Meteorite Times Magazine

Contents

Featured Articles

Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi

Jim's Fragments by Jim Tobin

Micro Visions by John Kashuba

Mitch's Universe by Mitch Noda

MeteoriteWriting by Michael Kelly

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The Johnstown Diogenite Meteorite Turns 100! Party in Colorado on July 6th!

Martin Horejsi

“With the visible stars revolve stones which are invisible, and for that reason nameless. They often fall on the ground and are extinguished, like the stone star that came down on fire at Aegospotami.” -Diogenes of Apollonia

Back in 1924, July 6th at 1620 local time to be exact, a monomict brecciate diogenite of some 40kg fell from space with part of it landing in a cemetery near an active funeral service.

A day after the fall, the local newspaper, the Reporter-Herald contained the following description, “With the rumble of a distant battle and the flare of a star shell a meteor streaked across the sky."

The July 8, 1924 Fort Collins Express-Courier newspaper described the fall of Johnstown with, “Staccato cracks like the noise of a machine gun" as the "visitor" hurled through the atmosphere, breaking up an Elwell baseball game "in a stampede."

And more recently, Ardis Briggs, a historical society volunteer was quoted in a 2014 article in the Loveland Reporter-Herald, "Anyone who saw it is of course passed away by now. But we have some accounts from some people who were children. Some people thought it was the end of the world because it smelled like sulfur and the loud sonic boom."

Johnstown is a beautiful meteorite with emerald green pyroxine crystals in a milky white matrix. Diogenites are known for ranking low on the durability scale. In fact two of Johnstown’s siblings, Tatahouine and Shalka, reside in collections mostly as small fragments where individual collectable specimens more than a few grams are fairly rare. And yes, the Star Wars home planet of Luke Skywalker is named Tatooine after the location the diogenite fell, and also that Tatahouine, Tunisia was a filming location for the movie.

From my perspective as a collector of historical witnessed meteorite falls, Johnstown has it all. Plenty of witnesses, a fast recovery, unusual stories, great press coverage, and the meteorite is a member of a rare group of achondrites likely originating from the subsurface of asteroid 4 Vesta. And now that Johnstown is a centenarian, it is undeniably historically old too.

A current model for members of the HED group meteorites indicate that not only is Johnstown from the asteroid 4 Vesta, but likely from deep inside the mantle of the asteroid with the eucrites being from near or at the surface, and howardites being a mix of eucrite and diogenite material. Growing up well insulated inside the asteroid, Johnstown and the other diogenites cooled slow enough to allow larger crystal growth similar to rock candy forming out of supersaturated sugar water. Presumably, being a differentiated asteroid, 4 Vesta should also have a core likely of nickel iron and possibly a core-mantle boundary containing material represented in our meteorite collections by pallasites. Not a bad gig for 4 Vesta, an asteroid named after the Roman goddess of the hearth and household. And not a bad guess for Diogenes of Apollonia for whom the diogenite meteorites are named because he is credited with the first suggestion that meteorites came from space (see quote at top).

Vesta and another asteroid you may have heard of, Ceres, were explored remotely by the Dawn spacecraft. In a break from traditional NASA acronym mission naming, the name Dawn was a nod to the Dawn of the Solar System where asteroids represent primitive remnants from the birth of our solar system that have changed far less over time compared to the full sized planets. I added the "full sized" qualifier because Ceres, which comprises a quarter of the mass of the

entire asteroid belt, is considered a dwarf planet, and the only one within the inner solar system at a mere 2.8 AU from the sun.

Back on earth, the town of Johnstown has not forgotten about their unlikely visitor, and celebrations are planned this summer on and around July 6. There is an effort by the Johnstown Historical Society to raise money in order to purchase a piece of the Johnstown diogenite meteorite that would then retire out its existence as a full-time resident of Johnstown living in the local museum much the same way Ensisheim is now the most famous resident of, well, Ensisheim. Donations over $20 to the Johnstown meteorite fund will, according to the website, receive a small keepsake token. Another Johnstown City website appears to have meteorite plans for this summer as well.

Of the 520 records for Diogenite (not including diogenite-pm classifications) in the Meteoritical Bulletin, only nine are witnessed falls. Johnstown lands right in the middle of the nine being the fifth witnessed fall of a diogenite. If one drills down on the dates of those nine falls, some oddly interesting coincidences appear. One thing to notice is there seems to be some clustering of the falls given the 181 years since the first witnessed fall of a diogenite. Four fell within the 28 years between 1843 and 1871. And three fell in the seven years between 1924 and 1931. And if that isn’t already interesting, two fell one year apart in 1870 and 1871, and two more fell one year apart in 1924 and 1925! The pair of falls in the 1800s are listed with one fall in the spring and the other in June. The pair in the 1920s have one fall in July, and the other in August. Sixtyeight years would pass before another witnessed fall of a diogenite would be recorded in 1999. The most recent, next and last diogenite fall was in 2016.

