[meteorite-list] Mother Earth News meteorite article

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Jul 16 16:36:07 2005
Message-ID: <ptrid1hi45v9e22782rn1534pkc3rpovba_at_4ax.com>

With three photos and an oddly large number of ellipsises (of course I'm too mature to make a joke
about Mother Earth and her periods...)

http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1978_May_June/Let_the_Stars_Fall_into_Your_Pocket

Issue # 51 - May/June 1978

LET THE STARS FALL . . .
INTO YOUR POCKET

CHARLES WEBB

They're lured from their orbits in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars by the gravitational
pull of the Sun . . . and some of them are then attracted to the earth.

When they arrive at night, their descent into our planet's atmosphere is marked by bright streaks of
light . . . sometimes white and sometimes a . . . variety of other colors which?usually?end in red
(the changes are a direct indication of temperature and velocity). Daytime arrivals are traced by
what appear to be trails of smoke or dust.

These displays of aerial "fireworks" and "skywriting" are frequently accompanied by thunder-like
rumbles and/or an explosion . . . occasionally a buzzing, hissing, or crackling noise . . . and,
once in a while, seemingly no sound at all.

Some of these meteorites or meteors or meteoroids?colloquially called "falling stars"?burn up in our
atmosphere and never reach the earth at all. Many others (thousands annually!) . . . do . . . make
it all the way to the planet's surface, however . . . . . . . . . and that fact should be of more
than passing interest to you. Why? Because a number of individuals and institutions are eager to . .
. buy . . . these "rocks that fall from the sky". You'll never get rich catering to the market, of
course, but you can pick up some extra bucks collecting meteorites. Besides, this is one "fun"
treasure hunt that . . . everybody . . . can get in on!

METEORITES COME IN
. . . THREE MAJOR CLASSES

All told, there are approximately 80 known varieties of meteorites, and they're generally lumped
into three categories: stony, iron, and stony-iron.

The most common of the three are the stony meteors, which?as the name implies?are composed either
entirely or mainly of stony minerals. The average stony also contains between five and 15 percent
nickel-iron, and some go as high as 25 percent.

Iron meteoroids?the second most common type of "falling star"?are almost 100 percent nickel-iron.
And the rarest meteorites of all?the stony-irons-are about 50/50 nickel-iron and stony material.

HOW TO IDENTIFY . . . A METEORITE


Almost all freshly fallen meteoroids are covered by a thin black or dark gray (or, in the case of an
iron, slightly bluish) crust. If the meteor is left in the soil several years, this crust can change
to a rusty-brown color. (The change, which starts at the surface, sometimes penetrates the whole
meteorite.)

Stony meteoroids generally lack sharp edges or corners and tend to be angular or rounded (but not
completely round) in shape. Irons and stony-irons, on the other hand, are usually irregularly round
and have thumbprint-like impressions on them.

All three classes of meteors (except for some rare stonier that contain no nickel-iron) are
generally attracted by a magnet. Most of the time, too, a stony will be about 1-1/2 times?and an
iron approximately 3 times?heavier than ordinary earth rocks of the same size.

You can inspect the inside of a suspected meteorite by grinding away a small corner (don't hammer or
try to break the rock because, if it is a meteor, that will lessen its value). The interior of a
stony usually contains irregular specks of metal. The inside of an iron looks like a bright piece of
steel. And the internal structure of a stony-iron is almost always a network of nickel-iron with
meshes of olivine crystals (a yellowish or greenish mineral) or grains of nickel-iron in a stony
matrix.

And leave "no stone unturned" in your search! Meteorites vary in size from a fraction of an inch
across (weighing less than an ounce) to several feet in diameter (with a weight of over 100,000
pounds).

LOOK TO THE SKIES,
. . . EARTH MAN!


Most "falling stars" are witnessed in the afternoon. Some scientists state that this results from a
combination of the rotation of the planet upon its axis plus the earth's revolution around the sun.
Others claim that it's simply because more people are outdoors at that time of day. Most falls occur
during the Northern Hemisphere's late spring and summer months.

If you see a meteor fall nearby, you can sometimes get an approximate idea of how far away it has
landed by counting the seconds from the time it vanishes behind trees, etc., to the time you hear it
explode or impact on the ground. Each second represents about 1,000 feet.

To further track down a "falling star" that you or someone else has sighted, contact people who
reside in the direction that the meteor was seen to go. Question each witness you find. Did he or
she hear any unusual sound either during and/or after sighting the meteorite? Where was it in
relation to local landmarks when it disappeared? How far away did it appear to be? How fast was it
moving? Use every scrap of information you can get to zero in on the spot where the meteoroid
impacted .

. . . OR JUST LOOK
ON THE GROUND!

Then again, nothing says that you have to wait until you or someone you know actually sees a falling
meteor before you can go out looking for one. Meteorites have been hitting the earth continually for
billions of years and a thorough search of almost any large area of land will probably turn up one
or more of the "outer space" rocks.

Finding a meteoroid "cold" is, perhaps, not as difficult as you may have supposed either. Although
over 90 percent of the meteors that land on earth are stony (and tend to blend in with native
rocks), most that you'll spot will be iron. And those irons will "jump out at you" because their
nickel-iron content?which resists weathering?is usually conspicuously different from ordinary rocks.

Since they sometimes fragment into a thousand or more pieces, the best place to find meteorites is
where they've been found before. Deserts, prairies, dry lake and riverbeds, and other arid and
semi-arid regions have all proven to be good places to look.

Areas with soft ground, swamps, grasslands, marshes, and anywhere the climate is humid a great part
of the time are less likely hunting grounds. Not because meteors don't land in such regions . . .
but because the moisture in those areas speeds up a meteorite's decomposition, and makes it harder
to identify.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?


While a "find" (a meteoroid that no one saw fall) isn't generally worth as much as a "fall" (a
meteorite that was seen streaking toward earth), the going rate for even an extremely weathered
specimen starts at five to ten dollars a pound.

If you believe you've found a meteor, send either it or a sample section of the rock (depending on
the size of your find) to one of the following:

Mr. Glenn I. Huss, Director
American Meteorite
Laboratory . . .
. . . Box 2098
Denver, Colo. 80201 . . .


Dr. Carleton B. Moore,
Director
. . . Center for Meteorite Studies
Arizona State University . . .
. . . Tempe, Ariz. 85281

Division of Meteorites . . .
National Museum of Natural History . . .
Smithsonian Institution . . .
Washington, D.C. 20560 . . .


Professor John Wasson . . .
. . . Institute of Geophysics
University of California at . . . Los Angeles
Los Angeles, Calif. 90024 . . .


Any of the above gentlemen can tell you whether or not your find is really a meteor (there is no
charge for this verification, but?if you want your sample back?you should enclose return postage
when you mail it in). If the rock is a meteoroid, don't worry . . . you'll receive an offer for it.

IN SHORT . . .

While I seriously doubt you'll ever find your fortune searching for this "treasure from the skies",
it is exciting to note that a single good find can put several hundred dollars in your pocket.
Still, the potential dollar value of any meteorite you might stumble across is incidental . . .
incidental, that is, to any outdoorsman or -woman who never has enough good excuses to go wandering
about the countryside!
 
Received on Sat 16 Jul 2005 04:40:21 PM PDT