Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine by MHC Magazine

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

CONTENTS Buzzard Huntinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 4

by Roman Jirasek - Hunting Buzzard Coulee Meteorite Strewnfield

The Meteorite Men - An Interview 6

MHC Magazine Interviews The Meteorite Men Geoff Notkin & Steve Arnold

Yelland Dry Lake 20

by Sonny Clary - The discovery and hunting of Yelland Dry Lake Meteorites in Nevada

Hunting The Pasamonte Meteorite 24 By Robert Woolard

Contact

Visit us on the web at: www.mhcmagazine.com Email: contact@mhcmagazine.com

New Nevada cold find. Meteorite found by Sonny Clary Website: www.nevadameteorites.com

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Buzzard Huntin’ - A meteorite hunting story

The Buzzard Coulee meteorite strewnfield. On Nov. 20th 2008 a giant fireball dropped meteorites across the countryside of Saskatchewan, Canada. This became Canada’a largest meteorite fall in history. Photo: Roman Jirasek by Roman Jirasek As a last minute decision I decided to fly across three provinces and join the meteorite hunt at Buzzard Coulee, Saskatchewan. I’m glad I did, there were many stones still waiting to be recovered. My flight was to Edmonton International Airport in Alberta from Toronto, rented a car and drove almost 3 hours to Lloydminster. This interesting town straddled the boarders of Alberta and

Saskatchewan. Got a room at The Good Knight Inn and drove a half hour south to the fall area near Lone Rock. I Met up with McCartney Taylor from Texas, he introduced me to a private land owner with about 650 acres right in the heart of the strewn field. The deal was 50/50, half our finds went to the land owner in exchange for hunting rights. Well, the first full day of hunting on April 18th was hell. It was cold and wet with some wet snow falling in the

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

morning and rain on and off most of the day. But, I found 22 stones! M.T. found over 30 that long day. The next morning he flew back to Texas and I stayed and hunted two more full days alone. My total finds was almost 60 stones in 3 days about 1.3 kilos, not bad for my second ever meteorite hunt. Most of my 3 days of hunting was spent walking rows and grids of Canola fields. The largest individual I found was just over 100 grams. The smallest crusted fragment

(Left) 68g flight oriented Buzzard Coulee meteorite in situ. Notice the rollover lipping. (Right) Roman and his rental car, which he got stuck. Notice the skull on the hood. Photo: Roman Jirasek was 1.19 grams. Most stones were in the 15 to 45 gram range. As soon as I met up with McCartney Taylor on the land he secured, I found my first stone within minutes. I just could not believe the amount of meteorites on this land. No special equipment needed, only your eyes as they had good contrast against the fields. See the nice clean rental car in the photo above? Well, I got it stuck in the mud the last evening of my hunt. It was starting to get dark, I was alone, my cell was on the last bar, and my flight back home was the next day, not to mention the drive back to my hotel that evening. I was stuck up to the floorboards and feeling pretty helpless! Fortunately one of the guys that works with the oil pumps on that property met up with me a few times over the 3 days I was hunting. Earlier that day he showed me 400 grams of meteorites his son found after the fall of November 20, 2008. His son wanted to buy an ATV and he was hoping to sell

the stones for him. I showed him the many stones I had already recovered and said, “I really don’t need them”. But after he offered them to me at a rock bottom price, I agreed to spend my emergency money and took them all. Lucky I got his phone number, because he was the only one I could think of calling to get me out of the jam I was in. He lived in Lloydminster, about half hour from the strewn field. Too bad he only had a short tow strap, his pickup almost got stuck too. So he decided to call a friend. An older guy which happens to live in Lone Rock, a very small community north of the area. This guy had a huge diesel pickup with long chains. After he pulled out my rental car with ease, I found out he was the old mayor of Lone Rock. I gave them a meteorite for their help. Whew that was close! I recommend getting that extra insurance on your rental car, it’s well worth it. I got back in time to settle up with the land owner and meet up with a collector friend

from Saskatchewan. He was just starting his hunting trip as mine came to a close. I met another collector from Alberta at the airport waiting for my flight. We had maps and meteorites on the floor trying to go over everything we could. Almost missed my flight due to being questioned about the black stones in my carry on luggage. I ended up explaining the story of these meteorites to the airport personnel, and believe me, they were very interested. I made it home without my hunting boots and left the skull at the hotel. This type of dense meteorite hunting will probably never happen again in my life time. What a blast it was. Sometimes you just have to go for it!

Roman Jirasek owns a sign business in Milton Ontario and has been employed there for 29 years. When he started collecting meteorites late 1998 he made small aluminum labels to display with his meteorites, which led to mass producing them for collectors around the globe. Web: www.meteoritelabels.com Email: romanj@sympatico.ca

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

First and foremost I want to congratulate you guys on the Meteorite Men show, and also say thank you Steve and Geoff, for taking the time to do this interview for Meteorite Hunting & Collecting magazine. It means a lot to me to be able to bring your stories to the meteorite world. I’m sure there are many questions that everyone would love to ask you. I’ll start with the most common… GEOFF: It’s our pleasure really, and a treat to speak with the publisher of the world’s newest meteorite publication. MHC: How and when did you first become interested in meteorites? STEVE: I became interested in 1992 after reading a book about treasure hunting. I was doing research on where to hunt and I found an old story about Eliza Kimberly from near Greensburg, Kansas selling a Brenham meteorite back in 1890. GEOFF: It’s been close to a life-long passion for me. I grew up among the rolling chalk hills of Surrey in southern England and—as a kid—was forever skulking around in the woods and disused quarries looking for interesting rocks and fossils. My father is a keen amateur astronomer, and there were always telescopes and science magazines around the house. My late mother was amazingly supportive of my interests; she regularly went fossil collecting with me, and occasionally let me call in sick to school. On those glorious free days she would take me up to central London to visit the museums. My favorite was the Geological Museum, now part of the Natural History Museum, London and it was there that I first encountered actual meteorites from outer space. Although, to be strictly accurate, my very first brush with space rocks (or space-related, at least) was at the famous department store Harrods of London. I remember visiting their small but elegant gem and mineral department at about age six or seven. There, I saw an Australian tektite for sale for four pounds sterling. Back in the 1960s that was an astronomical amount of money, especially for a kid, and especially for a small, strange, glassy black rock. For comparison, a bus ride across London would have cost me three pence and there were 240 pence in a pre-decimal currency British pound. Not surprisingly, my mother did not buy the tektite for me but I had already experienced the revelation: you could actually buy a rock that had been formed by a meteorite. At the time, the chance of me owning a real meteorite seemed about as likely as me

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

to non-academics, and it was O. Richard Norton’s seminal book Rocks from Space that made me realize there were actually a handful of adventurers out there looking for meteorites. MHC: When did you first start hunting for meteorites? STEVE: I immediately started hunting for meteorites after learning about them. MHC: When, where and what was your first meteorite find(s)?

An Interview with Geoff Notkin & Steve Arnold of the Science Channel’s Meteorite Men Show going to Alpha Centauri with the Robinson Family but the seed had been planted and, as a child, I determined that—one way or another—I would own a genuine space rock in this lifetime. MHC: What was your first collection meteorite? GEOFF: The first piece I purchased was a Canyon Diablo, which I still own, and which I acquired many years ago from Eric Twelker, who is a gentleman and a highly respected meteorite dealer. STEVE: I don’t have a collection, as virtually everything I have is inventory. MHC: How and when did you find out you could hunt and find “rocks from space”?

