[meteorite-list] Does world-record meteorite await unearthing inKansas?

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Oct 13 13:21:11 2006
Message-ID: <002601c6eeeb$f7091290$e57e4b44_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, All,

> If the object Arnold found is a meteorite,
> it could be twice as big as the Hoba meteorite

    If an iron (like Hoba) and twice as big (in all
dimensions), it would weigh 518 tons. You could
find that by the gravity anomaly!
    Seriously, that's awfully hefty for a meteorite
main mass, even a clump of fragments. A pallasite
that size would weigh 200 tons or more, still
pretty unlikely.
    Of course, you could have a meteoroid mass
of thousands of tons, but it's the problem of getting
that much mass to the ground in one piece that's
the hang-up.
    The only study I know of the problem of how
big a single meteorite could be says 100 tons for
an iron and 40 tons for a stone is roughly the limit
you could expect to find in one piece.
    Since it's obviously impossible, there's a chance
it will happen! (If you don't think God has a sense
of humor, take a good look at a penguin.)
    I look forward to the discovery of a 216,000
pound pallasite. The market will be in ruin! I expect
the sale of artistic coffee tables made from slabs
of pallasite and pallasite poker chips (to go with
today's meteorite guitar picks).


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darren Garrison" <cynapse_at_charter.net>
To: <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Does world-record meteorite await unearthing
inKansas?


http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15745494.htm

Posted on Fri, Oct. 13, 2006



Does world-record meteorite await unearthing in Kansas?
Scientists and the man who detected a large object beneath a wheat field may
know today.
By KEVIN MURPHY
The Kansas City Star

Something big is buried beneath a south-central Kansas wheat field,
according to
Steve Arnold's metal detector.

But could it be a meteorite, likely the largest ever found on Earth? Or
could it
be something as mundane as an old tractor?

Meteorite hunter Arnold and some scientists may know the answer today as
they
use special equipment to make images of the object, which Arnold's metal
detector measured at 12 feet by 18 feet and perhaps 7 feet below ground.

"I usually try to set my expectations a little low and be pleasantly
surprised,"
Arnold, a Wichita native, said in a phone interview Thursday from the farm
near
Greensburg.

Arnold has created a lot of interest in his discovery. Scientists from The
Houston Museum of Natural Science and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
are
in Kansas to look at the object using a ground-penetrating radar device.

Carolyn Sumners, director of astronomy at the museum, said no one has tried
to
hype the potentially large meteorite. Only a few news outlets have been
notified.

"We don't want another Capone's vault," Sumners said, referring to the 1986
buildup to the live television opening of gangster Al Capone's vault. Only
dirt
and some empty liquor bottles were discovered.

Sumners wants to do a film for the museum on the recovery of a meteorite and
then put the rock on display.

Even if the large object is not a meteorite, several much smaller but
potentially significant meteorites could be on the site, according to
Arnold's
metal detector.

Arnold made big news last fall when on the same farm he uncovered a
1,400-pound
pallasite meteorite, the largest of its type ever found. It had a rare
bullet-like shape and smooth surface, and was made of nickel and olivine
crystals.

The size of that one was not close to the world-record Hoba meteorite, which
is
about 9 feet by 9 feet and weighs 66 tons. Found in 1920, it is in Namibia.

If the object Arnold found is a meteorite, it could be twice as big as the
Hoba
meteorite, said Phil Mani, Arnold's partner and lawyer, who will be at the
farm
site this weekend.

Mani said 99 of 100 objects the metal detector picks up are "meteor-wrongs,"
but
he was still hopeful the Kansas one was a meteorite because of its size. If
it
is detected as an apparent meteorite, a hole will be dug Monday so that part
of
it can be uncovered and viewed.

That, Mani said, would be "the eureka moment."

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Received on Fri 13 Oct 2006 01:21:04 PM PDT