[meteorite-list] NPA 01-20-1924 Out in the Arizona Desert...(Meteor Crater)

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Mansfield News
City: Mansfield, Ohio
Date: Sunday, January 20, 1924
Page: not sure

OUT in the Arizona Desert, midway between the Grand Canyon and the Petrified 
Forest, scientists are engaged in a most unheard of pursuit. They are doing 
nothing less than seeking to unearth a vast treasure that fell from the sky 
- a hurried mass of mineral valued at $15,000,000 at the lowest possible 
estimate. The object in this strange search is not precious jewels, gold or 
silver, but iron - metal 90 to 91 per cent pure.
     These scientists took notice of this nomad from the skies in 1891, when 
Dr. A. E. Foote, the mineralogist, made a survey of the region. Some idea of 
the cataclysmic force of the impact can be had from the extent of the scar 
left - a crater-like depression 600 feet deep and 1,000 feet in diameter, 
with a rim raised up 160 feet above the plain.
     The meteor itself, is thought to be at least 300 feet in diameter, 
although some experts believe it would even quadruple this figure.
     That the search for this mass of mineral is more than a scientific 
undertaking is indicated by the fact that a large and wealthy mining 
corporation has financed the project. Expert drillers from the California 
oil fields were set to work and, after more than a year of driving, it is 
now probable that the objective has been reached at a depth of 1,400 feet. 
At this level the drill recoiled with a loud clang and came up worn smooth 
by a substance no man-forged metal can match.
     If this is the "parent" meteorite, and it corresponds in composition 
with those heretofore analyzed, it contains, according to estimate of a 
contributor to Current Opinion, 90 to 91 per cent of fine iron, not ore, but 
pure; 8 per cent nickel, worth 30 cents a pound, and not now produced in the 
United States; one-fifth ounce of platinum, worth approximately $110 per 
ounce, to each ton; a small percentage of iridium, even more valuable, and 
microscopic diamonds. Roughly speaking, the content is counted as worth $50 
per ton. Should it weigh but a thousandth of the 300,000,000 tons of rock it 
scattered, its value would be $15,000,000, a sum to tempt the most cautious 
speculator.
     It was once thought that the pit in which the boring is being made was 
of volcanic origin, and the meteoric fragments that lay about it and lent 
color to the meteor theory merely a coincidence.

(end)


Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
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