STEVE: After finding out that meteorites were worth money, even as far back as 1890, I learned that they were still worth money today, and that these were as real of a treasure as any pirate’s buried chest, or Jesse Jamesstolen stagecoach lock box. GEOFF: I was a complete science nut from about age six. I had my own chemistry set, a microscope, a fossil collection (many of which I’d found myself), and I poured over books like Prospecting and Rock Collecting and Collins’ Field Guide to Fossils in Color for my bedtime reading. So, I was very aware that meteorites existed and that people found them, but during my youth there was no organized group of non-academic meteorite collectors. Even Allan Lang and Bob Haag weren’t yet collecting. Imagine if you’d gone to Henbury, or Sikhote-Alin or Canyon Diablo back then! Meteorites seemed out of reach

STEVE: In the tradition of Harvey Nininger, I started out trying to find the finders of meteorites, rather than trying to find them myself. I did hunt myself, but I was rather lucky in mostly finding farmers that found them on their farms. My first meteorite “recovery” was a 106-gram fragment of Admire that a local farmer had found. It had come off of a 45-kilo piece that the farmer had found about thirty years before and which he had parted with about ten years before I met him. He gave me the little piece and I promptly sent it to Blaine Reed. A few days later Blaine sent me a check for $106, or $1/gram for the meteorite. That day that I got Blaine’s check in the mail was the day I was hooked, as I realized that if I had only shown up 11 years earlier, I could have acquired a meteorite worth $45,000 instead of $106. My new goal was to get to the next finder before it was too late. GEOFF: I found my own first meteorite almost by accident, many years ago, so I have to entirely blame Steve Arnold for corrupting me into becoming a full-time meteorite

Large Vaca Muerta meteorite in situ in the Atacama desert. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

have some fun averaging out those numbers. MHC: If you could only pick one meteorite in the whole world, what would be your absolute favorite meteorite? GEOFF: Absolutely no contest for SikhoteAlin. It’s the space rock that has everything: witnessed fall iron with a giant fireball seen by a noted painter; a massive crater field; intriguing, incredible sculptural features; and all those overlapping regmaglypts, rollover lips and flow lines. It is the meteorite’s meteorite. Geoff just a swinging in the Atacama Desert Photograph by Pablo del Rio Larrain © Chile Magic professional. Steve contacted me back in 1996, when we were both already actively involved in the early days of the public Internet. After a most entertaining email correspondence, and a couple of phone calls, he invited me to join him on a hair-raising expedition to Chile. My friends thought I was completely mad for traveling to one of the most inhospitable locations on earth, with a guy I didn’t even know, and they were right. But it was a rollicking adventure, we found many meteorites, I saw the Andes and wild llamas for the first, but not last, time and when we finally rolled back into semi-civilization three weeks later, I think my fate was pretty much sealed. MHC: Do you keep track, (records, logs) of all the meteorites you find? STEVE: No, not on all of my finds. I do try to keep some strewnfield information on places I have worked. GEOFF: In most cases I do keep detailed records of finds, partly because I am sometimes asked to make that information available to researchers, and also because detailed mapping of finds within a strewnfield can help us in finding other pieces. Also, it’s fun to look back—many years later—and say: “Oh, here’s a piece I found on that rainy Tuesday at Park Forest.” Not that I really need to keep records; I’m so involved with my reference collection, on a daily basis, that you could probably visit the Aerolite Meteorites offices, pick up any piece, ask me about it, and I could tell you exactly where, and under what circumstances it was found. Is that overly nerdy?

MHC: How many meteorites do you think you have found in your career(s)? STEVE: I found over 10,000 pieces of Imilac on my first expedition to Chile. Does that count as 1 or as 10,000? Total? It is hard to tell. Also, if I found a farmer with a new rock, and would buy it from him and bring it to science (Nininger style) does that count? If so, probably sixty different find/fall locations. I have found several tons of space rocks over the years. GEOFF: Hundreds, thousands! I can’t remember, and that’s immediately after telling you what good records I keep. Like Steve, I found a few thousand Imia’s, but those are mostly small fragments. I’ve hunted successfully in more than twenty strewnfields on four continents and I would guess that I’ve found about 200 meteorites weighing more than 100 grams, and about ten weighing more than fifty pounds. You could really

STEVE: The “Alpha” meteorites—the subject of the pilot episode and also of the first episode of Season Two. It has been a huge challenge working on that project, but the upside potential with the gemstones is by far greater than all the other finds I have made, combined. Without the Alpha project, I doubt we would have had the series. Sitting across the desk from Debbie Myers, the General Manager of Science Channel, nearly three years ago, while pitching our concept of the TV show, Geoff and I showed her some meteorites, and then we showed her a gemstone from one of the Alpha specimens, and told her the story, and I think that is what clinched the deal for us. We had a new story that had never been told about a real treasure hunt that we assured her we could deliver on, and we got the pilot. MHC: The Meteorite Men show. How did it all start? Were you actively looking to create a show, or were your approached by Discovery/Science Channel? STEVE: There was a story written about my hunting that appeared on the front page of

Steve in the Muonionalusta meteorite strewnfield in Sweden Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

the Los Angeles Times. The day it appeared, Ruth Riving, an executive producer at LMNO Productions in Encino, CA was reading her newspaper over breakfast, saw the story and thought meteorite hunting might make an interesting TV series. She contacted me and asked if I had given the idea any thought before, and I confessed that Geoff and I had indeed given it a lot of thought in the past. A year or so earlier the production company that made the Cash & Treasures program we were on had shown interest in pitching the idea of a meteorite hunting series to various networks, so Geoff and I provided them with lots of ideas on places we could hunt, how we could hunt and how each episode could be different. When their attempts went nowhere, we just filed those papers away. We dusted them off when LMNO showed interest, and they made a pitch video and shopped it around. Science Channel gave us the best deal, so that is where we ended up. MHC: Is the show realistic scientifically and practically speaking? STEVE: With the exception that we have to stop, and explain a lot to the cameras as we go along it is quite realistic. It is as practically realistic as dragging a camera crew around can be. GEOFF: A lot of the show happens in real time. Typically, Steve and I will go ahead of the crew and do some scouting to get familiar with the location, but when you see us finding something, we’re really finding it. There is a lot of accurate and detailed discussion of how we map strewfields, how we plan our hunting strategy and how we deal with problems when they arise. It’s a real as we can make it. MHC: The first season of Meteorite Men was very successful and received good reviews. Obviously it was successful enough that the Science Channel decided to do a second season with more episodes. STEVE: Historically, there are many good television shows that get cancelled, just as there are many horrible shows that keep going. Ratings are the key. Will there be enough viewers to allow the network to sell the ads at a rate where they can justify sending us back out for another season? That is the question. The ratings are that answer. The ratings were there for a second season, and hopefully they will be there this time around so there will be a third season. But we both know it will end

sometime. It can’t go on forever. And if this is the last season, we can take pride that we gave it our best shot, and we have hopefully been good ambassadors for the field in the process. MHC: Can you tell us about the locations you guys hunt? STEVE: I would hate to ruin the surprise. Besides, I want to buy up as much material at a cheap price before word gets out everywhere we went, rumor is that when we highlight a location, it makes the values of the meteorites from that site go up. GEOFF: It’s quite funny when I look back and remember that I thought Season One was hard work! In Season Two we filmed more episodes, in less time, with a much bigger crew, and traveled at least five times as far. We did 60,000 miles in four months and visited four continents on the hunt for space rocks! MHC: Most of us have had a chance to see photos of the umber-cool Meteorite Bike that was created for you guys by Orange County Choppers’ Paul Teutul Sr. and crew on TLC’s American Chopper show. How cool is that!?

