[meteorite-list] Sky & Telescope article on Cali, Mike Farmer, and Robert Ward

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:41:23 -0400
Message-ID: <k0g2c35nb27aa7pj2lab4s18a1sjmq1s90_at_4ax.com>

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/9137736.html

Risky Business

Here at Sky & Telescope we get wind of all kinds of reports of meteorite falls.
Few are legitimate. But on July 6th the sky really was falling over South
America, when an incoming object broke apart in the lower atmosphere with a trio
of ferocious explosions that shattered windows and shook the ground violently.
Moments later, stones rained from the sky and pelted homes in the poor barrios
surrounding the notorious city of Cali, Colombia.

Nothing gets the adrenalin of meteorite collectors rushing like a fresh fall,
and it wasn?t long before Michael Farmer and Robert Ward flew south from Tucson,
Arizona, in search of cosmic treasure. After reaching Colombia, they teamed up
with local amateur astronomers and headed into the barrios to try to recover
some of the fragments.
After a few days of searching, they?d rounded up and purchased several small
pieces ? some of which had smashed through the roofs of homes ? totaling about
270 grams (10 ounces).

But not all of their exchanges with the locals were pleasant, as word got out
that some gringos with money were in the area. Farmer explains:

?As we tried to drive through a barrio just near where one of the stones was
found, a man ran at our taxi with a large gun screaming at us to stop. I saw the
people in the front of the taxi duck down and then saw the gunman running at us.
The driver hit the gas and we swerved around him, but the gun was about 1 meter
from my head. He did not fire, thank God, but what a scare!?

Now safely back in Tucson, Farmer estimates that the Cali event must have
dropped fragments far more massive than what he and Ward were able to collect.
Unfortunately, it all ended up in dense cane fields and will never be found. And
although the recovered ?hammer stones? turned out to be a rather common type of
chondritic (rocky) meteorite, they?re already fetching thousands of dollars per
gram among meteoritic aficionados.

To learn more about the prizes and perils of meteorite hunting, check out
Farmer?s account of his adventure.
Received on Tue 14 Aug 2007 01:41:23 AM PDT