[meteorite-list] Meteorite hunter stalks the otherworldly rocks

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:22:01 +1100
Message-ID: <000701c71f72$15197070$0201010a_at_mandin4f89ypwu>

http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_sou
thwest_news/116539171763970.xml&coll=7

Meteorite hunter stalks the otherworldly rocks
Called the "Indiana Jones" of dealers, he has been hooked since seeing his
first shooting star -
Thursday, December 14, 2006

Edwin Thompson knew by age 3 what a shooting star really was and at 16 saw
his first fireball. He was driving home late on a clear January night when
it streaked across his view and disappeared behind a nearby mountain,
lighting up everything in its path.
He pursued it by phone, reaching a director at the Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry and checking with a high school science teacher. Two weeks
later the teacher called back: A dozen other witnesses had reported seeing a
meteorite burn through the atmosphere and crash to Earth.
It was never found, but Thompson was hooked and hooked again. He was already
a rockhound, but his interest turned to the ultimate rocks. At 53, now a
prominent meteorite collector and dealer, his passion for the subject still
lights up every conversation.

"You can hold in your hand," he says with an intense gaze, "a piece of outer
space."
Dipping into storage safes in his Lake Oswego home, he emerges with three
hat-sized rocks that he calls "some of the Holy Grail of meteoritics," the
science of meteors.
One is from Mars, he says, ejected from the surface when something struck
the planet and sent debris skyward. Another probably is a piece from the
asteroid Vesta, a 325-mile-diameter chunk that is a fellow traveler in our
solar system. And the third, he says, might be from Mercury. "Several
million years ago Mercury lost its surface -- it was blown off," Thompson
says.
Rock fragments blasted from collisions in space continuously rain down upon
the Earth. Drawn into our atmosphere, most of them burn up in a streak of
light visible at night and commonly described as a shooting star.
A few are big enough to survive the fiery ride and strike our planet's
surface. Only about 18 meteorites are found each year worldwide. Some of
them are newly fallen, but most have lain where they were found for eons.
Among collectors, they are known as "falls" and "finds," respectively.
Most meteorites are small, but big ones have hit Earth in the past. Meteor
Crater in Arizona is a striking example of the damage an exceedingly large
meteorite can do; the moon's dimpled surface also is evidence of meteorite
strikes. Thompson says large meteorites strike Earth on the average of once
every 5,000 years.
"We are 400 years overdue for a major, crater-creating event," he says.
The world's deserts are the best places to find meteorites, because they are
preserved in arid conditions and are more easily found on barren ground.
Meteorites that fall in Oregon, Thompson says, might disappear into thick
forest vegetation. Iron meteorites landing here rust quickly, making them
indistinguishable from other rocks.
He shows one of his favorites, nicknamed "The Turtle." Found in the Sahara
and purchased by Thompson in Morocco for $4,000, the rock is an unusual
"oriented" meteorite -- meaning it didn't tumble as it fell through the
atmosphere. As a result, the front resembles the nosecone of a space
capsule, rounded and smooth, while the sides and back have gouges where
molten rock streaked away.
Thompson previously was a sheet metal worker and worked in business
management. He took up meteorite collecting and selling 25 years ago,
ditching his day job in 1998 to go full time. The calling has taken him
across the globe, buying from Berbers in North Africa and striking deals in
Argentina, Australia and elsewhere. Thompson says he's been called the
"Indiana Jones" of meteorite dealers because of his adventurous style -- he
says he rode a camel during one North Africa trip.
The world of meteorite collectors has its own arcane value system:
Meteorites that hit something on the ground -- a house, car, mailbox --
become more valuable. Fragments and palm-sized stones that showered the
Chicago suburb of Park Forest in March 2003, in one case crashing through a
house and narrowly missing a sleeping 14-year-old boy, sold for $200 to
$7,500.
"The first meteorite that hits a human is a $1 million rock," Thompson says.
More information about meteorites is readily found with a Google search on
the Internet.
Received on Thu 14 Dec 2006 06:22:01 AM PST