meteorites how easy to find on earth.

[stegran]

i would love to have my own meteorite.is it possible to find one whilst on a beach.im saying this because im sure they are found in vast open spaces like deserts and ice fields.many thanks mr s.reid.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Are they easy to find? No not really. Is it possible to find some? Yes. The hardest thing is to recognize one when you see it. About 90% of all objects that people think are meteorites are not; they are meteorwrongs
A beach would not be a very good spot, since the wave action would move them around, and rapidly erode them. The largest amount are found on the Antarctic ice sheet where they stand out against the white ice, and the ice flow tends to concentrate them in certain areas. Another good spot is deserts, since the dryness cuts down on how rapidly they deteriorate, and also they tend to stand out against the sand.
The other way is if there is a witnessed fall, such as when the asteroid 2003 TC3 broke up in the atmosphere over the Sudan last October, or one over Canada early this year. If there are enough high quality observations of the incoming fireball, the potential area of meteorite falls can be predicted. However, that is pretty rare.

Meteor Wayne

 

[CalliArcale]

About 90% of all objects that people think are meteorites are not; they are meteorwrongs

If someone is *very* lucky, they might even find a MeteorWayne.

 

[MeteorWayne]

About 90% of all objects that people think are meteorites are not; they are meteorwrongs

If someone is *very* lucky, they might even find a MeteorWayne.

True; if you ever come to one of my meteor lectures, you get to hold a piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite (which made Meteor Crater in Arizona)

 

[silylene]

I am pretty certain that a ~6yr old kid down the block from me found a meteorite, when I was about 11 yrs old.

I grew up in east New Orleans, off Chef Menteur Hgwy, at the edge of the virgin cypress swamp which used to be there. While I lived there, this swamp was being bulldozed up and turned into miles and miles of suburban housing tracts (all below sea level, of course). This 6 yr old kid (younger brother of a friend's friend) who lived down the block found a very curious 'rock' in the soil of a newly bulldozed up area of the virgin swamp about a block from our house. In NOLA, rocks of any sorts in the ground are quite unusual, as this is delta, and there are no rocks in the ground bigger than a pebble, unless they are oystershells. This rock he found was the size of a softball, blackish, lumpy, with small rounded pits, and quite heavy (dense). I had only seen rocks like this one time when I visited the Chicago Natural History museum, or in the geology cases at the university where my father taught.

Of course I immediately suspected it was a meteorite, but I didn't tell him. I kindly asked for the rock, tried to trade comic books for it, then even offered to buy it from him. The little punk wouldn't sell it to me, not even for $10, which was all the money I had, and a substantial amount back then. Then he told his redneck dad I was trying to 'steal' his rock, and I got in trouble with his father, and that dad told me to never come back. I am sure the little brat lost it, or his dad threw it out.

 

[crazyeddie]

i would love to have my own meteorite.is it possible to find one whilst on a beach.im saying this because im sure they are found in vast open spaces like deserts and ice fields.many thanks mr s.reid.

There are other places besides beaches and deserts. The prairies of North America have been good sources of meteorites. Much of the soil there is fine-grained loess, which was blown off the glacier ice sheets during the last ice age, and it contains few rocks. Many of the sporadic ones dug up by farmers and ranchers turned out to be meteorites.

 

[adrenalynn]

I pretty regularly find them in Death Valley. I've been thinking about swarm robotics for hunting them lately.

 

[DrRocket]

Are they easy to find? No not really. Is it possible to find some? Yes. The hardest thing is to recognize one when you see it. About 90% of all objects that people think are meteorites are not; they are meteorwrongs
. Another good spot is deserts, since the dryness cuts down on how rapidly they deteriorate, and also they tend to stand out against the sand.

Meteor Wayne

How often would you estimate that meteorites are found in deserts? That is not a very precise question, so maybe you might estimate how many hours (days, weeks, years, decades) one might have to look in order to find one. Also, how big might you expect one to be, given that I would not be standing in the bottom of a crater ?

I spend quite a bit of time each fall out in rocky desert country (everything around here is desert of some sort) at fairly high altitude (4,000 - 10,000 ft), and have never stumbled across anything that I thought might be a meteorite. Now I have to admit that my goal was not to find a meteorite, but did find a couple of geodes, lots of other pretty rocks, and "Butch Cassidy" written in charcoal on sandstone (probably genuine too). I was really looking for deer and elk.

Mostly we just find passion stones, and leaverite.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I pretty regularly find them in Death Valley. I've been thinking about swarm robotics for hunting them lately.

Just curious, have you had them verified, or do you just think they are meteorites?

Perhaps you're a better one to answer Dr Rocket's question!

 

[crazyeddie]

How often would you estimate that meteorites are found in deserts? That is not a very precise question, so maybe you might estimate how many hours (days, weeks, years, decades) one might have to look in order to find one. Also, how big might you expect one to be, given that I would not be standing in the bottom of a crater ?

I spend quite a bit of time each fall out in rocky desert country (everything around here is desert of some sort) at fairly high altitude (4,000 - 10,000 ft), and have never stumbled across anything that I thought might be a meteorite. Now I have to admit that my goal was not to find a meteorite, but did find a couple of geodes, lots of other pretty rocks, and "Butch Cassidy" written in charcoal on sandstone (probably genuine too). I was really looking for deer and elk.

Mostly we just find passion stones, and leaverite.

Here's an interesting article I stumbled across on finding meteorites in the desert, with some tips you may find useful:

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/aug/stor ... rttrs.html

If you think you've found a meteorite, 3 preliminary tests should be performed:
1. Is it heavier than a normal rock of the same size?
2. Does it attract a magnet?
3. Does it have a dark brown or black crust?
If you can answer "yes" to all 3 questions, there is a chance that you may have a meteorite. For a nominal fee, most university planetary science departments or a licensed mineral testing laboratory will conduct an accurate final analysis.