[meteorite-list] Re: Canadian Pallasite?

From: Notkin <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri May 19 19:45:33 2006
Message-ID: <95d9eb079623e1e0a6cbc78c21139fee_at_notkin.net>

Mike B. posted:

> It appears to be a freshly ablated Pallasite, does it not? I could be
> very
> wrong, but would love to know.


Dear Mike and Listees:

Greetings Mike. If that's a meteorite, I will go to church on Sunday :
)

[in other words, highly unlikely]

I always get worried when I read eBay (or other) descriptions where the
seller is listing a "could-be" meteorite and says something along the
lines of: "Geologists . . . Confirm it is a Meteor . . ."

One would hope that most geologists know the difference between a
meteor and a meteorite.

Often when sellers are describing bogus meteorites, they'll say things
like, "A teacher" or "a geologist" at Blah Blah University "confirmed
it was a meteorite" (or "Meteor"), without giving any specifics, either
because such a statement is hard to check up on; was made up; or was
uttered by someone who doesn't know a thing about meteorites. If a
suspected meteorite hasn't been confirmed by a recognized academic or
knowledgeable collector, hunter, or dealer, be wary of buying. There
have been many, many meteorwrongs put up for sale on eBay. As has been
said here before, buy from respected dealers or IMCA members. And . . .
it's good to ask questions, as you did. That's how we learn.

Here's another clue that this whole thing is probably bogus: Seller
states: "owner . . . saw it fall and recovered it from a crater." He
then goes on: "the back has signs of rust." Now, if the finder saw it
fall, wouldn't it have a fresh black fusion crust, and be rust-free?

Also, would something of that modest size (2 lbs) make a crater? Not
likely.

List member Ken Newton maintains a comprehensive list of meteorwrong
links on his site, which I highly recommend. It's educational and damn
funny too (I mean, in the sense that some of the wrongs are howlers):

http://home.earthlink.net/~magellon/webwrongs.html


Also, would like to advise you that our good neighbors in Canada are
very protective of Canadian meteorites, and if the eBay listing *were*
a meteorite, and if you were to win it, you'd almost certainly need an
export permit from the Canadian gov., to get it out of the country. As
some List members have discovered . . . such a task is not easily
accomplished.

That alone is probably enough to prove it's not a meteorite, eh guys?
If it were, I think a Mountie would be on his/her way to shut down the
auction as I type this : )

Can anyone smell Tagish Lake? : )

[BTW, I had an interesting email from a lady Mountie the other day -- I
thought all officers were male, sorry ladies, that was very 1960s of
me].

To the rest of you, I will mention that Mike Bandli and I have had a
very enjoyable correspondence. He has a superb collection of "flown
hardware" (Mike, I hope I'm using the term correctly). This is
human-made hardware that has actually been into space as part of Apollo
rockets, shuttle missions, etc. Mike is a very interesting person, and
I hope we make him welcome on the List.

Have a great weekend!


Yours sincerely,

Geoff N.
www.aerolite.org
Received on Fri 19 May 2006 07:45:29 PM PDT