[meteorite-list] Re: Berthoud hunt

[Mikestockj at aol.com]

Hi All

Photos of the hunt http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteorfinder/album?.dir=/c72b

Just wanted to fill everybody in on how today's hunt went. The obvious first 
question to answer is did we find any and the answer is not really. We did 
find a couple of fragments of in the pit which of course were turned over to the 
land owners.
 
Several of us including COMETS members Fred Hall, Fred Olsen, Larry Sloan and 
myself met Jack Murphy and several of his volunteers from the Museum. When we 
first arrived we were happy to see Scott Palo an assistant Professor in the 
Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who is heading up the investigation 
there as well. Also in attendance were the Land Owners John, Megan and their son 
Casper Witesis. But of course the most exciting moment is when Scott showed us 
the guest of honor.
 
We set up a little viewing area on the picnic table outside their rustic 1910 
built house. What a truly gorgeous place to view the meteorite, with the 
Rocky Mtns in the background and a truly exceptional fall day in Colorado. 
Immediately as Scott removed the meteorite I was glad I had my sunglasses on. The 
fusion crust is incredibly shiny. One is struck by its size as compared to its 
weight. Looks like it should be 1.5 kg not just 960 grams. I second thought was 
it looks just like a Millbillillie or Camel Donga with tan colored clay 
instead of the Australian Red clay.
 
While the mass is somewhat irregular in shape there are obvious flow line 
easily visible from a distance. It also has a large piece about the size of half 
an apple with some of the lightest secondary fusion crust I have ever seen. 
Under a hand lens one can see that only the highest points of the fractured 
surface were melted. Along this surface a roll over lip was created. This 
obviously happened later in flight.
 
Most perplexing to me is the smaller golf ball diameter chip off the 
secondary fusion crusted area. This shows no signs of fusion crust but does reveal the 
interior. The interior is a light to white colored matrix filled with a 
clearer crystalline material.
 
One disappointment is the piece is filled with numerous cracks. If this piece 
had hit harder surface it would have fractured into several pieces. The 
surface it did hit was quite hard being a horse corral. 
 
Megan actually the saw meteorite in flight at about 25 feet before it hit 
from a distance of 100 feet. She saw what she described as the ground move in the 
middle of the horse pen. All three of the family members were outside at the 
time but John and Casper only heard the sound. They went over to find the 
meteorite which took about 25 minutes to find and dig out. All that was exposed 
was a small piece that I would guess was 25-30 grams. The rest was completely 
buried. John looked over at his wife and said it was not a meteorite. She 
quickly asked him if he saw any other rock that looked like that.  He'll probably 
never live that one down. After trying to dig the piece out with their hands 
they discovered it would not budge. Both John and Casper ran to get something to 
dig it out. Casper quickly found a claw hammer. You might all be cringing 
right now but John was going to get the shovel. This of course would have 
completely destroyed the crater. In fact the lower half of the crater was completely 
in tact to the point that the piece could be easily placed back in the hole 
with the correct orientation. Probably the coolest part of the pit is the bottom 
as you can see straw imbedded in the bottom.
 
The areas we walked were an adjoining property owned by another land owner. 
Please note all of the land is privately owned so permission should be obtained 
before hunting. We were quite fortunate to be joined by both John and Casper 
at one time or another. In all 12 people joined in the search. One interesting 
aspect of the hunt is the almost total absence of rocks. So you don't find 
yourself bending over much to pick up rocks. It is also row after row of corn 
that has mostly been harvested. So it was quite easy to follow a straight line. 
Unfortunately later in the day the stubble for the corn stalks creates some 
wicked shadows.
Something else I was struck by was the size of the their property. It is only 
1.5 acres while the property around theirs is 300-400 acres and 1000 acres 
across the street. I guess you sometimes need to be lucky.
 
As we were talking during the hunt we realized that at 1:33 PM it would be a 
week since it fell. In fact Casper noted that 7 days ago it was still in 
space. So at the appointed time we stopped to take a photo of our group with the 
house in the back ground in order to observe it 7 days of life on the planet 
earth.
 
The next major hunt will be on Saturday. CU will have several astronomy 
classes out to help search to properties in the area. I'll be there tomorrow. Email 
if you are interested in helping with the hunt.
 
Wish us luck.


Mike Jensen IMCA 4264
Bill Jensen IMCA 2359
Jensen Meteorites
16730 E Ada PL
Aurora, CO 80017-3137
303-337-4361