[meteorite-list] My thoughts on the Arizona Fall

From: Walter Branch <waltbranch_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 19:04:15 -0400
Message-ID: <588B4EE773C04C60A06BAEAA5FE44DA6_at_yourf78bf48ce2>

Hi Jack,

Cool beans! My sincerest congratulations.
Ya'll keep up the great work!

-Walter Branch


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Schrader" <schraderj at rocketmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 5:35 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] My thoughts on the Arizona Fall



Dear list members.

I have today received an email from a person. He sent the message to the
list and not to me personally so you already know who this person is. If he
had sent the message to me personally, I would have treated it with complete
confidentiality. I feel that it is important to share the information I
shared with him with the members of this list. Most of the people on this
list have been involved with the science of meteorites for many years and
have already gained the knowledge and wisdom that can only come from years
of experience. This list has been very fortunate to have been joined by
people who are new to the science and to the wonderful hobby of collecting
meteorites. His email was not sent to be malicious but was sent out of
frustration and out of his enthusiastic desire to be able to look for a new
meteorite and to actually find one for himself.. These people who hold this
intense enthusiasm are the people we need in this science, this
 hobby. This is the dream we all hold dear, to venture out, find and be the
first one to touch a stone that acually fell to earth from space. I have
copied the information I sent to him below. I hope others who are
experiencing similar feelings of frustration at the present time will
benefit from this as well.


Hello. This fall is a very rare, a very important and historic fall for this
state and for the University of Arizona in particular as the site is very
literally in their own back yard. It is vitally important that the area be
protected for only as long as it takes to properly record and document the
fall. I have seen what happens to an area when the location is announced
publicly too early. The area is almost immediately deluged and over run with
not only the true professional meteorite hunters who are actually trying to
do something good and recover the stones properly with GPS coordinates and
photographic evidence of the stones in situ but with every treasure seeker
and rock hunter and curiosity seeker who could care less about the science
but more about simply having something cool to show off to their friends.
This is okay too and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this but right
now is not the time for this. This area is presently
 pristine and kin to a very delicate archaeological site. The archaeologists
need to do the proper work in the area before the "pot
hunters" find it and destroy any information that could otherwise be learned
from the site. My intention is certainly not simply just for the money or
the stones that can be recovered. When you really give this some thought,
you will realize that I did not have to tell a single soul about this. I
discovered this remote area entirely on my own using the knowledge that I
have gained over many years of hunting meteorites. I could have very easily
kept this site to myself and hunted it for months and months. But the path I
chose was simply to do the right thing. I made a proper announcement and I
have begun preparations for conducting a proper search and recording of the
fall site. Please do not worry. You will get your opportunity to hunt the
area. There will be stones in this area to be recovered for years to come
and you will find yours. And they will be free, you will not have to buy
anything. The area as any area where meteorite have
 fallen either in recent or in ancient times is impossible to
hunt out completely. I am just simply asking for a little time that it takes
to be able to properly record this fall site so the information may be
available to the University of Arizona and to any other institutions and
meteoriticists in the world who may have an interest in the work that we
will be doing. It is too important to risk destroying the information at
this point not only for the science that can be gained from the area but for
the generations to come who may have an interest in learning more about the
dynamics of meteors and the variety of strewn field types that they create.
I do appreciate your understanding. My very best wishes, Dr. Jack Schrader





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Received on Sun 05 Jul 2009 07:04:15 PM PDT