MHC: Can you tell us how that came to be? STEVE: Science Channel’s parent company is Discovery Communications, which also owns TLC, which is the home to American Chopper. In fact, at Discovery, both of our shows share the same Executive Producer, Christo Doyle. So it was a decision by executives at Discovery to buy us the bike. MHC: What went into creating the “Meteorite Bike”? GEOFF: Seriously, I was thrilled just to be at OCC, but we were also asked for our input on the functionality of the bike: what kind of gear we might want to carry and how that gear should be stowed. I’m a big WWII history enthusiast and I did a lot of research, during the bike design stage, on the Long Range Desert Group—a gang of British pirate commandos who operated behind German lines during the North African campaign. They used big Chevrolet trucks, retrofitted with all kinds of gear: jerry cans, shovels, camouflage, and weapons. I sent a bunch of pile to the designers at OCC and they liked the tough, go-anywhere feel of the LRDG trucks, so a little of that look was in-

STEVE: It ranks up there pretty high on the Cool Factor Chart in my book! GEOFF: I was a dirt biker when I lived in the UK, and I’ve always loved motorcycles. When I found out that Paul Senior and the Orange County Choppers team were building a custom Meteorite Men bike for us, it was one of the most exciting pieces of news I’d received in years. Steve and I got to go up and visit with the OCC guys in New York for a couple of days and even took Paul Senior meteorite hunting on his property!

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

corporated into the bike’s final form. STEVE: We were able to give a lot of input as to what we wanted on the bike, but the style came from Science Channel. In the end, they wanted a bike they could put in the Discovery Building lobby (after we used and abused it for a while) so they with the crew at Orange County Choppers chose the colors and the aesthetic style. MHC: Is the Meteorite Bike built for marketing the Meteorite Men show, or is it actually practical for hunting meteorites in the field? STEVE: It is not an either/or question. It was built for both practical hunting and for the “wow factor” that the bike generates. GEOFF: The bike does have some very practical applications in the field. When you’re hunting, it’s nice to be closer to the ground and the OCC bike is a good platform for towing Steve’s giant detector and for working with the new GPS system. And, as you’ll see in a couple of Season Two episodes that we got to use the winch as well. It helped us get out of one fairly tricky situation.

MHC: What kind of technology did you include on the bike? STEVE: We have a killer Trimble tractor GPS unit that shows us where we have been accurate down to 3 inches (instead of to 15 feet like most hand held GPS units). We have the sidecar for carrying a passenger. We have a winch on the bike to pull it out of getting stuck, or to help us pull meteorites out of the ground. The bike has storage for extra fuel, and small items as well as holders for shovels and our hand-held metal detectors. It also can pull our big coil. MHC: Can we look forward to seeing the Meteorite Bike in episodes of the Meteorite Men this coming season? STEVE: Yes, let’s just say it makes far more than just a few cameo appearances this season. And unlike the “Rockhound” from Season One, the bike gets really dirty at times. MHC: Since you guys travel the globe searching for space rocks one would imagine there’s certain places that can be quite inhospitable to humans. There are hot deserts, high mountains, and rugged wilderness, not to mention bad guys, pirates, and unfriendly politics in certain regions of the world. Is meteorite hunting ever dangerous? GEOFF: I once wrote a column for my MeteoriteBlog site called “The Exciting Life of a Meteorite Hunter,” in which I tried to compile a list of every hardship, injury and close call that I’d ever experienced, while in pursuit of space rocks. I wrote it in a sort of humorous Monty Python vein, and thought long and hard before letting my father read it (he still worries about me, after all this time). Yes, there are dangers and they are determined by the location and the circumstances. For

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Steve on the Meteorite Bike - Photograph by example, traveling to the northern edge of Siberia by ex-army helicopter to collect impact breccias is a little more hazardous than walking around at Holbrook picking up little peasized stones with a magnet cane. You have to weigh the risks of every expedition and there are a few places I just will not go to, much as I might like to dig for rocks there. STEVE: Well, there is a little bit of drama license in postproduction. After all, they have to hold the viewers through the commercial breaks, so they return for the next act, but the threats we face are real. MHC: When hunting in remote locations, or in foreign countries, what are the dangers, and how do you prepare for and/or handle them? STEVE: This could take a long time to answer this question. Let me cheat and just say tune in to get these answers. Each location has its own sets of challenges, and our producers are very aware of what they want to capture on tape to adequately present those challenges to the audience at home. GEOFF: Everywhere you go is different. I’ve read desert and jungle survival manuals, and I always try to plan ahead for things that could go wrong. Steve teases me because I travel with a lot of gear and it can take me some time to get packed up and ready to move out. But you don’t want to get attacked by thousands of hungry insects and realize you forgot to bring your mosquito helmet. It

acquired a few good skills from it. STEVE: As a teenager, I was a Boy Scout, and I attained the rank of Eagle Scout. Having probably camped out over fifty times as youth, I think that prepared me the most. Also, being in absolute tiptop physical conditioning, maintaining a low body fat percentage really helps as well. ;-)

y Andrew Meakin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC pays to be cautious and prepared. We’ve seen bears, rattlesnakes, packs of wild dogs, giant lizards, scorpions, and a lot of other creatures that will bite or kill you if you bother them. But I’m an ecologist and I believe in respecting the environment. Most animals are dangerous only when surprised or frightened, so I try not to bother them, and assume they won’t bother me. With people it can be a different story. MHC: Do you have any military, survival, or outdoor training or experience that would help you while in the field? GEOFF: I went to a very strict British public school in south London, and I hated almost every minute of it. In addition to studying Latin, the perverse lives of the kings and queens of England, and a lot of other useless stuff, I spent two years as a Royal Air Force cadet. And it wasn’t like the ROTC in this country. At age fourteen I was flying airplanes and doing long-distance target practice with bolt-action Lee Enfield .303s at the rifle range. We were trained by frontline SAS troops who had been rotated out of hazardous duty in Northern Ireland. One of their favorite “training exercises” was to drive us out onto the moors in a Jeep, with a canteen a map, throw us out in the middle of nowhere and snarl: “You can eat when you find your way back to barracks.” I got really good at map reading, really fast. We did survival training, night exercises, practiced emergency evacuations and rescues, and that kind of thing. It was all pretty extreme, but I

MHC: Some critics within the meteorite community would say that the show focuses too much on the monetary value of meteorites. Some other professional meteorite hunters and scientists have criticized you guys, claiming the prices on the show are unrealistic and could cause problems in the field with respect to being able to hunt on private land, whereby landowners might incorrectly believe meteorites found on their land are worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, when in fact they might be worth only a fraction of that. Do you think that there is too much time spent concentrating on the money and value of meteorites rather than the science, are the prices realistic, and what would you say to your critics? STEVE: Yes, some people have said that. And in general, the market research that our network has done shows that viewers really want and need to know what the payoff is, or the show will lose a tremendous amount of interest. Without a price tag assigned to our finds, we are just picking up rocks that almost no one can relate to. The payoff is the reason why we are out there overcoming the obstacles to make the finds. Geoff is not nearly as concerned about the value as I am in real life; nonetheless, it is one of the scorecards that viewers can relate to. Now specifically, I am not sure what people are complaining about. We said Brenham was worth $1 a gram to us when we sell it. We said Buzzard was worth $30/gram, and I know Geoff got over $30 a gram on the pieces he had found and sold from his first trip right after the fall. We valued Gold Basin at $2 or $3/g, which might be a tad high for a retail price, but I bet we could have sold what we found for that much if we had been able to keep it. Odessa shale was valued at $0.20/g, which is what the Odessa Crater Museum Gift Shop sells our finds for, day in and day out. In fact they might be sold out of it at that price by now. There was one mistake in Season One, which we had no idea was going to happen. In post production one of the editors extrapolated

