[meteorite-list] [Was "Fall", now Underwater meteorite hunting]

From: Jodie Reynolds <spacerocks_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2012 17:51:35 -0800
Message-ID: <1959395578.20121224175135_at_spaceballoon.org>

Hi Cal,

Ever do much SCUBA diving? That'd be.. a challenge, to say the
least.

Maybe the shallow sandy bottoms of the Caribbean if you knew about it
and were there instantly. Probably have to do some drift experiments.

In most open water diving, if you drop your dive knife, it's gone
forever in an instant, buried in the continuous current action. Or
you've got a bottom of nothing but black Basalt.

If it's not very shallow, your "bottom time" is practically nothing
and your decompression stops are going to eat up the rest of your day.
"Bounce diving" is just too risky for any possible return. I guess
technical diving on mixed gas would be about the only way to
practically go about it, and that increases your risks and expense many-fold.
Nitrox could extend your bottom time with less risk and expense, but
you're still looking at long decomp stops and it's still technical
diving, and your working depth is going to be pretty limited (due to
oxygen toxicity and "getting narc'd".

Visibility (outside of the crystal clear waters in the Caribbean or a
few other dream dive spots) is frequently less than the length of
ones arm, and your light struggles to cut through a few more feet.

Maybe dragging a magnet on a sandy bottom? Not sure how much in that
sand is going to be attracted to it, but it seems like the only
reasonable bet, assuming you were on the dive the same day.

Not to be discouraging, but that'd be a pretty significant challenge.

Maybe a RPV with magnetic field sensors and/or some large
drop-and-drag magnet? My gut though is it's going to get hung-up in
the bottom.



--- Jodie




Monday, December 24, 2012, 3:45:36 PM, you wrote:

> Curious about another California Fireball spotted last week...it
> apparently was seen over the western sky, and dropped into the ocean,
> not on land...must have been a minor event, as I cannot pull anything
> up on searches....makes me wonder about anyone ever do the underwater
> meteorite search, since most falls land in our oceans....
> Happy Holidays
> Cal G.
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-- 
Best regards,
 Jodie                            mailto:spacerocks at spaceballoon.org

Received on Mon 24 Dec 2012 08:51:35 PM PST