Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/07/story-about-eccentric-meteorit.html
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Excerpt sounds almost exactly like the first act of Indiana Jones!
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A fantastic article! have recommended it to a few friends… really great writing.
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Thought I recognised the name. He also wrote the excellent Coronado High.
I can highly recommend it.
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Mixed feelings as a geologist here.
I’d love a meteorite, especially something as gorgeous as a pallasite… but…
…I wonder how much stuff vanishes into private collections without any chance for scientists to catalogue or study it in-situ and perform the proper tests to learn more about its origin and arrival? Rocks like eucrites are incredibly rare and interesting scientifically - not very pretty though. The thought that we might have some unknown eucrites or shergottites in private collections is a bit - aaaargh!
Not to mention I do rather wonder how many meteorite hunters bother to check the local laws regarding ownership of meteorites and whether they can be removed for private ownership.
This goes tenfold for dinosaur fossils.
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A reference to an older meteor strike in Peru, but always a good listen:
https://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/brian_eno/backwater.html
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Carancas is actually pretty odd. At first they didn’t think it was a meteorite, but a natural gas explosion; the data was all wrong to make the crater they found. Then there were reports of people getting sick around the impact point, all the hallmarks of a manufactured hype. Pieces finally got recovered and analyzed, and yes, the scientists got first dibs. More technical data can be found here, and I got a chip from Mike Farmer. He had some pretty wild stories about acquiring it.
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Ah. This is where “protection” from local law enforcement kicks in.
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