Of course a vast majority of diogenites that fall to earth are never witnessed with most of them landing in water and many of the remaining, even if witnessed flying through the air, were considered little more than curiosities from the sky and never investigated further.

Throughout this article are images of my piece of Johnstown heaven. A crusted quarter slice of 80 grams, that I received in an institution trade some twenty years ago. I’ve been waiting patiently for two decades in order to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Johnstown, and if I can squeeze in a visit to Johnstown, Colorado on the 6th of July, I will.

Until next time….

The 2024 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

James Tobin

As long time readers know I do several meteorite classification projects with Jason Phillips every year for fun. It gives us a chance to stay in touch more and chat a few extra times during the year. We had been waiting for NWA 16447 to make it into the Meteoritical Bulletin for a while and be officially published. We knew it was a carbonaceous chondrite when we sent it off for classification but having it be a CK3 was really cool. Here is the basic data from the Meteoritical Bulletin and an image of my half of the three stone find.

Location: Northwest Africa

Date: P 2023 Jun

Mass (g): 764

Pieces: 3

Class: Ck3

Shock stage: S2

Weathering grade: low

The 2024 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Paul and I got to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show this year. We only had a couple of days, but it was fun. With all the things that have happened in the last three years we had not been able to go. We headed out at just before 6 AM knowing that we would lose an hour and figuring that it would take 10 hours to drive to Tucson we did not plan on seeing anyone on Thursday. But Friday morning would find us up and about at the two main hotels that now have many of the meteorite dealers.

I decided not to buy much. I have really cut back to just the one or two meteorites that get classified each year. I have a nice collection and no room to display more than a tiny portion at one time. But I needed to get some small pieces of inexpensive meteorite to give away at a talk I was invited to present to the Gem and Mineral Society in town. As it turned out I found a dealer in a tent next to what used to be the Ramada and picked out a nice little pile of stones and they were very cheap. Very cheap being four cents a gram. So cheap in fact that I worried initially if some of the pieces were actually meteorite. I was rather careful about picking stones that had features that were good indicators of them being genuine space rocks. I wondered as I picked them what super old strewnfield they might have come from. Al Haggounia 001 was high on the list in my mind. Once I got home and put them on the lap to grind a window into them it became instantly apparent that they were Al Haggounia 001. The orange mud the lap made and the little remaining metal and the very occasional chondrule were a dead giveaway. The high limonite

content and the high sulfur content create that distinctive color on the lap. They won’t be very fancy stones for the attendees at the talk, but Al Haggounia 001 has a great story and is one of the oldest meteorites on Earth. It has an estimated terrestrial age of 23,000 years plus or minus 2,00 years. Calling it a “fossil meteorite” is surely justified. With more than three tons having been found and being seriously underappreciated as well as for a long time being misidentified as an aubrite this Enstatite Impact Melt Rock should be a fun meteorite to give away. The stones all have a polished window on them, and most have at least one tiny speck of nickel-iron showing.

We visited all of the dealers that were open at the old Ramada location now called Days Inn by Wyndham Tucson City Center, but I suspect us old guys will always call it the Ramada. Our first stop there was at Mike Miller’s room to say hello. It had been four years since we saw him. We had a great chat as he continued to do some final setting up. It was the first official day of the show. He would send us some material after the show was over and we would see him for dinner that evening along with other friends.

Kitty and Marvin Kilgore had a suite there and we got a chance to catch up on what has been

happening in their lives and the lives of their children that were very young, when we started out in this business.

Moving on, I found a room that I often visit that has artifacts. About ten years ago I thought hard about buying Roman bronze arrowheads from them and ended up not doing so. I have occasionally kicked myself for passing them up. I finally ordered one from an online source that sells museum type specimens. It was OK but short and missing the socket on the end. So I got myself a nicer one this year at the gem show.

We made it through all the meteorite dealers there and moved on a bit before noon to the next hotel on our list where we had three friends to see. These hotels change their names like crazy year by year. This one is now called the Ramada by Wyndham (Riverpark Inn) and next to it is the old Days Inn, which is called something else too, I think. The pay by the day parking at the end of the block was basically full but we did find a spot finally at the far edge near the bike path and the dry wash. We decided to walk all the way to the old Days Inn and see Bud and Joshua Eisler first. I was keeping my eye out for a friend who had always sold meteorites in a tent behind the Days Inn, but he was not there. I was glad then that I had already gotten the meteorites for the club meeting talk. It was great to see Bud and chat with him and find out about all his adventures of the last three years.

