Dear list members.
I have today received an email from a person. He sent the message to the list
and not to me personally so you already know who this person is. If he had
sent the message to me personally, I would have treated it with complete
confidentiality. I feel that it is important to share the information I shared
with him with the members of this list. Most of the people on this list have
been involved with the science of meteorites for many years and have already
gained the knowledge and wisdom that can only come from years of experience.
This list has been very fortunate to have been joined by people who are new to
the science and to the wonderful hobby of collecting meteorites. His email was
not sent to be malicious but was sent out of frustration and out of his
enthusiastic desire to be able to look for a new meteorite and to actually find
one for himself.. These people who hold this intense enthusiasm are the people
we need in this science, this
hobby. This is the dream we all hold dear, to venture out, find and be the
first one to touch a stone that acually fell to earth from space. I have
copied the information I sent to him below. I hope others who are experiencing
similar feelings of frustration at the present time will benefit from this as
well.
Hello. This fall is a very rare, a very important and historic fall for this
state and for the University of Arizona in particular as the site is very
literally in their own back yard. It is vitally important that the area be
protected for only as long as it takes to properly record and document the
fall. I have seen what happens to an area when the location is announced
publicly too early. The area is almost immediately deluged and over run with
not only the true professional meteorite hunters who are actually trying to do
something good and recover the stones properly with GPS coordinates and
photographic evidence of the stones in situ but with every treasure seeker and
rock hunter and curiosity seeker who could care less about the science but more
about simply having something cool to show off to their friends. This is okay
too and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this but right now is not the
time for this. This area is presently
pristine and kin to a very delicate archaeological site. The archaeologists
need to do the proper work in the area before the "pot
hunters" find it and destroy any information that could otherwise be learned
from the site. My intention is certainly not simply just for the money or the
stones that can be recovered. When you really give this some thought, you will
realize that I did not have to tell a single soul about this. I discovered
this remote area entirely on my own using the knowledge that I have gained over
many years of hunting meteorites. I could have very easily kept this site to
myself and hunted it for months and months. But the path I chose was simply to
do the right thing. I made a proper announcement and I have begun preparations
for conducting a proper search and recording of the fall site. Please do not
worry. You will get your opportunity to hunt the area. There will be stones
in this area to be recovered for years to come and you will find yours. And
they will be free, you will not have to buy anything. The area as any area
where meteorite have
fallen either in recent or in ancient times is impossible to
hunt out completely. I am just simply asking for a little time that it takes
to be able to properly record this fall site so the information may be
available to the University of Arizona and to any other institutions and
meteoriticists in the world who may have an interest in the work that we will
be doing. It is too important to risk destroying the information at this point
not only for the science that can be gained from the area but for the
generations to come who may have an interest in learning more about the
dynamics of meteors and the variety of strewn field types that they create. I
do appreciate your understanding. My very best wishes, Dr. Jack Schrader
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
