[meteorite-list] Man Claims Rockhaven Meteorite Find

From: Stuart McDaniel <*actionshooting_at_meteoritecentral.com*> Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:37:56 -0500 Message-ID: <84BC5869843C41AC9493278C4F3298EF_at_StuartMcDaniel> · actionshooting_at_meteoritecentral.com

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On 2/25/12, dorifry <dorifry at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> Or maybe it's just Buzzard Coulee:
>
> Phil Whitmer
> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
> -----------------------------------
>
> Man claims meteorite find
>
> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/claims+meteorite+find/6207355/story.html
>
>
> A man claims to have found the first known meteorites from a fireball that
> lit up the sky over Saskatchewan and Alberta Tuesday night.
>
> A posting on Kijiji shows two roundish and blackened rocks a man says he
> found on the side of a highway north of Rockhaven. One of the rocks is
> listed for sale for an unspecified price and the other rock is shown
> suspended by a magnet.
>
> Now geologists and astronomers who study meteorites are trying to get in
> touch with the man in an attempt to verify whether the rocks are connected
> to Tuesday's meteor sighting, which rattled houses as it zoomed over North
> Battleford.
>
> Richard Huziak, a Saskatoon amateur astronomer and member of the Prairie
> Fireball Network, says the rocks in the picture look like chondrites, 
> which
> match meteorites found after the Buzzard Coulee meteor crashed in central
> Saskatchewan in 2008.
>
> Several researchers are trying to get in touch with the man -
> unsuccessfully, so far - in an effort to bring the rocks to the University
> of Saskatchewan for examination and testing.
>
> "Until they're presented, it's hard to know what fall they came from,"
> Huziak said. They may well be meteorites, he said, but ones that fell 
> years
> ago.
>
> U of S geologist Mel Stauffer is also trying to get in touch with the man 
> in
> an effort to check the rocks' authenticity. "The photograph he posted on
> Kijiji looks to be of a meteorite," Stauffer said in an email.
>
> University of Calgary geoscientist Alan Hildebrand, who co-ordinates the
> Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre, said anyone who has found a meteorite
> and wants to sell it would be wise to have experts identify it first. Some
> meteorites are more rare - and therefore far more valuable - than others.
>
> "We have foolproof ways of telling if it's a recent fall or not," 
> Hildebrand
> added.
>
> When contacted by The StarPhoenix, the man behind the Kijiji ad was not
> willing to have his name or photograph in the paper.
>
> Faye Rowat, one of a handful of residents in the tiny settlement of
> Rockhaven, said there have been a few people out searching the area since
> Tuesday's fireball. On Friday morning, she was about to head out with some
> magnets and her two grandsons, the youngest of which was enthused about 
> the
> chance of coming across a space rock.
>
> "It's a free gift from the asteroid belt," Huziak said. "We can build
> spaceships for a hundred million dollars and go out and get pieces. Or 
> they
> can just fall to the Earth and we can pick them up. Each rock tells you a
> bit more about the origin of the solar system and they all date back to 
> the
> age of the formation of the Earth, or even before that."
>
> Both Huziak and Hildebrand said several new videos have surfaced in the 
> past
> couple of days that are allowing them to narrow down the location of the
> so-called "strewn field" where pieces fell, which they say is likely south
> of Rockhaven. The hamlet is about 190 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.
>
> Huziak said several explosions are visible in the video footage, 
> suggesting
> pieces broke off the meteor higher up and may have survived the fall to
> Earth.
>
> Security camera footage from the Corman Air Park shows an intensely bright
> greenish ball that appears for just a second, hurtling towards the ground,
> leaving a brief trail of yellow sparks in its wake.
>
> Hildebrand said he wants to see more footage of that night from different
> locations, including cameras that were pointed at the ground and captured
> flashes of light and objects' shadows. More footage from different angles
> could help them narrow the crash site down to a dozen square kilometres 
> and
> would result in a more fruitful meteorite search, he said.
>
> "We're not there yet."
>
> Would-be rock hunters should also know there's an etiquette to abide by. 
> You
> can legally remove a rock you find on public land, but a meteorite sitting
> in a farmer's field belongs to him and if you remove it without 
> permission,
> you are trespassing, Huziak said.
>
> On Thursday, one aspiring meteorite hunter put out a call on 
> Lloydminster's
> Kijiji page looking for Rockhaven-area landowners' permission to search on
> their property. "Will pay for access & split 50/50," the post says.
>
> Huziak hopes people in the Rockhaven area are keeping an eye out for
> blackened rocks, which should be easily spotted on frozen ponds and 
> against
> the backdrop of snow.
>
> "It's good for everyone to be out looking, because if there's a
> serendipitous discovery, we all benefit from it," he said.
>
> Sadly for meteorite hunters, this weekend's weather outlook is not
> favourable - a storm warning with five to 10 centimetres of snow, wind
> gusting to 70 kilometres an hour and poor visibility is forecast for
> Saturday.
>
> -With files from Lana Haight
>
> jfrench at thestarphoenix.com
>
> ? Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
>
>
> Read more:
> http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/claims+meteorite+find/6207355/story.html#ixzz1nPf7eAQN
>
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