I thought hard about getting some more Ruby Zoisite for making cabochons. I get pieces that are nearly pure ruby, and they work very well for gemstones if you are careful to cut out pieces that are free of cracks. But I have a good amount still and I made a lot of stones when I did a batch several years ago. Also the selection was ok but not great, so again, I passed on getting that. I was having a rather economical day so far.

We made our way back up the street to the Pueblo Inn or whatever it is called now and had a great visit with Keith and Dana Jenkerson of KD Meteorites. I did not buy any meteorites there, but I did get four large pieces of native copper from the Great Lakes area. It is historically interesting to me having good evidence of being mined in ancient times by people from across the Atlantic Ocean. Keith has developed a method for etching the copper and it makes it really beautiful. I don’t know if I would call it a Widmanstätten pattern as in iron meteorites, but it is certainly a crystalline pattern in the native copper. We had a great time chatting with them and moved on to our last location for the day.

We had wondered over the last year if Erich Haiderer of Cosmic Highway was going to be at the show this year. His information was listed in the hotel vendors list so we headed to his room number. We were immediately warmly welcomed by Erich and Silvia. We had a good chat with him outback of his suite as he showed us new material on the tables set up there and we chatted about tektites and shared some memories of Darryl Futrell. The suites at the hotels are very hot from all the display lights and it was time for Paul and me to get something to drink. We had eaten breakfast at the Denny’s near our hotel but as it turned out we did not eat lunch any

of the days at the show. We took two spare chairs from a table in the food court area and sat for a few minutes drinking our sodas before heading back to the car. We had a wonderful first day.

We had just enough time to relax, freshen up and go to dinner. We had bumped into Ruben Garcia and Bob Cucchiara earlier in the day and decided where we were going for dinner. It is a long tradition to eat with these men and usually a few more friends on Saturday night. But this year it was just going to be a fun meal with them and Mike Miller at what turned out to be a great restaurant. And it was on Friday night. The food was fantastic. I am on a diet that does not include red meat. I get chicken and turkey and fish so with apologies to my doctor I had a New York Steak, and it was perhaps the best piece of beef I have ever eaten. Wow! Or maybe it was that I had not had a piece of beef in almost two years. Regardless of the reason it was a great meal and the conversation and joking around was something I think that Paul and I had both missed, not having been to the last three shows.

Bob Cucchiara, Ruben Garcia and Paul Harris looking very happy. It was great to see them in person and not by email.

I wanted to go to the wholesale show. So on Saturday morning we headed south down to Palo Verde Rd and the big tent show. I was looking for some sterling silver findings and some beaded half round sterling silver wire if I could find it. I eventually found part of what I needed. We had passed Ivory Jacks booth in the first tent we had gone in, and I told Paul I would catch up with him in a few minutes and headed back there before we left the wholesale show. I wanted to get some mammoth ivory beads. I have a good supply of fossil mammoth ivory and can make the beads myself but since I was at the show why not save some work and get a couple of strings from Ivory Jack. It only took a few minutes to go back to the first tent and pick them out and return to the plaza between the tents and meet back up with Paul.

We were soon off to the next location I needed to go to. The Kino Sports Complex show, like all the shows, used to be called something else, but I have conformed to calling it that now. I wanted to try and find a lapidary supply company. I was looking for diamond polishing compound. I can get it online and have many times but when I am at the gem show I get the supplies I need because it is far cheaper and there is no shipping fee. The first place I tried had none and we wandered the show for a few minute and basically stumbled upon the Johnson Brothers tent. I have bought items from them many times. I use their diamond lapping discs and felt pads but have never used their diamond polishing compound. But I am going to use it now. I bought four big five gram syringes of 100k mesh compound and a bottle of 100 carats of 50k mesh diamond compound. And the price was really very good. That might be enough of the polishing material to last for as long as I will be doing the lapidary work.

It was a little after noontime when we headed back to the car and were on to the next stop which was Suzanne Morrison and Raining Rocks. It was not very far. When we got there, She and her sister Lisa Marie were out having fun. Mom was there and shared a wonderful poem about the Tucson gem show that she had written. What a joy it was to see her after having missed a few years of the show. Odie the super lapidary expert and mechanical wizard member of the Raining Rock team called Suzanne and they would be back in an hour or so. Paul and I headed off to our next stop to return to Raining Rocks in a short time.

As fate would have it our next stop of the day was to see the third sister of the family Elizabeth at Aerolite Meteorites. We had a great visit there and took a bit longer than planned but we were having too much fun to leave. We met Rayner and Marissa who are the fantastically talented team members who work with Elizabeth making Aerolite a great company. We got all caught up on life and business and I grabbed a couple of images of the Aerolite team before we headed back a little late to Raining Rocks.

