[meteorite-list] Re-2: real men & meteorites

From: bernd.pauli at paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: 21 Feb 2007 09:56:01 UT
Message-ID: <DIIE.000000C800001745_at_paulinet.de>

Hello Jos?, Martin, List:


OLD WOMAN METEORITE (Sky & Telescope, Vol. 54-3, Sep 1997, p. 192):

A three-ton meteorite recently discovered in the Old Woman Mountains of California is the
second largest ever found in the United States, outranked only by the 16-ton Willamette,
Oregon, meteorite known since 1902. The Old Woman fall is a mass of nickel-iron weighing
6,080 pounds (2,758 kilograms) and measuring 4-by-3-by-21/2 feet (1.2-by-0.9-by-0.8 meters),
according to newspaper accounts. It fell, presumably several centuries ago, in an inaccessible
desert area 170 miles east of Los Angeles. There it was spotted in March, 1976, by three gold
prospectors. They sent chips to the Griffith Observatory and the University of California at Los
Angeles, where the meteoritic nature of the object was confirmed. Word of the discovery reached
Roy S. Clarke, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The U.S.
Bureau of Land Management determined that the find had been made on federal land, and gave
possession of the meteorite to the Smithsonian. The nickel-iron mass lay wedged among boulders
up a dry wash between two mountain slopes. On June 17th, the meteorite was airlifted from this
spot by U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, which carried it seven miles to the nearest road. Until the
end of June, the Old Woman meteorite was on public display at Riverside, California, and then it
was sent to the Smithsonian Institution for scientific study.

FUTRELL D.S.(1998) My visit with the Old Woman (Meteorite!, Feb 98, Vol. 4-1, pp. 34-35).
NORTON O.R. (1994) The Old Woman Meteorite (Rocks From Space I, 1994, pp.252-255).
NORTON O.R. (1998) The Old Woman Meteorite (Rocks From Space II, 1994, pp.252-255, 214).


Best regards,

Bernd

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Received on Wed 21 Feb 2007 04:56:01 AM PST