Aloha Jack,
Thank you for your mana'o (thoughts) on meteorite hunting in general,
and the latest AZ fall in particular. Not many falls in Hawaii, so
I'll have to live vicariously through your (and other hunting teams')
exploits. Congratulations Jack, and best wishes and luck to you, and
all other hunters joining you in the strewnfield over the next few
weeks.
gary
On Jul 5, 2009, at 11:35 AM, Jack Schrader wrote:
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
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Gary Fujihara
AstroDay Institute
105 Puhili Place, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 640-9161, [email protected]
http://astroday.net
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