[meteorite-list] Canada law

[Armando Afonso]

Calgary - To scientists, they are priceless clues about the origins of 
life, but now, six years after he found some frozen meteorite fragments 
that weigh roughly as much as two blocks of butter, a Canadian has 
cashed in.
   The price tag: $750,000.
   And as a bonus, the space rocks that landed in Canada and were poised 
to go to the United States are staying here.
   "It's been a little tortuous at times," Jim Brook said yesterday from 
his home in Atlin, in the northwest corner of British Columbia, not far 
from where the meteorite crashed to Earth.
   "There was no significant interest in Canada for quite a while, and 
eventually, we were able to get something lined up, so I'm glad they're 
staying," Mr. Brook said.
   The meteorite fragments will be housed at the University of Alberta 
in Edmonton and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
   For almost seven million years, the space rock travelled at 10 
kilometres a second and covered a distance of a half-billion kilometres 
before it collided with the Earth's atmosphere in January, 2000.
   The 200-tonne rock was between 25 and 30 kilometres above the ground 
when it exploded and emerged as a fireball over parts of British 
Columbia and Yukon.
   Several hundred pieces, some as large as footballs, landed on frozen 
Tagish Lake, which straddles the B.C. and Yukon boundary.
   Miraculously, about 850 grams of the Tagish Lake meteorite remained 
in a pristine state.
   The fragments were frozen and uncontaminated despite a fiery descent 
to Earth.
   "This material is extremely rare," said Sonia Lismer, manager of 
movable cultural property with Canadian Heritage, which kicked in more 
than $437,000 to keep the meteorite in Canada.
   Mr. Brook, who is a resort operator and has a scientific background, 
missed the light show, but a week later, he spotted the dark chunks of 
rock while driving his pickup across the lake.
   He knew not to contaminate them by touching them with his bare hands.
   "It's pretty amazing when you consider that they came down right 
there on the lake and at that time of year, when there was some snow 
around," he said at the time.
   "The whole thing was a real stroke of luck."
   He put the rock fragments in his freezer.
   Researchers determined that the meteorite, which is fragile and more 
ice-like than rock-hard, was the first to come from a thick band of 
asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.
   NASA scientists found previously unseen organic material in the 
carbonaceous chondrite fragments. They detected tiny globules of 
hydrocarbons, which were formed long before our own solar system and 
are the perfect homes for primitive organisms.
   Under Canadian law, meteorites belong to the person who finds them. 
Mr. Brook began shopping the fragments around.
   He found buyers in the United States, but Ottawa turned down his 
application for an export permit because it aims to keep cultural 
property of outstanding significance and national importance at home.
   Last June, the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, an 
independent tribunal, gave federally designated Canadian institutions 
six months to match the market value of the rocks. If they failed, Mr. 
Brook could sell them as he pleased.
   The University of Alberta, the Royal Ontario Museum, Natural 
Resources Canada and the Canadian Space Agency began fundraising, but 
applied for federal grants to make up a $313,000 gap.
   The grants were approved late last year and announced yesterday.
   "It's going to enable a really wonderful camaraderie of experts 
sharing this material for research and it's going to build on the 
existing research that has already taken place with NASA and that 
research is going to extend globally," Ms. Lismer said.
   The University of Alberta has 650 grams of the fragments and the ROM 
has 200 grams. The ROM will display a 52-gram fragment.
   Christopher Herd, a professor with the department of Earth and 
atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta, said the frozen 
fragments will allow researchers to see organic molecules that are 
naturally within the meteorite as well as volatile substances - perhaps 
extraterrestrial ices.
   "It gives us a snapshot of what was happening when the solar system 
formed 4½ billion years ago and it's unlike any other meteorite even of 
its own kind," Dr. Herd said.
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