[meteorite-list] Oum Rokba

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:30:04 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1343784604.90367.YahooMailClassic_at_web39305.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

A question to anyone who has hunted meteorites in Morocco:

Other than a Berber tribesman, has any meteorite dealer/hunter ever found an Oum Rokba stone, I mean, really picked-up from the ground in the actual strewn-field one of the "several hundred" distinctive-looking, chondritic stones that were originally recovered 12 years ago?

I wrote an article back in Dec. 2008 about the Oum Rokba (H5) meteorites, and I repeated the oft-quoted story about "stones being found by a Berber native a few kilometers from an Oasis named Oum Rokba." Since then, I've been asked by several people if I had any direct evidence of that recovery and of its location, in order to make that statement.

The actual phrase that I remember being asked was, "Don't you think that it is strange that a strewn-field the size of Oum Rokba (many hundreds of stones), that it's actual location wouldn't be better known? Even a couple square kilometers around the Oum Rokba "oasis" isn't that large that it would forever hide that large of a strewn-field, and by now, someone else must have discovered it's location."

Those questions posed to me were implying that, given the benefit any "name" would give to the marketing of a meteorite, it should be considered as too convenient, and that in order to accept the location of this strewn-field it would require corroborating evidence from an independent source/hunter. Also, that this notion would probably be met with resistance, because preserving the mythology would be considered more important than confirming the topography.

Personally, all I need is to have just one guy stand-up and say, "Yeah, I found one of those stones there."

Bob V.
Received on Tue 31 Jul 2012 09:30:04 PM PDT