[meteorite-list] Does world-record meteorite await unearthing in Ka nsas?
From: Steve Schoner <schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Oct 13 23:25:16 2006 Message-ID: <20061013.202428.3639.1024701_at_webmail33.nyc.untd.com> Humm, I wonder if Arnold "re-discovered" my "re-discovered" model T (c. 1909) that I found long after someone buried it untold years ago... I remember diging a hole by hand nearly 7 feet deep. Steve Schoner IMCA #r4470 [meteorite-list] Does world-record meteorite await unearthing in Kansas? Darren Garrison Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:09:47 -0700 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.” ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Fri 13 Oct 2006 11:23:58 PM PDT |
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