Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Meteor hunters strike pay dirt (Recent meteor/fireball over CA)
latimes.com ^ | 4/30/2012 | Diana Marcum,

Posted on 04/30/2012 3:41:04 PM PDT by dragnet2

COLOMA-LOTUS VALLEY, Calif — In the week since a fireball shot across the sky and exploded, scattering a rare type of meteorite over California's Gold Country,

Once again there are lively saloons, fortune hunters jockeying for prime spots.. including that of Brenda Salveson, a local who found a valuable space rock while walking her dog

It started April 22, with a blazing streak across a morning sky and a sonic boom

Eight hundred miles away, while windows were still rattling, Robert Ward in Prescott, Ariz., was getting alerts. A professional meteorite hunter .. after 16 hours of driving, he scanned a parking lot in Lotus not knowing what type of rock he was seeking. he spotted a dark space pebble, he immediately recognized it as carbonaceous chondrite, meteorites containing water and carbon

"I was trembling,""It's the rarest of the rare. It's older than the sun. It holds the building blocks of life."

The rush was on. The meteorites are invaluable to science but on the open market can also fetch $1,000 a gram

In Vancouver, Canada, Paul Gessler, a part-time meteorite hunter, was readying for a halibut fishing tournament.. He took his fishing rod back to the house and told his wife he was driving to California.

"I opened my hand and they all let out a collective gasp," she said.

The geologists, wrapped the 17-gram stone in foil and told Salveson to get it into a bank vault.

a firefighter had stopped to search at the park on his way to work and found a 2-gram meteorite in less than 20 minutes. A dealer paid him $2,000 on the spot.

All indications are that the Sutter's Mill meteorite will replace it as the meteorite most known by name to anyone in science.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; chondrite

Jason Utas, right, a geology student at UC Berkeley, shows a 7.5-gram fragment of a meteorite called CM chondrite he found Friday in Coloma, Calif., to Doug Klotz, left, and Dr. Paul Guttmann.

1 posted on 04/30/2012 3:41:07 PM PDT by dragnet2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dragnet2

“It’s the rarest of the rare. It’s older than the sun. It holds the building blocks of life.”

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/nerd.wav


2 posted on 04/30/2012 3:51:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dragnet2

Why do I think that the State of California is about to jump in a claim ownership of these rocks?

Besides, who owns the mineral rights from what falls from the sky?


3 posted on 04/30/2012 4:10:34 PM PDT by cicero2k
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k
In most countries mineral rights (including meteorites) belong to the state. In the U.S.A, meteorites are the property of the land owner.

Now if they don't see you reach down to pick up something you dropped, who's to say where you found it?

4 posted on 04/30/2012 4:16:55 PM PDT by Procyon (Decentralize, degovernmentalize, deregulate, demonopolize, decredentialize, disentitle.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k
I was just going to say that.

It's already illegal to use rainwater for personal use in many states.

If rain falling from the sky is already claimed by someone else, then can rocks falling from the sky be far behind?

-PJ

5 posted on 04/30/2012 4:17:29 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you can vote for President, then your children can run for President.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Procyon
Now if they don't see you reach down to pick up something you dropped, who's to say where you found it?

Probably the thousands of people who saw it streak across the sky, and the scientists who tracked its trajectory to its probable landing point, and the discovery of more rocks in the scatter zone.

A non-land-owner with one of these rocks could circumstantially be accused of poaching, especially if they are as rare as the people cited in the article suggest.

-PJ

6 posted on 04/30/2012 4:31:07 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you can vote for President, then your children can run for President.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dragnet2

“It holds the building blocks of life”

Jason, put some gloves on when holding that thing!


7 posted on 04/30/2012 4:55:20 PM PDT by Selene
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Selene

Headline: Meteor hunter found dead.
“He was all shrivelled lookin, like the
building blocks of life had been drained out of him...”


8 posted on 04/30/2012 5:05:06 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Procyon

I know in certain parts of the desert, you can get arrested operating a metal detector; ot at least that is what I thought I saw on some TV show.


9 posted on 04/30/2012 5:12:21 PM PDT by cicero2k
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: tet68

Headline: Meteor hunters wife warned him.

Lurleen, the wife of the dead Meteor hunter,
tried to warn him but to no avail.
“I tried, and I tried and I tried but no,
he was just crazy for those things.
I told him if the government don’t get you
the damn aliens will and now look. Here I am all
alone stuck with hundreds of pounds of these
worthless carbonaceous chondrites”.


10 posted on 04/30/2012 5:12:41 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: cicero2k

Metal detectors won’t work on this type of meteorite


11 posted on 04/30/2012 5:22:48 PM PDT by Selene
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

If these things fell on an area several miles wide by 10 miles long, sounds like there are lot of them. Doesn’t that make them less valuable?


12 posted on 04/30/2012 6:13:23 PM PDT by Terry Mross ("It happened. And we let it happen." Peter Griffin - FAMILY GUY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Terry Mross
If these things fell on an area several miles wide by 10 miles long, sounds like there are lot of them. Doesn’t that make them less valuable?

One small catch to that.

Ya have to find them.

13 posted on 04/30/2012 8:10:20 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson