[meteorite-list] Moss meteorite and Norway's "attempt" to claim theft.

From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 09:27:03 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <664273.2012.qm_at_web110210.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

This whole discussion brings back memories of out Moss CO3 hunt and subsequent recovery of the Morten Bilet/Michael Farmer stone, ~900 grams out of 3.6 kilos total recovered.
Many of us meteorite hunters from both USA and European countries, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, UK, Canada etc were all hunting there and in the news. I got a call from the people at the Norway National university in Oslo who curate meteorites. They came on the bus to lecture me about destroying science by collecting meteorites for private purposes. They then said that Norwegian law allowed for any finder to own a metorite, but they did not like that at all. They then promptly ended the meeting saying that they had to catch a bus back to Oslo, despite the fact that the hotel was exactly in the center of the strewnfield. They had no desire to actually search!
Days later, Morten and I found nearly a third of this rare meteorite in a parking lot, many of the pieces already destroyed by cars running over them and heavy equipment smashing them to dust. I have photos of the gray dust marks that days before had been large fragments of the Moss meteorite.
Without us, Moss would consist of barely 1.5 kilogram in the three pieces (toilet hitter, tree cutter, and roof smasher). A later newspaper articles was titled "STOP, Meteorite THIEVES" funny, it is hard to steal what is legal to find and own.



Then we can take Puerto Lapice, our team recovered over 30 stones, nearly 1/3 of the total known weight of that rare Eucrite, and Spain went crazy, calling us thieves although Spain has no law preventing meteorites from leaving Spain. We went 4 MONTHS later, after 99% of the strewnfield had been completely plowed over and destroyed. Had we not done that, those stones would have been lost as well.

Science and private hunters work well together when we try, and trying to block on the other only leads to fewer recoveries and loss of science and material for all.

I think this Canadian fall will go well, I havent read much that shows otherwise.
Michael Farmer
Received on Sun 07 Dec 2008 12:27:03 PM PST