As promised here are some photos as well as the coordinates (That I took
myself in the middle of the strewnfield with my garmin 12XL) of the CR2
strewnfield in Zagora morocco.
http://www.meteoriteshop.com/cr2-strewnfield.htm
As
you can see this is a very easy to search over strewnfield. No vegetation or
anything to make searching difficult. Most of the people in the photo searching
has meteorites canes or a magnet on a string but my photos never showed that to
well. I was told that several months ago there would be hundreds on people a day
searching but now there is only a dozen or so die hards with really nothing else
to do. Even in an area with 80% unemployment the strewnfield seems hopeless to
most locals now. I met 4 or 5 people who showed me their metal detectors that
they searched with. Obviously the exact elipse will not be known since everybody
just picked up the rocks without recording the exact coordinates but this should
not be considered a meteorite without known coordinates. You know exactly where
the strewnfield is at. The locals knew exactly where to look and you can easily
go inside the strewnfield. Only two people had any CR2 when I was there and both
pieces were much less than a gram. There is pretty much no more meteorites in
that strewnfield. I beleive the TKW to be between 12 and 14 kilos. And its all
being dumped on the market at once. I pretty much got everything that is left in
the Zagora/Tagounite area as most people gave me their meteorites to sell
on consignment for them in Tucson which will net them more money than selling
outright to other dealers. I dont think that there is a kilo left in morocco
anymore.
I
will have lots in tucson to sell and I just want to move the stuff quick like I
always do with my meteorites. I dont really have an interest in holding out for
higher prices so I will be selling it for $25 a gram in Tucson for as long as
my one and a half kilos (Which I already have over half sold) lasts. Taking
a quick profit and moving on to the next meteorite is fine with
me.
I
think that this meteorite should have a name. Having a large number of low TKW
main masses of NWA meteorites that you know exactly where they came from (Like
what is being done with the Libyan CO3 strewnfield (which disguises the fact
that the TKW is an eight of a ton or more) and knows exactly what their
classification is seems silly to me. It also seems like a waste of precious
researcher time and resources to go through the motions to classify the same
meteorite over and over again. I know first hand in how short supply
classification resources are. But I dont make the rules. And I will soon have
all of my stuff sold and have moved on to the next meteorite so I wont care
much anymore
then.
For
those of you into fossils look at a really cool trilobite slab that I got last
week in morocco
also:
http://www.meteoriteshop.com/trilobite.htm
I
had a lot of fun this trip. I spend time in the desert in nomad camps and went
to the Hamid border town with Algeria where I bought meteorites. I hope to go
back again
soon.
Home
you enjoy. I will see as many of you as possible in
Tucson.
DEAN
