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

From: DNAndrews <dna1_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:55:38 -0700
Message-ID: <45D0F06A.3070008_at_cableone.net>

Hola Johnny Q,
You may be right, but as large as that piece was, it might have taken a
couple of years or so for it to be washed or eroded out. But you are
right, it was found near the top of a mound....just slightly down from
the top. Even one fragment was found under a cow pie. ;-)

The miniscule 69 gms. I found that day (largest fragment 43 gms...one of
my better days), just didn't seem worth fussing over after Larry's
whopper "Holy Grail" find. ;-)

Congrats to Larry....don't know how you did it, but you did it.

Dave


JKGwilliam wrote:

>Bernd, Larry, Maria and List,
>Here's some more "food for thought" concerning the Holbrook strewnfield.
>
>One of my best friends, Dave Andrews, lives in Holbrook and has hunted the
>strewnfield hundreds of times. He was Larry and Maria when Larry made his
>find of a lifetime. Dave and I talked on the phone while the three of them
>were still out in the field, and Dave told me it was found in an area that
>many of us had been over dozens of times.
>
>How could that be?
>
>Over the years, Dave has noted that wind and water erosion probably come
>into play. After a good wind or rain storm, artifacts ( indian pottery
>shards) and meteorites become exposed. They seem to "appear" in places
>where they weren't just days before. In actuality, they were there all
>along but were hidden below a thin layer of sand. Anyone who has ever
>hunter there has noticed that there are small "hillocks" of sand mounded up
>around the bases of some of the indigenous shrubs. My guess is that once
>these shrubs die and are blown away by the winds (which can last for days
>and reach speeds of 50 MPH and more) the sand moves on without the shrubs
>there to hold it in place.
>
>Several years ago, Dave, John Blennert and I were hunting in
>Holbrook. While walking along with Dave, he bent over and picked up a
>small complete stone of about 2 grams. It was perched atop a small column
>of soil very much like a golf ball sitting on a tee. The soil (mostly
>sand) around it had blown away leaving the small stone nearly half an inch
>above the surrounding soil.
>
>Best,
>
>John Gwilliam
>At 01:09 PM 2/12/2007, bernd.pauli at paulinet.de wrote:
>
>
>>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 !
>>
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>>
>>
>
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>
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Received on Mon 12 Feb 2007 05:55:38 PM PST