[meteorite-list] 8th Aniversary
From: Ed Deckert <edeckert_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:19:28 -0400 Message-ID: <7403331D50204E6495BCCD63220B6FE9_at_MAINPC> Michael, Thank you for sharing this article with us. Would you mind also sharing some more of the details regarding your new book? Can it be read with a Kindle or Nook? Approximate release date? Cost? Inquiring minds will certainly want to know! Best, Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Blood" <mlblood at cox.net> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 9:58 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 8th Aniversary In Memory of what is the most significant hammer fall in written history (With more documented specific items struck than any other) Please see the article below from a few pages of my soon to be released Book well over 300 pages long, in eBook format: METEORITE MARKET TRENDS 1997 through 2010. METEORITE MARKET TRENDS by Michael Blood May 2003 Park Forrest. This L5 Impact Melt Breccia dominated the meteorite market in April 2003. Falling in the late, late evening of March 26th in a the suburb of Chicago known as Park Forest, and extending into a few neighboring areas, this fall generated meteorite madness like no other before it. The list was abuzz with postings by Steve Arnold of Chicago ? with something to sayS. his home town, Chicago, had been pelted with meteorites the night before. And pelted is a good description, as these specimens bashed the hell out of several structures and dug themselves deep into lawns and shattered upon impacting the streets. The word "fall" does not describe the velocity required for the impact force of these meteorites. Within 24 hrs, meteorite dealers had descended in number upon the locale of the fall. Within 2 days the place was crawling with meteorite dealers, collectors, hunters. Now, make no mistake, this meteorite is a significant fall by virtue of its typology, alone, being an impact melt L5! When's the last time you ran into one of those? Does Cat Mountain ring a bell? As if that weren't enough, then try the fact that no other meteorite I am aware of has "hammered" so many man made structures in the last two centuries, including, but not limited to homes, cars, tow trucks, baseball stands and park playground equipment ? and those are just some of the ones verified with affidavits. Now, to top it all off, imagine half the Tucson contingent falling upon this neighborhood and running amok for well over a week, wheeling, dealing and, in some cases, outbidding one another to get their hands on the stuff. As if that weren't enough, the police followed up issuing these comments: Park Forest Police Chief Robert G. Maeyama said Friday. "We're advising people not to be in a big hurry to sell them. Take a step back and consider that these are very special objects, and don't take an offer from people who are trying to buy anything and everything for very little money." (Chicago Tribune, 3-29-03) But, it doesn't end there folksS. then you get local gangs who start ripping off younger kids who have found stones, you get people finding specimens, realizing more is being paid if they hit something, so, they start throwing their finds into their own carsS.. the shenanigans go on almost endlessly. And all this is before we find out it is an impact melt breccia! Can you imagine what would have happened had everyone known of the rarity of typology in the first days after the fall? So, the meteorite market was, understandably DOMINATED in April with sales of Park Forest. And a truly stunning meteorite it is, too. Initial rumors of huge quantities of material soon proved to be wrong (some dealers actually TURNED AWAY finders wanting $1/g the first day if their fragments had "insufficient" fusion crust!). There was, however, enough found that it at least did not turn out to be highly scarce. While I have heard no estimates of total weight, it is at least double digit pounds if not tens of kilos. The unofficial champion hunter, in terms of numbers of finds: Steve Arnold of Arkansas. April saw material being sold in a huge range of prices, from a very few frags going the first week for as little as $17/g to someone in the field paying $60/g! Now, that doesn't even include the hammer stones that nailed man made objects. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on perspective, no cats, dogs, people, horses, cows or hamsters were struck in the fall ? but other targets were nailed mercilessly ? from the yellow line in the road to the Garza "Wrecking Ball" that crashed through the roof and ceiling and tore a young boy's room to shreds. (Rob Elliot got well over a hundred grams of various fragments of this most choice of all stones). The Hupes teamed with Al Lang to purchase the entire ROOM, ceiling, window, etc. from the Garza home and will create a traveling exhibit much like the Peekskill car. Besides the extremes in prices, the majority of material, not counting the hammers, has sold rapidly for between $25 and $45 per gram, depending on multiple factors such as weathering, fusion crust, cut slices vs frags vs whole stones, dealer from whom one purchases, etc. I have heard NO ONE complain about the material they have purchased, regardless of the what price they may have paid or the form of their specimen. Everyone is tickled pink with this fall, which comes in everything from nearly solid black to a light turquoise aquamarine hue to "spider webbed." Personally, I have found myself purchasing several specimens, as one or two just doesn't do this stuff justice, it is so very varied. [I have since acquired 11 different fragments of different specific hammer stones from this fall ? and one termite documented to have been killed by the Garza Home hammer] the One of my favorite is a 99% fusion crusted oriented whole stone under 10 grams that Steve Arnold of Arkansas was kind enough to sell me, then several slices showing varying aspects of this incredible material. I can certainly see why the market was dominated by this fabulous fall. This thing was like Holbrook and Peekskill combined, with the technology of the internet to bring it all into our own homesS. is that cool, or what?! Until next timeS HAPPY HUNTING! Michael 67 ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Sat 26 Mar 2011 10:19:28 PM PDT |
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