We had such a good time with Suzanne, Lisa Marie, Odie and Mom for a long time. We got the complete tour of the building and all the tumblers and saws and the rocks out back. But best of all we had a great visit with them and got all caught up again as we had with everyone else. They had work to do, and we finally said goodbye.

Elizabeth, Rayner, and Marissa Team Aerolite.

It was late afternoon and we had dinner to eat since we had missed another lunch. It was off to the Cracker Barrel north of town near our hotel. I love Cracker Barrel but the nearest one to where we live is fifty miles away. Even as much as I love their food it is not enough for a hundred mile drive to get something to eat. We had not had snacks all weekend and we were getting up really early to start home in the morning. A quick trip into Walgreen’s was a chance to get something for breakfast and something to eat for dessert back at the hotel.

I set the alarm and as often happens with me I woke up before the alarm went off. I was up and ready to go all packed when Paul knocked on my door. We checked out and began the 10 hour drive home. I got this funny picture of the sunrise through the side mirror of the car as we drove. It was a short but fun trip to Tucson and the Gem and Mineral Show. There were just a few people we did not see. That was a shame, but we used the time well that we had. Another day at the show would have been more than we needed.

Suzanne, Odie, and Lisa Marie who were having such fun at Raining Rocks.

I am sort of already looking forward to maybe going to the show next year, but who know what the future will bring.

Whiskers in NWA 16100

John Kashuba

NWA 16100 was 1,922 grams, in three pieces, of olivine bearing diogenite-melt rock. It contains vesicles which are apparent in this cut fragment and whiskers that are easily seen in thin section under magnification.

This cut fragment was sourced from Jason Whitcomb of https://www.handfulofspace.com/

Our excellent thin section was made by Erik Karadeema https://high-mesapetrographics.square.site/ It is a standard 27 x 46 mm size, “double polished” and not covered.

The melt rock is fine grained.

Top right corner in cross-polarized light (XPL). Field of view (FOV) is 3.1 mm wide.

This is the bright yellow grain above. Note the whiskers on the dark inclusions. FOV = 0.3mm. XPL

The whiskers are not of uniform width along their length. FOV=0.1mm. XPL

FOV=0.05mm. Plane polarized light (PPL)

We will look closer at the green elongated grain in the center. FOV=3.1mm. XPL

FOV=0.5mm. XPL

Whiskers are seen on the inclusions at lower left. One expert I asked about these hadn’t seen them before and, predictably, asked if they’d been microprobed. Not that I know of. Maybe someone should do a paper on them. FOV=0.4mm. PPL

Whiskers possibly align with the mineral grain’s crystal structure. FOV=0.2mm. PPL

Note the center grain with three dark inclusions. FOV=3.1mm. PPL

Whiskers often appear more robust in one direction than in the other. FOV=0.3mm. PPL

Whiskers do not all lie in the plane of the section surface. These start from the body of the inclusion near the top surface of the sample and extend downwardly at roughly 45 degrees. FOV=0.15mm. PPL

FOV=0.3mm. PPL

Robust whiskers aligned NW-SE. FOV=0.15mm. PPL.

FOV=0.3mm. PPL

FOV=0.3mm. PPL

FOV=0.3mm. XPL

FOV=0.075mm. XPL

Valera – Cow killer meteorite

Mitch Noda

Throughout the arc of time, there have been stories of meteorites that have hit things, such as, a mailbox (Claxton), car (Peekskill), house (Kobe, Park Forest, and many more), etc. Then there are meteorites that have hit or supposedly hit animals and humans. Nakhla (hit and supposedly vaporized a dog), Valera (cow killer), Sylacauga (struck Ann Hodges) and Mbale (hit a teenager) come to mind. Chicxulub meteorite (asteroid) which was about 10 – 15 km (6.21 –9.42miles) across and would have surely impacted animals on the ground, and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and about 75% of all animals at the time would qualify as a “hammer stone.”

This article is about the “hammer stone,” Valera, which according to the Met Bulletin is a L5 witness fall that fell on 15 October 1972 in city of Valera, state of Trujillo, Venezuela. I wanted to get facts from people involved with the meteorite, not hearsay or speculation from people who were not involved.

Since I knew my friend, Darryl Pitt, obtained the main mass of Valera, I asked him about the famous meteorite. Darryl’s email to me is below, extracting out Christie’s description of Valera.

Hi Mitch

Thanks for your note…and thanks for your interest in one of the most undervalued of all meteorites — in which I unfortunately had a hand.

I was introduced to the good man from whom I acquired the meteorite, astronomer Dr. Ignacio Ferrin, by the legendary Marty Zinn, who was the promoter of the mineral and fossil shows in Tucson in Denver (and the entire Costa Mesa and Springfield shows) that meteorites called home at the starting at the end of the 80s until he retired around 2015.

It was 2000 or 2001 at the Macovich Auction which was held at Marty’s show at the Inn Suites in Tucson for a few years that Marty introduced me to the Dr. Ferrin. [I might mention I was responsible for having introduced meteorites in the auction environment at Phillips in 1995 during what was the first natural history auction, ever) and went on to hold the first meteoriteonly auctions at Bonhams, Heritage, Christie’s and Sotheby’s.] Anyway, it was many years after the impact that Dr. Ferrin visited the Gonzalez estate. Upon instantly recognizing the importance of having this documented, in addition to obtaining the meteorites, it was Dr. Ferrin who had the event documented and notarized — and thus the delay between the event and his historical record.

[Darryl referred me to a Christie’s catalog description which can be found at VALERA METEORITE — THE ONLY DOCUMENTED METEORITE TO HAVE KILLED (christies.com) https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5987687 or just Google Christie’s and Valera.]

Dr. Ferrin obtained Valera very inexpensively. Shortly after he removed material for research and a couple of Venezuelan institutions, something challenging happened in his life — I don’t recall what it was — and he felt the solution would be for him to sell this acquisition. Like Dr. Gonzalez, however, he did not place a high premium on the meteorite’s value, irrespective of the history. (It’s important to understand the era….when I first purchased Peekskill not much earlier it was for $2/g and I purchased the main mass for $4/g. Well, Dr. Ferrin got in touch with Marty who reached out to me.

Anyway, as the main mass was rather significant, so was the overall price despite the low price per gram — and it didn’t sell. I felt terribly for Dr. Ferrin — he came to Tucson and was so depressed — and so I negotiated the purchase of the meteorite post-sale for about what i initially paid for Peekskill. And this is where I then made a big mistake. I really didn’t have the money to make this purchase at that time and instead of setting it aside and sell something else, I decided to cut it up and flip it extremely inexpensively as my gesture to the meteorite community. In so doing, I inadvertently undermined the valuation of an esteemed meteorite and not just — some cynics even speculated as a result of the low price that the background narrative had to be invented. I naively thought I would be showered with gratitude and instead I learned how a gesture of magnanimity can backfire. Dr. Ferrin subsequently did an interview or two and while the pernicious rumors pretty-much evaporated, a lot of the material sold inexpensively — and it’s so much more challenging for a price to escalate from $2/g to $25/g than from $20 to $200/g — hence it’s current ppg.

In sum, the chain of owners of Valera (Drs.Gonzalez and Ferrin and especially myself) did not do a good job at all in protecting the rightful station of the Valera’s value, which should consistently be selling for hundreds of dollars a gram today. ? Lesson learned. Voila.

Here’s the affidavit….and or course you can use it.

Thanks for your interest. As you’ve probably gleaned, I still have some scabs from this. Life.

Sending my very best / Darryl

I contacted Dr. Ignacio Ramon Ferrin Vazquez who investigated the Valera fall and obtained the meteorite. Unfortunately, physician Dr. Gonzalez, who owned the ranch and recovered the meteorite, passed away many years ago, so interviewing him would be impossible. Dr. Ignacio Ramon Ferrin Vazquez did not know how to contact the person who signed the affidavit Juan Dionicio Delgado or whether he was still alive since it has been over twenty years since they last communicated.

Affidavit provided courtesy of Darryl Pitt (1 of 5)

Affidavit provided courtesy of Darryl Pitt (2 of 5)

Affidavit provided courtesy of Darryl Pitt (3 of 5)

Affidavit provided courtesy of Darryl Pitt (4 of 5)

Affidavit provided courtesy of Darryl Pitt (5 of 5)

Affidavit of Juan Dionicio Delgado describing the events in which he and Dr. Gonzalez discovered the Valera meteorite on Dr. Gonzalez’s farm.

Dr. Ignacio Ramon Ferrin Vazquez wrote about the event to me as follows (I have lightly edited it for ease of reading without the use of [sic] and did not correct everything to keep the authenticity of his style of writing):

My 170 gram Valera “Cow killer” meteorite specimen with my friend Matt Morgan’s, Mile High Meteorites label.

