[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: (meteorobs) what does a meteorite look like?

Arlene Brill asked:

Subject: (meteorobs) what does a meteorite look like?

Hi Arlene:
    I have sent you a few urls via Netscape forwarding.  This should give
you some idea of what some meteorites look like.  It is not an easy task
identifying some meteorites.  If your in doubt always have an expert look at
it.  The geology department of a university is a good place to start.  You
say you live in a rocky area.  This makes the task of finding a true
meteorite that much more difficult.  Terrestrial rocks can often look like
some meteorites.  In some cases even the experts have to do chemical tests
to be sure.  As an associate member of the Canadian group, MIAC (Meteorite
Impact Advisory Committee) I am often brought stones that are thought to be
meteorites.  So far, all have been meteorwrongs. The ones I'm not sure
about,I have others look at.  If you don't look, you don't find!  There are
a number of good books on meteorites.  The Meteorite & Tektite Collectors
Handbook by Philip M. Bagnall is one.  Check your local library.  If you do
come up with a meteorite PLEASE let the experts study it.  They may even
offer to purchase it from you.  We don't want the meteorite getting lost to
science because the price has been driven up in some collectors market and
often lost to the people who should be studying it for clues about the
origins of the solar system.  One word of caution, in Canada, a meteorite
does not belong to the finder, but the land owner where it is found.  You
don't want to get into legal battles with a land owner if you removed a
meteorite from his property.  If found on public lands the laws vary.  You
will have to check.  In Canada, you also need an export permit to send it
out of the country.  Some of this probably applies to the USA also.
    Meteorobs is not a meteorite group but study the light phenomenon called
a meteor.  I hope the group members don't mind my posting this long answer
to you regarding meteorites.

Ed Majden - MIAC Associate member

To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html
Follow-Ups: References: