10 replies to this topic

[Meteorseeker]

Howdy All, 

 

Aside from looking up, I like to look down and have been since I was a kid. Fast forward to 2005, and that when I found my first meteorite in a known strewn field. I waas actually hunting gold and found a 65 gram golf-ball size meteorite. One of the original finders of the strewn field confirmed it and I was hooked!

 

Fast Forward another few years and here is the largest meteorite I have found, this a Gold Basin, Nevada side L-4/6, 13 lbs meteorite. I actually hit a smaller piece behind the bush and saw the bigger piece tucked up under it. Man was I excited. My hunting partners also found meteorites during this trip in 2012,

each walking away with everything from 6lbs, up to 17lbs. A fun time hunting for meteorites in NV. 

 

Jason

Clear skies and keep looking down. 

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[Jim Waters]

Sounds like a great daytime hobby.  Nice find...!

[TOMDEY]

Cool! What kind of meteorite is that? Do you use a metal detector or some such device?  Tom

[Mikeiss]

I'm no expert, but it looks like a stoney-iron meteorite. They are fairly rocky at first glance, and it's because they are, at least part rock. The dead giveaway is that there is a layer of rust on it. Most rocks don't rust

 

Cool! What kind of meteorite is that? Do you use a metal detector or some such device?  Tom

 

[Mikeiss]

Meteorites and black holes are what got me into astronomy in the first place. That's a nice find! I thought I had found one about that size probably around the same time that you found that. It was heavy too. Though it wasn't 13 pounds, I'd say closer to 6 or 7 lbs. It was almost all black and very magnetic. Long story short, I thought I was going to make some serious money off of it, then I took it to the gem show and was told I had a "meteorwrong." Sigh

[Stellar1]

Amazing way to spend the day and what a massive piece of space rock you have there!. Can’t help notice the Minelab hat, as an avid detectorist myself, I get the fascination with that next big find, thanks for sharing.

[Glassthrower]

Nice find. I'd be dancing a little jig out in the field when I found something like that. 

[Meteorseeker]

Thanks all. Yes they are fun to hunt and the next "beep" is always a thrill. This meteorite is an ordinary chondrite, L4/6 classification. The original strewn field was found in 1995, and shared about three years later. Professor Jim Kriegh (UAz, emeritus) was hunting for gold in N. AZ and discovered these "hot" rocks. After finding quite a few, he took one back to ASU and had it examined, only to find out that it was in fact a meteorite. As of 1997 November, 1484 stones have been recovered, with a total mass of 61.0 kg, from an area of ~130 km2.  The largest individual stone has a mass of 1.52 kg. Jim Kreigh, Ingrid "Twink" Monrad and John Blennant working with the University of Arizona made a valiant attempt to map the strewn field and recover as many stones as possible.

 

Jason

Edited by Meteorseeker, 11 July 2024 - 11:48 AM.

[Meteorseeker]

Here is another one I found quite some time ago, insitu.

[scottinash]

Amazing, Jason! Thanks for sharing with us. 

[Meteorseeker]

Here is some more eye candy from the collection. Here are some small irons from N. AZ again. This strewn field is pretty extensive and I was part of the mapping process some years ago. This has since become a Desert Collection Area or DCA, since various lithologies have came from the field itself. 

 

Jason