A Record of Two Meteorites, Valera 1 and Valera 2 (the Cow-Killer)

At the time these events took place, I was a full professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of the Andes, in Mérida, Venezuela. The first news that I received about these two meteorites was from a student who told me that there had been a meteorite fall in a nearby town. At first I did not believe him, because I constantly received reports of false falls and meteorites, resembling solidified lava and scrap metal from a foundry. But just a few weeks later, the same story was related to me through a second person, so I decided that it was worthwhile to investigate. The second person was Professor Guevara, who was a history professor at the University. I first met Prof. Guevara in 1991. He did not know about the death of the cow. He only knew about the fall. We will call this meteorite Valera 2, because the fall was nearby the city of Valera.

I had always been interested in meteorites, but this was my first chance to find a real one, so I started gathering information to make a trip to Valera about an hour away by plane. My first trail was a physics teacher at a local school. He had a meteorite, but this one did not have anything to do with the one I was investigating. However, he knew about the event and gave me the

The uncut other side of my Valera meteorite.

address of the owner of the farmer where the fall had taken place, the physician Dr. Gonzalez. I went to the address and found that the family had moved. However, they told me that the son of Dr. Gonzalez was working in a car dealer not far away. So, there I went. Fortunately, I was able to locate the son and talked to him for some time with the intent to extract the whole information from him. What follows is what he told me.

His father, Dr. Gonzalez had already passed away, but he could remember the event clearly. He told me that at night, at the end of 1972, his father had a visitor at the farm. They were drinking and talking when they heard a kind of muted noise. They both heard it, so they came out of the house to see what had caused the noise, but due to the dark of the night, they could see nothing. However, the next morning a worker came to say, that there was a cow that had died in strange circumstances. When Dr. Gonzalez went to investigate, he found that a large stone had hit the cow and killed it. The stone had broken into three pieces.

The most important question I asked was: “Do you have the stones?” He said that he had to check with his mom. My second question was related to the fact that as a scientist I had to check the authenticity and validity of the story. So, I asked if we could go to the farm to see the site of the fall. He agreed, and we set the date for the next Saturday, two days away, since he had to work during the week.

Saturday came and we drove to the farm. There was a central house, and I could see numerous cows in the nearby paddocks. I asked for the precise site where the cow was found, and the son of Dr. Gonzalez took me to the site. I did not have a measuring tape to find the distance to the house, where I had identified the place where they must have been sitting. Since I have long legs, by walking with long steps I could measure the approximated distance in meters. I wanted to test if a sound could be heard at that distance from the house. Those farms are very hot during the day and night because the place is not far from the Equator, so it is a common practice to have the house door and windows open all the time. I did my walking and measured 27 steps, or about 27 meters from the site to the house. My conclusion is that in the middle of the night, with no environmental noises, and with the door open it was perfectly possible to have heard the noise of the fall. So I concluded that the history of the fall had a chance of being true. However, the physical evidence, the corpse, was still missing.

At the farm I did something else. I walked all around the house and beyond, looking for other stones that could be meteorites. Sometimes there are several falls at the same site, but I did not find any.

I did ask about the stones again. “Where are the stones?” To find out we had to go to his mother’s house, where I met his mom, Doña Cecilia, and his sister. We had an interesting talk, and his mother confirmed the passing of her husband, and corroborated the story. I asked about the stones, and his mother said that there were three pieces. Her husband had taken with him the largest piece weighting about 30 kg. One of the other pieces was taken by the worker who discovered them, and she could not recall what happened to the third piece. I asked where was the larger piece, and if I could see it to confirm that it was really a meteorite, since previously I had received many specimens that were fakes. She said that after her husband had died, the farm had entered into a state of abandonment since the son did not want to take care of it. So, they had moved to another town, and all the content of the house, including the larger stone, had been moved to another house they had in another town. The lady also told me that the stone was somewhere in the garden of the new house. The new town was Barquisimeto, one

hour away by plane.

I identified myself as a professor of Physics, and explained to them the scientific importance of the stone because it was 4.500 million years old, and that it had to be examined chemically and its composition determined. They both agreed that they would give the stone to me, if found.

I went back to my home town and in a few days I took a plane to the new town where they had moved, Barquisimeto. I arrived at the place, and visited Doña Cecilia, the widow of Dr. Gonzalez. She told me that they had been remodeling the house, and that the workers had dropped the residues and debris on the place of the garden where the meteorite was. Thus, the meteorite lied under a pile of residues 5 feet high. I had wasted my trip. Doña Cecilia promised me that she would call me a soon as the workers removed the debris. I thought that I was not going to see the stone ever, because the probability was high the workers would discard the stone with the debris. So, I went back to my hometown with a down feeling.

Months passed away and I had lost all hope, when one day a phone call entered my phone. It was Doña Cecilia informing me that she had the stone. I couldn’t believe it! As soon as possible, I took another plane and went to her house. When I got there, there was the stone on a table!

