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

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 18:40:49 +0100
Message-ID: <007e01c95892$f21ebce0$177f2a59_at_name86d88d87e2>

Hmja, possibly a deficiency of their university schooling.
Half a lesson in the series of lectures or the workshop in meteoritics about
the history of this subject,
And then they would have known, that it always was so the last 300 years,
that there were the farmers and the Farmers picking up the stones to sell or
to donate them to the scientists and the collectors.

In my opinion also in natural science a short glimpse onto the cultural
context is important.

Martin
 

-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von Michael
Farmer
Gesendet: Sonntag, 7. Dezember 2008 18:27
An: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com; Martin Altmann
Betreff: [meteorite-list] Moss meteorite and Norway's "attempt" to
claimtheft.

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



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Received on Sun 07 Dec 2008 12:40:49 PM PST