the $30/g value for the little Buzzard Coulee specimens out for the 13-kg main mass as being worth $400,000. Yes, we fully agree, that is an outrageous price for that rock. We pointed that mistake out, albeit too late, so they were more sensitive later with the other episodes. One thing people have to realize, is they want to know what a rock we find is worth when we go to sell it. They don’t want to know what we would pay for a rock wholesale. And they don’t want to know what a farmer who might dig the same rock up could get for it. They want to know what we can get for a find when we bring it to market. What are we expecting our payday to be? Now, in response to some of the criticism, this season we have both tried to qualify why some of our new finds are worth what we are claiming them to be worth. So we might say: “We plan on cutting this into slices. We will lose 25% in saw losses, but we can get a lot more for it per gram than as a whole stone.” Who knows how much our explanations will get into the final cuts? Ultimately we don’t have a final say in that. It is up to our producers make the show they way they want, in a way they think the audience will like best. As for the crybabies who whine about how bad it is if the world finds out that meteorites are really worth money well, I could say I am sorry, but I’m not. Yes, sometimes the truth sheds light into situations where some people might prefer others would stay in the dark. And of course, there are crazy people out there who will think their $500 rock is worth a million bucks. But who cares? If they have a real meteorite, and our show helps people see they have something of value, how is that bad? Sure, some people might not want to sell immediately when a dealer pulls out a wad of cash. But eventually they will figure it out and wise up. And if they really do want to sell, they will end up selling it at the price the market will allow. The Mifflin, Wisconsin fall presented some of those challenges. And in our Mifflin episode this season, I think we will address some of those problems in the context of the episode. GEOFF: For those who have complained that there is too much emphasis placed on the financial value of meteorites on Meteorite Men, I’d say: I agree with you and—seriously—please send a polite email or letter to Science Channel voicing your opinion. And I say that with all due respect and affection for our wonderful network, which has been

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

67 pound Muonionalusta iron meteorite. Reflecting on a great hunt. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC extremely supportive of us. I agree with Science Channel 99% of the time regarding the direction of the show, and working with them has been an outstanding and rewarding experience. I have personally discussed The Monetary Value Issue at the highest level—several times—both with our production company

and with Science Channel. I’m a purist and I’d like to see the show focus a little more on the science and the adventure, but it’s not my decision, and it’s important to remember that we’re not making the show for Club Space Rock or the Meteorite Mailing List; we’re making it for millions of people worldwide who—so far—don’t know a thing about meteorites. For those viewers, unless a value is placed on our finds, the payoff is just two guys picking up a black rock in a field. Science Channel and our production company, LMNO, have been making television for a lot longer than I have, so when they tell me that focus group studies clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of viewers love to know how much our finds are worth, I believe them and I trust them to do whatever is necessary to make a successful show. For those who claim the values assigned to our finds are unrealistic, I’d say: “Based on what?” We were asked to provide estimated retail values for our finds, and those val-

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

ues are extrapolated from actual transactions that Steve and I witnessed or participated in. I’ll stand behind the values of any of our finds quoted on Meteorite Men, and that’s kind of ironic because I was just saying that I’d rather there was less talk about money! I do value the integrity of the show, and Steve and I have been buying, selling and trading meteorites for about 35 years between us, so I think we have a pretty good idea how much meteorites are worth. It’s easy to sit at home in front of the TV and find fault with something. We all do it. Our show is the first television series dedicated entirely to meteorites—ever—so we’re not borrowing somebody else’s template; it’s all new, and exciting, and challenging. I’m sure we make some mistakes and there are doubtless some things we could have done better, but Steve and I give it all we’ve got. And let’s end this question on a positive note: for every person who griped about meteorite values, we had a hundred people, especially parents, write in and say what a positive impact the show had on their, or their kids’ interest in science. STEVE: I trust our producers and our network in that they know what they need to make a good show. My guess is that the ratios of amount of time concentrating on science, on values, on humor, on challenges, on local people, on capturing the feel of the location are in pretty good balance. Are these ratios balanced to everyone in our community’s satisfaction? The answer is: “No.” But, if we relied on the meteorite collecting community for ratings, our pilot

Steve and Geoff standing on the rim of Monturaqui crater in the Atacama Desert Photograph by Pablo del Rio Larrain © Aerolite Meteorites LLC would have played once and it would have never aired again. I hate to be blunt, but the show is not made for meteorite enthusiasts. Another challenge we have, is say we find a 10-gram meteorite at Buzzard Coulee, and we say it is worth $30/g or $300 because that is what we think it is worth. But, we just found it on TV, and as such, there is a uniquely special provenance to that specimen, because we found it on TV. So, what if we know we could get a premium for the rock now, maybe $40/g? Are we supposed to lie, and say it is only worth $30/g? What if we say on TV it is worth only $30/g (or $300) but we later list it for sale for $400? Then our customers say, “Why are you asking $400 for it, when you are the show saying it is only worth $300?” I think it is easy for people to be critical sometimes. And when it comes to subjective matters like values of meteorites, it is one of those things that is impossible to get everyone to agree upon. MHC: How much are meteorites worth? STEVE: In my case, meteorites are worth what I can sell them for. In Geoff’s case, they are worth whatever he values the pleasure he will get the rest of his life when he looks at them in his private collection. How important is recording and compiling data on meteorite finds and falls? STEVE: I think scientifically, there is little value. Most scientists don’t care where a meteorite fell or what the total known weight

was or what the perimeter of the strewnfield is. Most scientists can get all they need from the 20 grams of the type sample when submitted. Of course, as an entrepreneurial meteorite hunter, that kind of information is invaluable in finding more pieces, which can lead to more money, which can lead to me finding a new meteorite sometime later, which leads to a 20-gram donation, ad infinitum. It is quite a nice host-parasite relationship however, I am not so sure who is the host and who is the parasite. MHC: How would you rate the importance of meteorite recovery and what does it mean to science and the scientific community? STEVE: Without people finding new meteorites, the science of meteoritic is crippled. I could go on and on with this topic, but you don’t have room in the magazine for all of it. Of course government employees do recover meteorites, especially in the expeditions to Antarctica each year. So the argument might be focused on how important entrepreneurial hunting is. I refuse to allow the argument to be hypocritically framed by someone who tries to state that there is something wrong with profiting from the field of meteoritic. To prove my point, I would like to know how many government-employed meteorite scientists, researchers, curators and the like donate their entire pay check back to their institution each week because it is ethically wrong to profit from meteorites? Other than the great work that Dr. Art Ehl-

mann has done at the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery during the last decade or so, and to a lesser degree Tom Rodman at the Odessa Crater, I don’t know anyone else in meteoritic that has done their work for basically for no compensation. I’m not saying there isn’t anyone else, I just don’t know of them, and I would guess that it is not the norm for people in the field of science to work for free. MHC: How exciting is it to you to be able to take part in the advancement of planetary science? STEVE: Unlike a surgeon that might save someone’s life on a daily basis, there is a delayed gratification when you look at the big picture in what we are doing as strewnfield workers. Most days that I hunt, I don’t find anything. Much of what I do find, isn’t, quite honestly, all that valuable to science. But one additional find in an old strewnfield, could be sold and the money could buy the plane ticket to the next fall, or could buy the next shipment of Northwest Africa stones, that are then sold, and another expedition is taken to some place far off where a significant find could be made. That is how I used to think about it. But now, I have a new look at it. Just recently, Geoff and I got the honor and the privilege to speak to and interact with thousands of kids at the USA Science and Engineering Festival held on the Mall in Washington D.C. We shared the Discovery tent at the event with Kari Byron from Mythbusters. I could not tell you how many kids came up to us saying when they grow up they want to become meteorite hunters. But we also had