I examined it. Yes, it had the marks of a meteorite. There was a dark crust characteristic of meteorites. There were depths like when you press a finger on a soft mass of dough. It was heavy, about 30 kg, and finally, it was magnetic. I felt elated. I had found a real meteorite! Doña Cecilia agreed to give it to me for free.

I took the meteorite to my physics lab to do some research on it. I found its density to be 2.35 gm/cm3.

After I finished my research, I got back to my place, I started looking for a place to sell it. I needed to recoup the travel expenses of the flights, hotels, car, food, gas, etc., I paid for searching for Valera without reimbursement from the University. I had no idea of its value since I was new in this field. This is why I contacted Darryl Pitt who was and is an expert on the matter. He suggested that I should take the stone to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show that takes place in Tucson, Arizona, every year. So I did, and the meteorite ended in the hands of Darryl with the affidavit of the fall written by Delgado. Here is the registered affidavit:

“I, Juan Dionicio Delgado, Venezuelan, identified by the National Identity Document No. 5.030.450, hereby declare in this document that at the end of 1972, I was visiting the farm “El Tinajero” owned by Argimiro Gonzalez, deceased, which was located at the boundary of the states of Barinas and Trujillo. It was past midnight when we were talking, and there was a strange noise. When we went out to investigate due to the dark of the night we saw nothing. But the next morning a worker came to say that there was a cow killed under strange circumstances. When we went to investigate, we found that the cow had been killed by a stone that presumably fell from the sky the night before, causing the noise we had been unable to explain. The stone, broken in several pieces, was kept by Dr. Gonzalez, while the cow was eaten over the following days. These are the facts, as expressed in Barinas, the eleventh day of January 2001.”

As you can see although I did try to get a precise date, he could not remember. However, in

some international registers you will find the date as October 15th. This is entirely fictional.

That was the end of the story on my side. I understand that Darryl cut the meteorite in smaller pieces and sold it to the public. He also determined that it was an L5.

And what happened to Valera 1 meteorite? That is a different story. I had received the news about Valera 1 from Professor Guevara. I visited him at his home where we had a long conversation on different topics of interest at that time. I was sitting comfortably on a couch, and looking around the room, when my eyes came into contact with a stone that was holding a door in place. At first, I did not make much of it, but the longer I looked at the stone, the stronger I began to have a strange feeling. The rock did not look like a normal stone, it was much darker. So, I got up, went to the door, and lifted the stone. I could not believe my eyes. It was a meteorite, no doubt! The meteorite had been used as a door stop all this time!

Professor Guevara told me that this particular meteorite was unrelated to Valera 2, and that he had obtained it many years ago. Professor Guevara had a huge collection of mail stamps related to space and science. By chance, I also had a smaller collection of stamps on the same topic. So, I proposed to him to give him my collection of stamps in exchange for the meteorite. He agreed and that is how I got hold of Valera 1. Valera 1 was much smaller. But the story does not end there.

I got home, and I placed Valera 1 on a small table at the corner of the living room, as a decoration. One day, the floor was being washed with soap and water, and I entered the room carelessly. I fell to the floor with grate force, I hit the small table, and the meteorite fell on my head and ended three feet from me. It took me some time to recover. I laid in the floor for some time, unable to move. Valera 1 had left a scar of about one inch long in my head, and there was blood dripping on my face.

In Figure 1 you will see that the meteorite is broken at the top. It was me retrieving a small piece for my collection. This is shown in Figure 2.

After selling the stone to Darryl, I wrote a letter to Sky and Telescope saying: "If an analysis is ever made on Valera 1 by the NASA boys, what will they conclude when they find human DNA? Will they call a press conference to announce the discovery of extraterrestrial life?"

And that is the end of the story of Valera 1 and 2. Being a scientist, I abide by the rules of Scientific Ethics, and testify that the events described above are true to the best of my knowledge.

Ignacio Ferrín, Ph. D., Full Professor

Institute of Physics

University of Antioquia Medellin, Colombia

As a side note, on the internet I have seen a photo of the main mass of Valera on a wooden fence post with a cow in the background. I have also seen a photo of the main mass of Valera on the ground with cows in the background. Darryl has told me the photos have been staged in the U.S. Dr. Ferrin also says, the photos are not of the actual farm, since only a few people

know of its location in Venezuela.

I asked Dr. Ferrin what happened to the piece of Valera 2 he broke off near the top of meteorite? He said, “I still have it and I use it in my astronomy classes. My students are delighted to see a piece of the solar systems aged 4.5 (billion) years.”

