[meteorite-list] Re: Berthoud hunt

From: j.divelbiss_at_att.net <j.divelbiss_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Oct 13 13:03:51 2004
Message-ID: <101320041703.16031.416D5FF40006F86700003E9F21602807419C9C070D040A90070BD206_at_att.net>

Mike,

Thanx for sharing your day and good luck with future searches for more of this beauty.

John

-------------- Original message from Mikestockj_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
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Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 01:03:48 PM PDT