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Geoff and Steve with the massive 223-lb monster pallasite meteorite found during Season Two, Episode One at the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Alphaâ&#x20AC;? site

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Photo: Suzanne Morrison ÂŠ Aerolite Meteorites LLC

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Large sculpted Mundrabilla iron meteorite found by Geoff while on location in Australia. Photography by Geoff Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC kids come up, and by their level of conversation they were having with us, we knew they were serious when they told us they wanted to become meteoriticists. Then we would have junior high science teachers come up and thank us, because our show is helping to make “science cool again” for their students. Will all those students become meteorite scientists? No. But you know what, some of them might stick with science, and maybe they will invent some new device that will double mileage rates on cars, or one might find the cure to cancer, or some might become surgeons and they will save lives on daily basis. So, there is a realization, for me at least, that what we are doing—and what the hundredplus people who directly work on this little “reality TV show” are doing—is taking part in the advancement of the human race in our own little way. Bottom line: just because some people get their panties all twisted up because of something as trivial as the values of some of the meteorites we find on camera, doesn’t mean I have to let it bother me. “The dog barks, and the train rolls on.” MHC: Given the recent publicity in the media regarding who legally owns meteorites, what’s your opinion(s) on meteorite ownership in the United States and abroad? STEVE: I think the precedent that was set with the Old Woman meteorite is bad law.

I think the Smithsonian could afford better lawyers than the prospectors could afford. I mean, come on, the judge ruled that the prospectors couldn’t use the old mining and prospecting laws that were on the books because meteorite “are not locatable minerals.” Excuse me? I think if anything my career has proven, not to mention the careers of dozens of others in our field, it is that we can locate meteorites. Of course, private property, at least in the U.S. is a different story. Nininger proved it by recovering over 600 different find/falls in his career, that if you give people a profit motive, they will bring meteorites to you. Take away the profit motive, and we all lose out. MHC: Many meteorite falls and previously recovered meteorite finds are located on private land, and there are lots of meteorite strewnfields that overlap both public and private land. What’s your advice to the new meteorite hunter on how to approach the issue of gaining permission from private landowners to hunt on their property? STEVE: I ask for permission, and I get the agreement in writing. It helps to protect both parties. MHC: In recent years there’s been an upsurge of public interest in meteorites, meteorite hunting, and collecting. How do you feel the Meteorite Men show has affected the meteorite community, and the public at large?

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

STEVE: We are just building on what dozens, or maybe hundreds, of other people have done before us, and are continuing to build today. Meteorite collecting has always been cool. Just virtually no one knew it. Yes, a light will attract moths, and some people are just negative by nature and they like to complain. But I think the field is heading a great direction. Who knows how the supply and demand formula will shake out? Will there be more meteorites found because more people will go hunting for them because of the Meteorite Men TV series, thus driving the values down in the future? Or will there be so many new collectors join because of excitement generated by the show, that demand will soar beyond what the new finds will be able to supply? Who knows? But as with all change, not everyone is going to like it, I would guess. MHC: Technology is obviously very important in meteorite recovery and planetary science. How do you see the science of Meteoritics advancing over the next decade or two with regard to the increased awareness in the media, the new technologies that are being implemented in both recovery and classification of meteorites, and general public interest? GEOFF: Although meteoritics occupies a relatively small corner of the scientific world, it is a science that incorporates so many different disciplines: chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy. Better telescopes mean we can see deeper into space; better microscopes allow us to study the structure

Geoff making Steve work on the giant metal detector Photograph by Pablo del Rio Larrain ÂŠ Aerolite Meteorites LLC of meteorites in more detail; better metal detectors enable us to search farther into the ground for buried space rocks. Meteoritics is about as exciting a field as you can find, but in my opinion itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still in its infancy. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to see all the new discoveries and advancements that lie ahead of us.

STEVE: Everything is advancing exponentially, everything. Knowledge is like a snowball that starts the roll down the mountainside. One day we will be taking expeditions to asteroids on a regular basis, and someone will figure out how to spot all meteorites in the top 5 feet of soil all over the planet. But, before we get to that point, we have to

endure little advances like going to Antarctica, harvesting the Sahara and Dhofar, using Doppler radar, making 18-foot wide sleds to pull 50-foot long metal detector coils, to using TV to entertain and inspire others to make their own breakthroughs. How is it all going to unfold? I can tell you with almost certainty that no one really knows. But that

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

is ok. Just hang on, because I bet it is going to be fun. MHC: Meteorites come from asteroids, which come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Recently there was an asteroid spotted by Richard Kowalski at the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson Arizona. This was the first asteroid in the history of human beings to have been discovered prior, to and predicted to, impact our planet. It makes one think about larger asteroid impacts and the dangers they represent to humanity. NASA also locates and tracks asteroids through the NEO (Near Earth Object) program, and tracks PHAs (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids) that make potentially threatening close approaches to Earth. Since there are literally millions of asteroids of all sizes out there darting around our solar system, how important do you believe meteorite science is to planetary defense? STEVE: Pretty important. GEOFF: The more we learn about the makeup of asteroids, the more chance we have of defending ourselves against the planet killer

that is going to wander in our direction sooner or later. But I think meteoritics will play a fairly minor role in planetary defense. We should be spending a lot more time watching the skies and experimenting with ways in which we might deflect or destroy a rogue asteroid. MHC: These rocks from space we love so much as meteorite hunters, collectors, and scientists, have the potential to destroy humanity and change the cosmic history of our Earth. How humbling is this to you? STEVE: Pretty humbling. MHC: What does meteorite hunting mean to you personally? STEVE: Meteorite hunting is what I do. For the last 18 years, I have made somewhat of a living at it. But somewhere along the way, I have stumbled into making a life out of it. And now I get the amazing pleasure to share part of that life with a few million other people who will tune in over the next couple of months to watch Season Two of Meteorite Men. Statistically, if I can just help keep 1% of American teenagers from tuning into Jersey Shore for just one night, that is more

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

A handful of Yelland Dry Lak of a contribution to society than I have previously made the whole 18 years leading up to now. GEOFF: Meteorite hunting is the most ex-

Happy Hunting! STEVE: Eric, you are very welcome. Thanks for the opportunity to share with your readers.

ke meteorites. Photography by Geoff Notkin © Aerolite Meteorites LLC citing and rewarding aspect of my professional life. How can it not be a thrill to pull a multi billion year-old space rock from the ground? Steve jokes that finding a new meteorite is the closest thing to a spiritual experience that I will ever get in my life, and he’s probably right! MHC: Will there be a Season 3? GEOFF: I’ve been my own boss for over twenty years, but now I find myself working for two big companies—and great companies they are too—Discovery Communications and LMNO Productions. I’m a very independent person and a bit of a maverick, and I like to do things my way, but if you want to make a multi-million dollar TV series then you need to work with people, and appreciate that successful and respected executives and producers really do know what they’re doing most of the time. Yes, there are always going to be one or two things I’d like to change about the show—for instance I’d like The Who’s brilliant rocker “Dig” to be our theme song— but a hit show is a combined effort, with over a hundred people using their particular skills and expertise to put Meteorite Men on your television screen. Over and over again, our film crew and other professionals have told me that working on Meteorite Men has been one of the most enjoyable experiences of their careers, and that is a huge compliment. I think it’s fair to say that everyone involved in the project has gone the extra distance.

