need to be lucky.
 
As we were talking during the hunt we realized that at 1:33 PM it would be a
week since it fell. In fact Casper noted that 7 days ago it was still in
space. So at the appointed time we stopped to take a photo of our group with the
house in the back ground in order to observe it 7 days of life on the planet
earth.
 
The next major hunt will be on Saturday. CU will have several astronomy
classes out to help search to properties in the area. I'll be there tomorrow. Email
if you are interested in helping with the hunt.
 
Wish us luck.


Mike Jensen IMCA 4264
Bill Jensen IMCA 2359
Jensen Meteorites
16730 E Ada PL
Aurora, CO 80017-3137
303-337-4361
Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 09:21:57 AM PDT