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Some Reviews - Part 1 of 4

Hello All!

Several newbies have joined our list since the publication of O.R.
Norton's RFS II, and may wonder what literature there is about
meteorites. When Al reported enthusiastically about reading Harry
Y. McSween's second edition of his famous book, I tried to figure
out what would be my first book on meteorites written in English.
I thought it might be a good idea to once more present an overview
of reviews on these two books that could prove useful for others.


Sky and Telescope , March 1995, pp. 56-57:

ROCKS FROM SPACE, 1st edition by O. Richard Norton (Mountain Press
Publishing Co., 1994). 449 pages. ISBN 087842-302-8. $20.00, paperbound.

"Who would have guessed that the study of meteorites would involve the
geology of glaciers, the orbits of comets and asteroids, the U-2 spy
planes, a spacecraft to Jupiter, and the death of the dinosaurs?"
Richard Norton asked himself this question as he looked back on his own
naiveté when he agreed to take one year and write a book on meteorites
while carrying on his full-time job.
One year stretched into several as he realized the diversity of the
scientific fields he would have to cover. In addition, he wished to
relate the stories of meteorite hunters who have built collections of
great scientific and commercial value by tracking, trading, and
sometimes thieving specimens as well as the bizarre lawsuits and
countersuits that resulted. He also wanted to provide his readers with
practical information on how to report fireballs, recognize meteorites
in the field, etch irons and test them for nickel, and find a
verification laboratory or meteorite dealer. He even included a 1994
price list in dollars per gram to illustrate the huge contrast in value
between common meteorites and rare ones. The result is a very engaging
volume that might be called "The Compleat Meteoritics for the 1990s."
Written in a relaxed, anecdotal style that conveys a sense of excitement
throughout, Rocks from Space is aimed at general readers, yet its clear,
concise discussions of scientific topics will make it very useful to
teachers and students in high school and undergraduate college. It is
profusely illustrated with photographs and diagrams elegantly designed
by the author's wife, Dorothy, an experienced scientific illustrator.
Meteoriticists have seen many of these diagrams before but never
rendered with such clarity.
>From the opening sentences that demolish the myth of "empty" space,
Norton introduces the reader to all the essential topics in meteoritics:
comets, interplanetary dust, meteors, fireballs, explosive impacts,
Earth's cratering record, meteorite compositions (complete with ternary
diagrams), meteorite parent bodies, the origin of the solar system, and
the isotopic evidence for interstellar grains in meteorites.
In the final chapter, "When Worlds Collide," Norton discusses the
controversial issue of megaimpacts and their possible role in triggering
extinctions on the Earth - either at random or periodically. He conveys
the current excitement about the Chicxulub Crater of Yucatán as the
likely site of the colossal impact that brought an end to the Cretaceous
period and the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Throughout the book, he
presents opposing arguments, then states his preferences and gives his
reasons. Readers wishing to probe further can seek details from the list
of references, articles, and technical papers. The book includes a
nine-page glossary and five appendixes.
As each new subject arises, Norton places it in historical context and
spins a story about it. In a section on discoveries of large iron
meteorites he traces the elaborately interconnected stories, beginning
in the 18th century, of the famous Tucson Ring and Carleton iron
meteorites from the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona. Other
examples include the great irons found at Cape York in Greenland in
1894, the Willamette iron found in Oregon in 1902, and the Old Woman
iron found in California in 1976. He also brings up to date the story of
the elaborate hoax, dating from 1858, that led legions of meteorite
hunters up and down the rugged mountains of Oregon in search of the
"lost" (but actually nonexistent) Port Orford pallasite.
Norton discusses the accomplishments of two major American meteorite
hunters, Harvey H. Nininger (1887-1986) and "Meteorite Man" Robert Haag,
who is still out there combing the world for specimens. He includes a
chapter on the meteorite "gold rush" in Antarctica that has yielded more
than 15,000 fragments since 1969 - mainly ordinary chondrites but also
rare varieties including the first meteorites from the Moon to be
recognized on the Earth and specimens showing persuasive evidence of
originating on Mars. As of this writing, 13 meteorites from the Moon and
10 from Mars have been identified worldwide.
A few errors do turn up. For example, Ernst F. Chladni, author of the
first book on meteorites and fireballs in 1794, compiled reports
stretching back over centuries, not just a decade or two, and he did not
see the Pallas iron (which was featured in his title) until after his
book was published. Norton writes that no shocked minerals have been
found at the New Quebec Crater, though shocked quartz was collected
there in the 1960s. There are others, but given the length and coverage
of the book, none are of such importance as to detract from its value.
Norton's own experiences span when meteoritics blossomed from a marginal
discipline into a science on the frontiers with astrophysics. In his
student days at the University of California at Los Angeles, Norton
served as an assistant to Frederick C. Leonard. One day in 1958 the two
of them visited Nininger's meteorite museum in Sedona, Arizona. "I left
the museum with a small stony meteorite from Dimmitt, Texas, a gift from
Nininger to Leonard's aspiring pupil," recalls Norton. But little did he
realize that he was standing in the presence of America's two great
pioneering meteoriticists - the founding fathers of the Meteoritical
Society, the first organization of its kind in the world.
Eleven years later, when Norton was running the Fleischmann Planetarium
in Reno, Nevada, a man appeared at the door and asked if he would be
interested in buying 100 pounds of carbonaceous chondrites. Norton never
had seen a carbonaceous chondrite, which at that time existed only in
small, rare specimens. Nor had he ever been offered a supposed meteorite
that turned out to be genuine. Doubtfully, he followed the man, who had
introduced himself as Frederick Pough, to a car where he was shown a
cardboard box filled with dozens of "the world's ugliest rocks."
Still plagued by doubt, Norton decided he must cut and examine a
specimen. He urged Pough to come back the next day. Pough said he would
wait. "He obviously knew something about these rocks that I didn't,"
Norton concluded. When he witnessed how the saw sliced through the stone
easily, revealing an authentic but very unusual meteoritic structure,
Norton raced to his office. Next to his meteorite books he found the
Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals by the world-renowned mineralogist,
Frederick Pough. His visitor was an authority, the meteorites were
genuine, and Norton soon possessed 100 pounds of carbonaceous chondrite
from the famous Allende meteorite shower of February 8, 1969.
In more recent years Norton was startled to learn that a young woman,
strolling through the Arizona desert on a spring day in 1985, had
discovered the Tanque Verde stony meteorite not two miles from his
house!
This book successfully combines scientific information rarely found
outside technical sources with amusing anecdotes and how-to directions
rarely found in technical sources. I recommend it to all readers
interested in the ever-intriguing subject of meteorites.

URSULA B. MARVIN

Marvin is a geologist studying meteorites and lunar rocks at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She has spent two
seasons collecting meteorites in Antarctica.


Best wishes,

Bernd

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