After communicating with Darryl and Dr. Ferrin, I am convinced that Valera struck and killed a cow, even though there were no eye witnesses to the event. I think it is good to be a little bit skeptical, but at some point, there is trust in witness accounts or evidence. Yes, it is better to have corroboration and multiple witnesses. Dr. Gonzalez and his guest Juan Dionicio Delgado did not think about taking a photo of the dead cow with the meteorite nearby to evidence the rare event, just like Michelle Knapp did not think of taking a photo of her Chevy after the Peekskill meteorite struck it. She did not think her damaged red Chevy Malibu was valuable,

My 170 gram Valera meteorite specimen with the other side of the Mile High meteorites label with hand written note by my friend Matt Morgan stating, “170 g from Darryl Pitt 2001”

until a meteorite dealer offer to buy it at above market value. Only scientists, meteorite dealers and collectors would find the circumstances important enough to act. In the case of the red Chevy and dead cow, scientist would have little interest in them. Their focus would be on the meteorite. That was the case for Dr. Ferrin and Valera. None of the meteorite scientists ever did any research on Ann Hodges (Sylacauga). Therefore, it is easy to see why physician Dr. Gonzalez and his guest would not collect or keep any evidence of the event. There was no motive for them to lie about the events just like there was no motive for peasants to lie about rocks falling from the sky at Siena or L’Aigle. The question is do you believe Dr. Ferrin, Juan Dionicio Delgado, Dr. Gonzalez’s wife and son and Darryl? I do.

Acknowledgements:

I want to thank my friends Darryl Pitt and Dr. Ferrin.

References:

Various emails with Darryl Pitt

Various emails with Dr. Ignacio Ramon Ferrin Vazquez, Professor of physics at the Universidad de las Andes de Merida and Professor of astronomy at University of Antioquia Colombia.

The Meteoritical Society – Meteoritical Bulletin Database - Valera

Wikipedia – Ignaciao Ramon Ferrin Vazquez

Affidavit of Juan Dionicio Delgado

Media Advisory - Extraordinary Meteorites Land in Heritage’s April 24 Nature & Science Auction

Fossils and gold also among event’s otherworldly highlights

Photo Credit: Heritage Auctions / HA.com

DALLAS, Texas (March 13, 2024) – An Allende Meteorite Slice from Chihuahua, Mexico that can be traced back to the origin of the Solar System will be among the out-of-this-world attractions that will touch down in Heritage’s Nature & Science Signature® Auction April 24.

Bidding begins approximately April 3 on HA.com.

From arguably the best-studied of all meteorites, Allende is a Carbonaceous Chondrite, and is the largest of the variety ever found on Earth.

“Allende was a witnessed fall,” says Craig Kissick, Vice President of Nature and Science at Heritage Auctions. “It includes Calcium-Aluminum Inclusions (CAIs), which are among the oldest rocks in the Solar System, so an Allende sample is basically the oldest rock any human being could ever hold.”

This event includes a second meteorite that is older than the Earth: an Aba Panu Meteorite End Cut from Oyo, Nigeria. This extraordinary chondrite, from a witnessed fall in April 2018, is one of only seven of the L3 variety in all of meteorite history. It includes a beautiful polished window display face, with an intense conglomeration of clasts of various sizes and colors in a pleasing green-gray matrix. Weighing an impressive 876 grams, the extremely thick, rocky mass measures almost 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) across.

The auction also features an exceptionally thick NWA 13119 Lunar Meteorite End Cut. This piece of the moon is massive, weighing 1.03 kilograms (2.27 pounds), a veritable behemoth considering the total amount of lunar material on Earth is only several hundred pounds. Left rough on one side, the polished cut side beautifully exhibits the sample’s magnificent feldspathic breccia.

A magnificent Campo del Cielo Meteorite iron, from Chaco, Argentina, is as grand in appearance as it is in its sheer size (it weighs in at 21 kilograms, or 46 pounds). This museumquality trophy is completely covered in superb regmaglypts, and virtually perfect in color, texture and shape.

Information and images of the more than 200 lots in this extraordinary auction — a trove that includes an incredible assortment of meteorites, Gold and fossils — can be found at HA.com/8162.

Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hong Kong.

Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,600,000 registered bidder-members and

Photo Credit: Heritage Auctions / HA.com

Photo Credit: Heritage Auctions / HA.com

searchable free archives of more than 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.

For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter. Link to this release or view prior press releases.

Hi-Res images available:

Steve Lansdale, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1699; SteveL@HA.com

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Once a few decades ago this opening was a framed window in the wall of H. H. Nininger's Home and Museum building. From this window he must have many times pondered the mysteries of Meteor Crater seen in the distance.

Photo by © 2010 James Tobin