If the world likes Season Two and wants us to do a Season Three, I’ll be there. And for readers who would like to keep up on the latest Meteorite Men news, I invite them to join us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/meteoritemen or on Twitter @MeteoriteMen. I run our social media sites personally, and we post news updates almost every day, along with exclusive photos, contests, and so on. STEVE: If the ride ends with these eight episodes in Season Two, I can be very happy with what our team has accomplished and my role in all of it. If the stars align, and we get another season, then I am confident there are enough other strewnfields for us to make a great third season. I encourage everyone to visit my video blog site at www.ArnoldMeteorites.com and I promise to let them know about a potential pick up for another year as soon as they let us know. In the meantime I will work hard at making my website a fun place for nice people to come and learn and enjoy my take on all things meteoritic. In fact, some of the questions in this interview would be great to expound on in video blogging format. You don’t mind if I expound on some of these at my site do you? (I wouldn’t be a good marketer if I didn’t get in at least one shameless plug, right?) MHC: I want to thank you guys again, for taking the time for this interview, and Discovery/Science Channel for creating the Meteorite Men show. Good luck on the possibly of a 3rd season!

Geoffrey Notkin is a science writer, TV host, meteorite specialist, and photographer. He has appeared on Science Channel, Discovery, Nat Geo, PBS, the BBC, A&E, and History Channel Website: www.aerolite.org

Steve Arnold has been a full time meteorite hunter and dealer for 18 years, and hosts ArnoldMeteorites.com & his facebook fan page: SteveArnoldMeteorites Website: www.arnoldmeteorites.com

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Steve Arnold, Sonny Clary, Geoff Notkin, Brix The Meteorite Hunting Dog. Photo by Sonya Bourn ÂŠ Aerolite Meteorites LLC www.aerolite.org

Yelland Dry Lake H4 S2 W3 Chondrite Meteorite - Photo: Sonny Clary www.nevadameteorites.com

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

by Sonny Clary

to watch out for the many indigenous obstacles such as soft sand and buried debris. Practically everything could catch your front tire and throw you airborne. Imagine a Pro- Wrestler tossing you across the mat. I remember the bike starting to shake and swerve side to side.

across the world have produced meteorites over the years, I rationalized that this would The dry lake-bed that I wanted to hunt be a good location to hunt. Prior to leaving was located hours away from Las Vegas in home for my trek, I called a couple of my a remote valley in rural Nevada. While I hunting partners: Steve Schoner and Rob had previously visited this location over the Reisener, and invited them along. Regretfulyears, I never had the chance to explore it for ly, both had prior arrangements and were unmeteorites. This ancient location able to attend. Like many of my preis nestled between two mountain vious meteorite hunting trips, you ranges, each running north-south. can hunt for days without any luck. Human habitation in this valley They just weren’t able, on this occagoes back at least 12,000 years. sion, to take that much time off. The first-time I visited the valMy main goal was simple: revisit ley was with my father. Several that dry lake bed and make a cold years later, I returned to the area find with my wife; while visiting (which is, a newly discovered her relatives who were operatmeteorite from an undiscovered loing a large cattle ranch nearby. cation). Much to my surprise, this As ranchers, they incorporated happened within hours of my armotorcycles and horses when rival. Whenever you hunt, keep the rounding up their livestock. To following maxim in mind: stay posimake me feel like part of the famtive and remember that meteorites ily, they invited me along to help can be found anywhere. Meteorites check on their cattle. On this day: have bombarded the Earth for milmotorcycles were the vehicle of lions of years. Therefore, it’s not if, choice. As I opened up the throtbut when you will cross paths with tle, I thought to myself, “What an one. adventure to ride across the desFour hours after arriving at the ert, chasing cattle with the wind lake bed, I made my first discovery. in your face.” One of the men I’d always dreamed of finding a 100 asked me if I knew how to ride pound meteorite; glistening in the a motorcycle, and if I had any sunlight - like something you would experience navigating dangersee in a museum. But in reality, I ous terrain. He also reminded me knew I should be looking for somethat we would be chasing wild thing that resembles a rusty scrap of cattle. With a note of superiority, metal; perhaps the size of a bottle I told him, “Of course!” In realcap. The first fragment I found that ity, the only experience I had was day really did look like a rusty piece riding a mini bike up and down of metal. There it was! I couldn’t the neighborhood streets of my believe my eyes! A new cold find! youth. A 15 gram meteorite laying there; Sonny and Brix - Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin © Within minutes the bike was fired perhaps waiting for thousands, maybe Aerolite Meteorites LLC www.aerolite.org up and my helmet was on. After trymillions of years for me to pick it up. ing to take off, and stalling a couple The excitement was overwhelmof times, I mastered the clutch and was off The next thing I knew, there I was, flying ing. However, I kept my head. It’s times like and running. Now I thought to myself, “If I next to the bike in a cloud of dust. these when you have to refrain from running can only remember the shift pattern!” When I finally stopped sliding, I stood up over to the meteorite and leaping on it like a “Was it one down and four up; or vice and saw the others well ahead of me. Covered football dropped by a Super Bowl quarterversa?” from head-to-toe with dust, I stood in the hot back. Here’s why: it’s always best to photo“What the heck,” I was sailing along look- sun squinting to make out the horizon. Had graph the find in situ (as it’s placed) with a ing for rogue cattle. It was my job to help you seen me, the only thing visible were my scale cube. I also cataloged the location, notround up the strays, but I didn’t get very eyes and mouth. This painful memory used ing the date and time of the find; so later that far. As I was riding across the desert lake to be how I remembered that lake bed. night I could put it into a As I got closer and bed I discovered that they forgot to tell me Knowing that many the dry lake beds looked around, I could see hundreds of frag-

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Bits of the Yelland Dry Lake meteorite in situ. Pieces like these are scattered all over the lake bed. Photo: Sonny Clary www.nevadameteorites.com ments in all different directions. I stood there in amazement; carefully removing my backpack off As I got closer and looked around, I could see hundreds of fragments in all differ-

ent directions. I stood there in amazement; carefully removing my backpack off so I could start taking pictures. That’s when it occurred to me: where am I going to put all of these meteorites? All I had with me was my backpack and a couple of lunch bags that I had brought along just in case I found something. Within twenty paces I had already filled both lunch bags. So I started putting the excess fragments in a pouch in the bottom of my shirt. I couldn’t go very far in any direction without filling my hands with meteorite fragments. Quickly, I had a problem. I would start to walk toward my backpack and would end up placing another pile of meteorites on the ground between my backpack and the last pile. If only Steve and Rob were there to help. This process went on for hours. I never thought I could

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

get tired of picking up meteorites. I could only put 20-25 pounds into my backpack before it would tear. I had to leave the piles lying on the lake bed surface until the following day. so I could start taking pictures. That’s when it occurred to me: where am I going to put all of these meteorites? All I had with me was my backpack and a couple of lunch bags that I had brought along just in case I found something. Within twenty paces I had already filled both lunch bags. So I started putting the excess fragments in a pouch in the bottom of my shirt. As I relaxed in the back of my truck looking at the stars that night, I could only anticipate what I would find the next day. Not having any cell phone service, I had to wait until l returned to civilization following my trip to tell Steve and Rob the news. Before the sun was up the following day, I was already halfway across the lake. I could only spend half the day hunting before leaving this extraordinary find to drive home. I needed to be back at work the following day. I spent most of that morning picking up only the largest pieces and leaving the smaller fragments for another trip. I did not know the full extent of this fall until my return trip. I wondered to myself if this was a single meteorite that had fragmented over time or a large strewnfield. On a few of the larger pieces, the thumbprints or regmaglypts were 1 to 1 1/2 inches across and 1/4 inch deep. However, all of the fragments had the same weathering, and none appeared to be individual meteorites. I returned one month later; this time with help. Rob had taken time off from work; alas, Steve was unable to come. For this trip, Rob and I were much more prepared. We made sure to bring extra bags for the recovery work. Ultimately, we spent several days picking up fragments. We estimated our bounty at 40-50 pounds. I noticed the larger pieces lead in one direction, while the small pieces pointed in another. We did find pieces a couple hundred feet away; but still no complete meteorites. Over the years, as the lake bed’s surface froze each winter, the sand would form into a sheet of ice. As the winter winds picked up, the fragments would travel by the wind. This hypothesis may have explained why we found a few pieces away from the main cluster. Ultimately, they were probably pieces from the same meteorite. Another factor that could assist the wind in moving these pieces, was the process of frost heaving. Frost heaving (or frost heave) is the process by which the freezing of watersaturated soil causes the deformation and upward thrust of the ground surface raising the

