[meteorite-list] Pallasite story #2

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:42:26 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <695791.43433.qm_at_web33112.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Yes, that is the question, but this desert is very
easy to search, and since virtually all of it was
found on the surface, I am confident that there is not
likely much more. We searched many miles in every
direction. One never knows, but three weeks of 14 hour
days of systematic searching makes me think that there
is not a lot of this meteorite to be found. the fact
that it is more than 10,000 miles away makes it a
little hard to hunt on weekends!
Michael Farmer
PS, the sales webpages will be listed in the next 30
minutes or so.

--- Mike Miller <meteoritefinder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Mike congratulations! Sounds like a very sparse
> strewn field. Do
> you think that is the end of it or did you just look
> at a small burp
> and there is more down range to find? Never can be
> sure with a
> pallasite, it could have come in like Peekskill and
> all you found was
> a small pop or spark that dropped a few fragments.
> There could be a
> lot more down range somewhere. The only problem is
> which way do you
> look?
> Any way congratulations.
>
> On 3/17/07, Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > Sorry for the broken email, I hit the wrong button
> and
> > it sent before spell check and being finished.
> Here is
> > the rest of the story.
> >
> >
> > When I arrived at Robert's location, I could see
> him
> > walking around and small black pallasite pieces
> laying
> > all over the ground. There were 9 pieces on the
> > surface, and several more under the sand. We could
> see
> > the sandblasted metal and large olivine crystals
> > glinting in the bright desert sun. We had a little
> > celebration and set up camp at that spot. About
> four
> > hour later, Robert excitedly yelled into the radio
> > that he found more pieces a quarter mile away. I
> went
> > over there and sure enough, 5 more pieces, laying
> in a
> > line about 0.5 meter long embedded in the sandy
> > surface. We hunted for hours more but found
> nothing
> > else. That night we celebrated with an ice-cold
> bottle
> > of fine champagne that we had bought in Duty Free.
> We
> > forgot the glasses though, and I drank mine from a
> > coffee mug, Robert drank his from an empty noodle
> cup!
> > Even with the uncivilized utensils, that champagne
> was
> > the taste of victory and success. We talked all
> night
> > and found it difficult to sleep, wondering just
> how
> > many kilos of pallasite we would find the next
> day.
> > We were having difficulty deciding how we
> would
> > divide up the small amount of material that Robert
> had
> > found that day (less than 1 kilogram), who would
> get
> > which piece etc, since I had found nothing. The
> next
> > day however, would turn out to be mine. We had to
> go
> > for fuel but returned late in the afternoon, where
> we
> > started searching even before returning to camp. I
> > decided to go check on the camp when to my
> amazement,
> > about 30 meters from my tent, I drove up on a
> patch of
> > pallasite pieces, 8 specimens on the surface
> totalling
> > about 500 grams. We had been sleeping so close to
> > those meteorites. Anyone who knows about hunting
> in
> > the desert knows that lighting is everything. You
> can
> > miss a large meteorite very close to you if you
> are
> > looking into the sun, but put the sun and your
> back
> > and it is hard to miss even a small meteorite in
> the
> > sand. Later that evening, I found two more pieces
> > visually, then after sunset, while gridding, I
> heard a
> > scream on the detector being pulled behind the
> truck.
> > I got out, saw nothing on the ground, and pulled
> out
> > my Goldmaster for a spot check. As I swung the
> coil, I
> > got a large signal so I called Robert over. We dug
> up
> > about a 100 gram pallasite from about 3 cm under
> the
> > soil. I swung again and heard nothing so I packed
> up
> > the detector and continued driving. Robert
> immediately
> > called me back and said that I had not found all
> of
> > the meteorite, in my excitment to hunt I broke the
> > cardinal rule, I did not fully check the hole.
> Robert
> > got multiple meteorite signals only inches from
> where
> > I had found the first one. We dug up more than 10
> > pieces from that little area. Later that night,
> around
> > 10 pm, I got a large signal on the detector, only
> > about 1 meter from a place where Robert had been
> > pivoting the car on for hours during gridding.
> > Unfortunately for him, he kept turning on the same
> > point, rather than expanding out the turn. I cut
> > accross that spot and found one of the most
> beautuful
> > Pallasite pieces I have ever seen, weighong 216
> grams,
> > shaped like a Klingon bird of Prey spaceship, with
> an
> > olivine measuring over 40 mm long! He had missed
> it
> > time and time again by less than three feet.
> > That specimen turned out to be the last one we
> > would find. We gridded for almost two weeks after
> > that, periodicly hunting meteorites elsewhere only
> to
> > return to the pallasite strewnfield. We never
> found
> > another piece, even though there is hardly a speck
> of
> > sand that hadnt been driven over time and time
> again.
> > The meteorites seems to be a very small fall.
> >
> > As you can find on the Meteoritical Bulletin,
> there
> > are just over 50 pallasites known (over 70 listed
> but
> > that includes many paired Antarctica pieces). So
> there
> > are the same amount of pallasites as there are
> Lunar
> > and Martian meteorites. That shows you how rare
> they
> > are, so finding that 180 gram first piece of this
> > pallasite was one of the luckiest days of my life,
> it
> > is a feeling that can't be described.
> >
> > I will work on photos now, so expect to see an
> > expanded page soon.
> > Michael Farmer
> > ______________________________________________
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> > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> >
>
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> >
>
>
> --
> Mike Miller Po Box 314 Gerber Ca 96035
> www.meteoritefinder.com
> 530-384-1598
>
Received on Sat 17 Mar 2007 01:42:26 PM PDT