[meteorite-list] First Meteorite Hunt

From: Guenther <abe.guenther_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:11:14 -0500
Message-ID: <01d901cb88d5$eff5b520$cfe11f60$_at_guenther@mnsi.net>

You're welcome Svend,

Those are interesting discoveries you've had also. You must know what you
are looking for in that case! I can't wait to get to know at a glance the
difference between a rock and a meteorite. After this find, I haven't had a
lot of time in the wilderness again but I am sure this will have changed my
attitude forever about what lies on the ground around me.

Abe Guenther

-----Original Message-----
From: Svend Buhl [mailto:info at niger-meteorite-recon.de]
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 11:49 AM
To: Guenther
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] First Meteorite Hunt

Thats a great story Abe, thanks for sharing it with us on the list, much
appreciaeted!

As for the time of the find, yes, they always seem to appear when you least
expect them to. I found as many meteorites while brushing my teeth and
strolling around the camp, when collecting firewood, or when driving to the
next well, as during systematic search. Always keep a watch out!

Best regards from Germany

Svend

www.meteorite-recon.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Guenther" <abe.guenther at mnsi.net>
To: "'tett'" <tett at rogers.com>; <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] First Meteorite Hunt


> Hi Mike,
>
> Thanks. Correction on the weight. It felt like 5 pounds but the actual
> weight is 2 pounds. Sorry I didn't put down the actual weight in my story
> after I got it home and weighed it.
>
> As soon as I get it classified, I will definitely let you know. Phil
> McCausland of the University of Western Ontario has offered to test it. He
> is one of the heads of the Centre for Planetary Science & Exploration
> there.
>
> Abe Guenther
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
> [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of tett
> Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 11:13 PM
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] First Meteorite Hunt
>
> Does look like the real deal. Congratulations!
>
> Most people find small 10 gram to 50 gram pieces. ~5 lbs is amazing.
>
> Please let us know if it gets classified or at least guessed at by an
> expert.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mike Tettenborn
>
>
> On 19/11/2010 6:26 PM, Guenther wrote:
>> Here is a short story about a first time meteorite hunting experience.
>>
>> I live in an area of Canada that has not yielded any meteorites to speak
> of
>> so I knew I needed to look at hotter, dryer areas for the best chance at
>> a
>> successful first trip. I did over a year of research and planning before
>> I
>> finally made my decision where to go. I read countless success stories
>> and
>> watched a lot of meteorite hunting shows and videos on YouTube before
>> narrowing my search. Almost overwhelmed at all the places I could try, a
> few
>> weeks before the much awaited trip I decided on Nevada. Besides the cheap
>> airfare to Vegas, there were lots of success stories near Vegas. I had a
> few
>> places mapped out in Nevada, Arizona and California that I wanted to hunt
>> over the 9 day trip. After finding nothing in 5 days of my lone journey
>> it
>> was time to pick up my son who flew in to join me for the final 4 days.
>> Considering this was his first time too, I am sure he wasn't too
>> confident
>> since his dad hadn't found anything yet. But he and I both knew we were
>> saving the best place for last! This was the part of the trip we were
>> both
>> anticipating because our destination several hours away would be to a dry
>> lake bed that we knew had yielded some meteorites just recently. Since it
>> was supposed to be a secret location, we were confident that if there
>> were
>> still any meteorites left, we would find some.
>>
>> It rained a lot on the way so we were concerned about how bad it might be
> on
>> the lake bed. We arrived at the dry lake area near dark so all we wanted
> to
>> do the first day was figure out how to get to the lake since there were
>> no
>> clear roads to access it. We could hardly wait to get out there the next
>> morning bright and early. We finally made it to the lake bed at about
> 9:00am
>> after a muddy trek and nearly 2 hours travel from the motel. The rain had
>> definitely made it slippery but we were surprises that it wasn't actually
>> too bad on the lake bed itself. The first day didn't yield anything
> special
>> except a really fun time. My son found a complete dried out coyote skull
>> that he kept and an arrow head. We also found a several rocks that drew
> our
>> magnets but they were obviously not meteorites because of deep, sharp
>> cavities and what we would soon discover over the next couple of days,
> this
>> was a common rock in the area. We usually parked and then walked for a
>> few
>> hours at a time and when we started to get tired, we would just drive the
>> truck during our rests. It was during one of these drives that I happen
>> to
>> look to my left and noticed what I thought was another cow patty. I
> stopped
>> and the first thing I did when I got out was kick it. It didn't move. I
>> don't remember what I said but my son knew that I was excited about
>> something. I picked it up and it felt like 5 pounds. It was unusually
> heavy
>> compared to the other rocks. I had no doubt it would draw the magnet but
> it
>> was surprising to see it stick so hard. This was the last hour of the
>> last
>> day of the trip and all we could think is how lucky we had been to find
> our
>> first meteorite and to top it off, one so big!
>>
>> When we got home I still thought that we had been on the right lake bed.
>> I
>> just couldn't wait to tell everyone about our success! I looked up
>> someone
>> who has excellent knowledge of meteorites and emailed him the pictures.
>> He
>> wasn't quite convinced and so he had me take some more pictures. To my
>> delight, he emailed me back a "congratulations". It was only after doing
>> some more research about the lake bed that I realized we were 100 miles
> away
>> from the lake bed we had researched. In a way I am sort of glad we went
>> to
>> the wrong lake bed but I'm happy we didn't know at the time. I don't know
> if
>> we discovered a new meteorite fall but it is fun to think we did.
> Ignorance
>> is bliss.
>>
>> A few pictures: http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM1.jpg,
>> http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM2.jpg, http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM3.jpg,
>> http://aguenthe.mnsi.net/NM4.jpg.
>>
>> Abe Guenther
>>
>>
>>
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Received on Sat 20 Nov 2010 12:11:14 PM PST