[meteorite-list] Some thoughts on Larry Atkin's Recent Holbrook Find

From: bernd.pauli at paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: 12 Feb 2007 20:09:50 UT
Message-ID: <DIIE.000000BE000016D0_at_paulinet.de>

Hello Larry, Maria, and List,

First of all, of course, sincere congratulations!

"They came to the Southwest and did an amazing job, finding
 meteorites at Holbrook, Franconia and Gold Basin."

.. which should remind us all of Bob Haag's famous words:

"The key is to get out there and look for them."
"Usually some pieces were missed in the initial search."

But: "I had been within 50 feet of Larry's find many, many
      times and driven by it many more."

.. which shows how difficult it can be, even for experienced
meteorite hunters like Ruben Garcia.

.. which should not discourage anyone willing to search the "strewnfield"
again and again, even though Foote (no, not Gary ;-) remarked in his pre-
liminary note on the Holbrook shower in 1912:

"the field is now pretty well cleaned up."

Hmm! If he had known what he didn't know then, ... he was wrong!

Here is one of the "die-hard" observations from Foote's notes:

"One piece larger than an orange fell into a tree in a yard at Aztec cutting the limb
 off slick and clean and falling to the ground, and when picked up was almost red-hot."

"Von Achen, who saw them fall, reported that they were too hot to pick
 up. Two accounts state that they became lighter in color after cooling."

According to Foote's notes, the ellipsoidal strewnfield extended west->east but one question
has not yet been answered satisfactorily: Were the stones "indiscriminately spread over the
ground", or were they found sorted according to size (and weight)? How do Larry's "find of
a lifetime" and Maria's finds fit into this puzzle?

Happy to own an 8.3-gram individual (label no. 331) purchased
from the Zeitschels in 1987 and a 0.45-gram thin platelet,

Bernd

P.S.: Please, don't forget to include the Branch
      family in your thoughts and your prayers !
Received on Mon 12 Feb 2007 03:09:50 PM PST