[meteorite-list] Oum Rokba

[Michael Farmer]

Since the name Oum Rokba was never approved, the question seems needless. I only know what I was told at the very beginning of the NWA rush, there was no reason for them to lie, we asked where they were from, we were given that answer. 
I never went to the location. For an old weathered typical chondrite it was not in my often hurried schedules.
Michael Farmer

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 31, 2012, at 6:30 PM, Robert Verish <bolidechaser at yahoo.com> wrote:

> A question to anyone who has hunted meteorites in Morocco:
> 
> Other than a Berber tribesman, has any meteorite dealer/hunter ever found an Oum Rokba stone, I mean, really picked-up from the ground in the actual strewn-field one of the "several hundred" distinctive-looking, chondritic stones that were originally recovered 12 years ago?  
> 
> I wrote an article back in Dec. 2008 about the Oum Rokba (H5) meteorites,  and I repeated the oft-quoted story about "stones being found by a Berber native a few kilometers from an Oasis named Oum Rokba."  Since then, I've been asked by several people if I had any direct evidence of that recovery and of its location, in order to make that statement.  
> 
> The actual phrase that I remember being asked was, "Don't you think that it is strange that a strewn-field the size of Oum Rokba (many hundreds of stones), that it's actual location wouldn't be better known?  Even a couple square kilometers around the Oum Rokba "oasis" isn't that large that it would forever hide that large of a strewn-field, and by now, someone else must have discovered it's location."
> 
> Those questions posed to me were implying that, given the benefit any "name" would give to the marketing of a meteorite, it should be considered as too convenient, and that in order to accept the location of this strewn-field it would require corroborating evidence from an independent source/hunter.  Also, that this notion would probably be met with resistance, because preserving the mythology would be considered more important than confirming the topography.  
> 
> Personally, all I need is to have just one guy stand-up and say, "Yeah, I found one of those stones there."
> 
> Bob V.
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