[meteorite-list] Jim Kriegh's collection in OV

From: mexicodoug at aim.com <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:50:11 -0400
Message-ID: <8CA5800D03A829E-E44-965_at_webmail-da07.sysops.aol.com>

http://www.explorernews.com/article/show/21655

Don't miss Twink's great article about the display of some of Jim
Kriegh's meteorites in Oro Valley! Best,
Doug

Kriegh's rocks from the sky on display in OV
Guest column by Twink Monrad
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By: Special to the Explorer
March 19, 2008
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In 1995 Jim Kriegh, his friend John Blennert, and I belonged to the
Desert Gold Diggers, a local club whose members hunt for gold in
Arizona.

Dr. David Kring, a meteoriticist and planetary scientist from the
University of Arizona, spoke at one of the club?s meetings and
encouraged those who used metal detectors to keep an eye and ear out
for meteorites, generally small nondescript objects that look nothing
like gold. Jim paid good attention, because while searching for gold in
the Santa Rita Mountains he found a rock which turned out to be a
meteorite, later named the Greaterville meteorite.

Jim and John also searched for gold far north of Tucson in the
northwestern corner of the state, the Gold Basin area. While there,
they kept hearing rocks which sounded like gold on their metal
detectors but did not look like gold. Jim took some samples to
Dr.Kring, who identified them as stone meteorites.

I was invited along on the next trip to Gold Basin. We went with our
camping equipment and, most important, a generator and power saw to cut
any likely meteorite specimens that we might find. The first day, John
and Jim came back to camp with numerous rocks while I was still
learning how to use my detector! Several times a day we would bring
back rocks which made noise and were magnetic. Jim sawed them open.
Some were meteorites, and some were not.

As the week progressed, we became more aware of how the meteorites
looked, and soon we did not need to saw them open to identify them. We
took our finds to Dr. Kring at UA. It seemed Jim had discovered a rare
strewn field.

Now our real work began. We prepared an index card for each meteorite
with notes on gram weight, date, location, and whether it was found on
the surface or the depth if buried. We also marked each location on a
topographic map, but it soon became apparent that there would be too
many, so Jim began numbering them as groups. A further request was that
we would tell no one about the find so the university could properly
study the area for two years. Suddenly we three became a team to assist
the University of Arizona.

We found over 2,000 meteorites, and expanded the strewn field
boundaries to five miles by 15 miles. It is not known how large the
field really is. Meteorite composition tests show that these are L4
stone meteorites, which fell approximately 15,000 years ago, near the
end of the Ice Age. We each found a couple of different meteorites in
this field which represented different falls at different times in
addition to the original Gold Basin meteorite.

Searching for meteorites is fun and may also make valuable
contributions to science, as did Jim?s discovery at Gold Basin.
Meteorites and other objects from space have been important throughout
history for those who watched the night sky. We are fortunate that
Jim?s meteorite collection is available for the Oro Valley community to
enjoy.
Received on Wed 19 Mar 2008 01:50:11 PM PDT