in awe as they answered each question with ease. During our filming at Yelland Dry Lake we were able to recover an exceptional amount of material. Even the film crew got excited about hunting on the final day of filming and they began to find their own meteorites. It was such a pleasure to spend time with the cast and crew of Meteorite Men. I really hated to see the filming come to an end. It was a wonderful experience for Brix and I to be part of the Meteorite Men’s first season. What a joy to share the excitement of the hunt with the world. I will bet many new meteorite discoveries will be made around the globe thanks to the Meteorite Men.

meteorites to the surface. Returning home took us through a very small town. As we drove, Rob and I wondered how many pounds we had recovered. As luck would have it, as we drove through that town, we noticed a yard sale. I told Rob, “I bet we might be able to find an old scale to weigh our finds.” As we walked through the piles of junk and trinkets, we noticed a pink 1960‘s-era bathroom scale. It was not quite what we were looking for, but it would work! I jested to Rob, “I wonder if this is what they use at the Smithsonian to weigh meteorites.” We both laughed. After zeroing out the scale, and testing it with a five pound weight, which we also found amid the piles of junk, the scale was “right on the money”! The total weight was: 60 pounds. Not bad for three days of recovery work. This put the new TKW at 120 pounds. Over the years we have recovered 150 pounds of fragments from this location. Only one partial stone weighing 35 grams was found, in addition to the fragments. The meteorite was classified as a H4 S2 W3 Fa18.5±0.2 (n=7) low-Ca pyx Fs16.3Wo2.2 (n=2) provisional name Anyone that has ever hunted for meteorites with Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold knows how much fun it can be. The typical day is spent joking and teasing while trying to out do each other on the hunt for meteorites. Steve with his big smile, outgoing personality and heart of gold jumps into the hunt feet first and raring to go. Geoff on the other hand is more sophisticated with his English accent and charm. He carefully takes his time to gather his equipment at the beginning of each hunt to ensure he has everything

he will need for his time in the field. Each of these hunters is successful in his own approach and hunting style. Combined the two of them make an unbeatable team. When Geoff and Steve were planning their first season of Meteorite Men I was invited to be a guest on one of their episodes. I can not express how excited and honored I felt to have this opportunity. I contemplated where I could take them to hunt. I was working on several hunting areas at the time and wanted to be sure I picked the right one. I thought the scenery around Yelland Dry Lake and the Great Basin would be a good place to film the episode. Not to mention the fact that the chances of recovering meteorites there would be promising . Steve and Geoff and their producers agreed that Yelland Dry Lake would be the location of choice. We initially planned on filming this episode early in the Fall before the weather got cold. Due to schedule changes we were not able to film until late October. As the days grew nearer to the time of filming I started to wonder what kind of questions I would be asked while on camera and how I would respond to them. I thought I had it all mentally rehearsed and was confident I could do a job while on camera. On the first day of the hunt I had the pleasure of meeting the director and film crew. I remained cautiously optimistic and still felt I could answer the questions well under pressure. Within minutes of the camera rolling I met my demise! All of my rehearsed responses to their questions eluded me. I sounded more like Elmer Fudd one of the Looney Tunes characters than myself. As the day progressed I gained a little more confidence and became less nervous speaking. Geoff and Steve were pro’s in front of the camera and I watched

Sonny Clary is a meteorite hunter in Nevada who has recovered thousands of meteorites. he resides in Las Vegas and is a volunteer firefighter. Website: www.nevadameteorites.com

Brix is the world’s first trained meteorite hunting dog. (above) 205g Mifflin meteorite found by Brix. Sonny only wishes he was as good. Brix hunts meteorites all over the remote Nevada wilderness and it’s dry lake beds. From time to time he lets Sonny tag along.

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Hunting The Pasamonte Meteorite

39.2g Pasamonte eucrite meteorite. Eucrites are achondrites and very rare. Photo: Mike Farmer www.meteoritehunter.com

by Robert Woolard At precisely 5:00 AM, on Friday, March 24, 1933, the natural laws of physics that govern the orbital motion of bodies within our Solar System were apparently broken. As fantastic as that sounds, what else could explain what happened that day? In a technological age where the precise second of sunrise was easily predictable, the sun was apparently rising one full hour too early! And not only that, it was also speeding much too rapidly across the eastern sky as it raced on its path toward the west. There are probably very few people still alive today who saw this amazing event. And what a sight it must have been! But no laws of physics had been broken after all, and it was not the sun that had turned night into day. Instead, it was a gigantic meteor, appearing larger than a full moon and brighter than the sun. Lighting up the predawn sky, it was seen by early risers across parts of at least six states in the heart of America.

Perhaps the most noteworthy witness was a cowboy named Charles M. Brown who just happened to be directly under the meteor’s path. His quick thinking and his handy Kodak Brownie camera captured the first image ever of a fireball in flight. And what a fireball it was! Consider the account of Sim Cally, a seasoned rancher at his sheep camp who was another lucky witness of the event (although he might not have agreed with that statement at the time). Just getting ready to start the new day, he saw the ball of fire come into view over the canyon wall and thought the whole Earth was burning. He yelled to his men: “It’s the end of the world! It’s all over now!” In truth, the fireball passed at least 75 miles away from him and at a height of at about 20 miles. The detonation produced by the demise of the Pasamonte meteor was equally impressive. Described as being like thunder, only much louder, the noise was heard more than 100 miles away on either side of the flight path, and was powerful enough to rattle houses and

windows nearly as far away. The meteor traveled from east to west, coming in at a shallow 8 degree angle. It had hit the Earth in a head on collision, taking place at a relative velocity of 40 miles per second. The average speed during its more than 400 mile flight was about 20 miles per second. It first appeared over Kansas at an altitude of 78 miles, and extinguished at a height of 17 miles above the New Mexico landscape. The brilliant fireball was visible for perhaps an astounding 20 seconds, due to its great initial mass and its shallow angle of entry into the atmosphere. Harvey Nininger investigated the fall extensively and later noted that “… the Pasamonte …fall left a cloud of dust aggregating about 1,000 cubic miles. The mass which invaded the atmosphere on that occasion must have comprised many thousands of tons… There are very good reasons for believing that in space Pasamonte was a greater meteorite (sic) than that which the Russian scientists now report landing in southeastern Siberia and possibly also larger than the fall of 1908 which was estimated at 40,000 tons.” (Readers will recognize the obvious references to the great Sikhote-Alin fall, and the fascinating Tunguska event.) In spite of its great size, only about100 small stones were all that were ever recovered from this spectacular fireball. They ranged in weight from 4.5 grams to 292 grams, and totaled a scant 5 Kg. It was a very fragile and friable type of stone, almost ash like in composition. Originally, Pasamonte was classified as an unequilibrated monomict eucrite. But more recent, detailed examination has led to it be reclassified as a eucritepolymict breccia. Sadly, all but a miniscule fraction of the initial massive stone was either vaporized or literally pulverized into dust. But, in hopes that some of these precious stones might yet lay waiting discovery, protected by their cocoon of glassy fusion crust even after all these years, my meteorite hunting partner, Jerry Hinkle and I made plans to visit the

