How many times have you wished that you could find a way to make a little money from your 4-wheeling weekend, dirt bike, metal detector, or just walking' across one of California's desolate dry lakes? Well, if you're observant, persistent and a little bit lucky, there may be a some bucks waiting out there in the boondocks, just under your nose...and literally right out of the blue.
During the past 5 years, there has been a rapidly increasing demand by universities and planetary scientists for freshly fallen meteorite material. The result has been an increasing cost to acquire rocks from space, which translates into big bucks for those little shooting stars you see at night. If you know what to look for, they can, literally, become dollars from heaven.
Meteorites are remnants of other worlds, pieces of comets or asteroids blown apart by collisions with each other or, in some cataclysmic cases, with the earth. These pieces of rock or iron (or both) which survive their fiery plunge through our atmosphere can create huge craters like those near Winslow, Arizona. This crater, nearly a mile in diameter and 600 deep, was created in 10 seconds, about 50,000 years ago by a 100-foot diameter chunk of iron and nickel traveling about 40,000 mph..
This hyper-rock created an unimaginable explosion, most of it disintegrating upon impact, but throwing small pieces over a 12 mile area. There are more than 15 known impact craters throughout the U.S. from which fragments are still being found by treasure hunters, hikers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts.
In addition to craters, there are locations where meteorites have exploded or fragmented at high altitude and dispersed pieces over a wide area, known as a strewn field. These zones can cover just a couple of square acres (Holbrook, Arizona) or several thousand square miles (Nambia, Africa.,
Such areas may contain pieces barely distinguishable from surrounding rocks, or they may stand out like a sore thumb, as on a dry lake bed or wide expanse of desert. The fragments may range in size from 1 gram to 1 ton and have high levels of iron or barely a trace. (Magnets will be attracted to 95% of all meteorites, so that is a simple preliminary test you can make in the field.)
Most meteorites that recently arrived on Earth will have a dark brown or black fusion crust on their surface, the result of a high-speed entry into the atmosphere. Newly identified falls are of great interest to researchers and scientists who can study the sample before it has rusted or become contaminated with terrestrial pollutants.
One of the most famous, if not the most valuable meteorite to be scrutinized by NASA and the news media, was found in Antarctica (Allan Hills) in 1984, which after recent reexamination with electron microscope was found to have possible fossilized materials believed to have come from the planet Mars.
If you happen to be ice-biking, or 4-wheeling or prospecting near glaciers or ice fields, keep in mind that solitary rocky material are seldom found embedded in ice, and it could be a rare kind of meteorite. Some museums and universities have paid from $100 to $5,000 per gram for this particular (Allan Hills 840001) specimen, but most iron meteorites are sold or traded by collectors from 10 cents to $1.50 per gram, depending upon its variety, authenticity and size. Like gold nuggets, the price is determined by the market --sometimes a feeding frenzy develops over a particular stony-iron, or recently acquired one-of-a-kind meteorite.
There are many informative and educational books available to anyone interested in prospecting for meteorites. Two of my personal favorites are "Rocks From Space" by O. Richard Norton, (Mountain Press, Missoula Montana) and "History of Meteorites" by Astronomical Research Network (Maplewood, Minnesota).
There are several individuals and organizations --with catalogs or Internet sites -- that buy and sell meteorites or can help identify suspected meteorites including:
New England Meteoritical Society (Mendon, MA)
Bethany Sciences (New Haven Connecticut
Smithsonian Institute (Washington, D.C.)
Center for Meteorite Study (Arizona State Univ., Tempe, Arizona
Robert Haag (Tucson, AZ)
Mare Meteorites (Oakland, CA)
MMR Inc. (San Jose, CA)
Walter Zeitschel (Hanau, Germany)
Swiss Meteorite Lab (Glarus, Switzerland).
If you're REALLY lucky and happen to see when and where a meteorite falls (a witnessed fall) there is an organization that will pay a $100 reward to the first person reporting it.
Most people have seen meteorites or even fireballs, but few have actually witnessed one hitting the earth. A "data survey is maintained by StarTrackers (POB 5743-F, Montecito, CA 93150) a Santa Barbara, California meteorite clearinghouse group. StarTrackers will pay a $100 reward to the first person whose find has been authenticated with a fragment analysis and site verification. The earliest postmarked letter will be used in the event more than one person reports the same impact site. For that reason, telephone reports are not accepted, but you can request a report form via e-mail from startracker@angelfire.com.
Much information about the formation of our sun and surrounding planets can be derived by scientist, geologists and astronomers studying these visitors from outer space. Astronomic and geophysical theories about how Earth was created (and will perhaps end) have been derived from the chemical and crystalline structures of the three major meteorites categories: iron, stony and stony-iron.
If you think you've found a meteorite, 3 preliminary tests should be performed:
1. Is it heavier than a normal rock of the same size?
2. Does it attract a magnet?
3. Does it have a dark brown or black crust?
If you can answer "yes" to all 3 questions, there is a chance that you may have a meteorite. For a nominal fee, most university planetary science departments or a licensed mineral testing laboratory will conduct an accurate final analysis. (Don't buy any meteorite until it has been tested and a written verification has been presented. It's very easy to mistake a meteorite for an ordinary piece of hematite, iron slag or other material. There is a growing "counterfeit" problem among meteorite sales.)
If you see a meteorite fall, it's important to record the exact date and time, geographical location, visible landmarks, approximate angle of descent and impact, color, size and shape of object and whether or not you heard any sounds or explosions. If you find something on a dry lake bed, sand dune or glacier that looks out of place, or your metal detector indicates iron or nickel in that strange looking rock, it's probably worth further investigation and might make you a little richer.
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