[meteorite-list] Meteorite Hunter Stalks the Otherworldly Rocks (Edwin Thompson)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:29:54 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200612141629.IAA26958_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/116539171763970.xml&co

Meteorite hunter stalks the otherworldly rocks

Called the "Indiana Jones" of dealers, he has been hooked since seeing
his first shooting star

ERIC MORTENSON
The Oregonian
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.
Received on Thu 14 Dec 2006 11:29:54 AM PST