Background Photo: Storm rolling in across the passamonet meteorite strewnfield - Photo Credit: Robert Woolard

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

site of the Pasamonte fall. We arrived at the Pasamonte Ranch at 10:30 AM on May 27, 1995. We drove up to the main ranch house to ask for permission to do some hunting. Unfortunately, the owner of the ranch (the name of whom I am withholding in respect for his privacy) said: “ Well, we’re looking for those stones, too, and I don’t allow anyone to hunt for them out here.” Obviously, that was not what we were hoping to hear. The silence was palpable for a few seconds as our disappointment set in. But then the rancher started talking to us, just in general, about his ranch and the great number of rattlesnakes it was home to, and various other non-meteorite related subjects. At one point, he asked us to jump into his truck and ride with him a bit. Not really knowing where this all was leading, we piled into his truck and rode with him as he continued to talk and give us a brief tour of his ranch. As we were riding along, he abruptly said: “I tell you what. You both seem like good boys, so I am going to let you hunt for a couple of days, but that’s all. We will split anything you find. If you find only one, its mine. If you find two, I get my choice. And if you find more than two…well. We’ll just see what happens. How does that sound?” Obviously, that sounded great to us! When we arrived back at his house, he said he wanted to give us a map of his ranch so that we wouldn’t get lost. I asked: “Lost? Just how big is your ranch?” Motioning with his arms, he replied: “It runs 9 miles this way and almost 8 miles that way.” (Wow! 72 square miles! Now that’s a ranch!) He even marked a big oval on the map of where most of the meteorites had been found. With satisfaction, we noticed that his plotting agreed with the map that we had drawn up during our planning for the trip. Before we parted to start hunting, the rancher related one more intriguing, if ultimately tragic, tale. He told of how he was riding his horse along a fence line back in the 60’s, when he looked down and saw a “shiny, black rock, just as slick as glass!” He took it back to his foreman and told him he thought it was “one of those Pasamonte meteors.” The

Mexican foreman didn’t think it was and asked to see it. He handed it over to him, and in an eerie reenactment of how people treated many of the initial finds, the foreman put it on the anvil, picked up a hammer, and with one blow… smashed it to dust! “I guess it was one after all” was all he had to say. That was the only meteorite he has ever seen on his ranch over 50 years or so. (I’m trying to resist the urge to call that poor specimen a “hammer-ed stone”.) We offered the rancher our sincere thanks again and eagerly drove out to start our two day hunt. We were well aware that the odds of success were overwhelmingly against us, but we thought our best plan would be to cover as much land as quickly as possible, hoping to spot a “shiny black rock” on some exposed patch of dirt somewhere within the 28 mile long and 2 to 3 mile wide strewnfield. (Ironically, the total area of the strewnfield matched almost exactly the total area of the Pasamonte Ranch, although the borderlines of each are obviously not the same.) We got in 6 hours of hunting that afternoon, and walked a total of 19 miles. It was a pretty cold hunt, with a stiff wind making it even more challenging. As we more or less expected, we found no meteorites. The weather worsened even more during the night, with the growing wind shaking the whole tent and continuously waking us up. By the morning, it had turned bitterly cold. The temperature was in the 30’s and with the wind chill, it felt even worse. It was 8:00 AM before we could bundle up and start the hunt. Jerry and I usually do all of our meteorite hunting within sight of each other so that we can both share in the thrill of each other’s finds. That has always worked well for us, and we have been very fortunate to find quite a few specimens over the years. But this day, we decided we should split up in hopes of at least one of us stumbling across a productive patch of ground. The landscape was mostly flat, close cropped pasture, with some scattered spots of more or less bare ground here and there. There were also occasional small hills and deep canyons randomly punctuating the land. Surprisingly, these

deep canyons are home to a fair number of black bears! Fortunately, we did not have any run-ins with any of them, but we did spot many of the numerous antelope. Also, at one point, Jerry was fortunate enough to come across a small bluff shelter complete with ancient petroglyphs. The temperature started to climb over the next 6 hours and by the time I returned to our camp at 2:00 PM, all one needed was a long sleeved shirt. Jerry had returned a bit earlier than me, and was taking a short nap in the tent. I headed out again after a quick lunch break. Soon after, the rancher drove up to me in his truck and asked how was it going and had we found anything. I told him we hadn’t. Before he drove off, he warned me that it looked like we were in for some bad storms later on if an approaching system didn’t move off to the north. As he left, I was now more anxious then ever to get moving, with time running out and needing to beat the approaching storms. Naturally, wanting to find a meteorite (or two) was my number one goal, but I also wanted to try to best our old distance record of “21 miles walked in a single day of hunting”. I had already logged 19 miles that day and knew I should have no trouble meeting that goal… if the weather cooperated. But there were some ominous looking clouds on the horizon, and before too long, I could see far off flashes of lightning. The storm was heading my way, and it was approaching quickly. When I determined that the storm was only about 15 miles away judging by the time it took for me to hear the thunder after a lightning flash, I realized I had pushed too far away from camp. Except for an occasional windmill, I was by far the tallest object on the plains. Not a good thing in a lightning storm. I turned around, but soon knew I would not make it back before the storm caught up with me. I reasoned my best chance was to veer off further away from both the camp and the storm by heading more south, hoping the edge of the storm would slide off to the north of me. I started running for awhile, then slowing to rest, then running some more, then slowing again, etc., etc.

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

I almost made it. I did mange to avoid being struck by lightning (my obvious number one goal), but I did get a little wet. At least I didn’t get completely soaked, as it rained really hard where I would have been had I not changed course. But by now, my right leg had started going into occasional spasms and the thought did run through my mind that I might not be able to make it to camp before dark, as it was now several miles away. I had to change my “rhythm of walking” to more of a hobble, but I finally did make it back with a little daylight left. And I had blown my old mileage record completely away, having walked/ran a total of 32 miles that day. Jerry had already broke camp when I arrived, which was good news for me … and my right leg. We drove away and up to the ranch house to report in and say goodbye. The rancher was home and one of the first things he asked was had we seen the tornado? He said he was really concerned for us, for it had dipped down out of the southern end of the storm, very close to where I had

been. It would have been behind me, so I didn’t see it. He said it was on the ground for about 2 minutes before lifting back up and disappearing. We gave the sad news that we hadn’t found anything, but we were ever so thankful for the opportunity to hunt. His reply was: “Well, I’m gonna’ go back on what I told you again. You guys can come back and hunt anytime.” What a nice guy! Our Pasamonte hunt was over, and we struck out on any finds. In reality, that’s really what we expected, due to the very short time we had to hunt, and the fact that the fall had occurred 62 years earlier! But, like Jerry and I have always said to each other when trying to decide whether or not to go on a hunting trip: “Only one thing is sure. We won’t find any if we don’t go!” Out of more than a dozen meteorite hunting trips we’ve gone on over the years, Pasamonte ranks as only our second strike out. But we wouldn’t have missed it, or the new friend we made, for anything. And who knows? We just might take up the generous offer to give it another try one of these days!

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010

Robert Woolard lives in Little Rock, AR. He’s been a Meteorite hunter for more than two decades. Along with his best friend(s), has found over 2,000 individuals from many different locations. They donated the vast majority of these to our local planetarium. Email: meteoritefinder@yahoo.com

Meteorite Hunting & Collecting Magazine - November 2010