[meteorite-list] New Iron Meteorite Found In Colorado (Cotopaxi Meteorite)

From: Mike Groetz <mpg444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:07:00 2004
Message-ID: <20021012004848.46717.qmail_at_web14701.mail.yahoo.com>

Ron and others-
   This is odd- and kind of scary- in the context of
your message, about 2/3 of the way down, did anyone
notice the word fireballs had the word funeral imposed
into it?
   It is not in the original URL article. I checked.
Mike

--- Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>
>
>
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E53%7E916761,00.html
>
> Falling star has its debut
> Museum to feature rare iron meteorite
>
> By Erin Emery
> Denver Post
> October 11, 2002
>
> COLORADO SPRINGS - Richard and Sharon Walker plunked
> down $700 for a new
> metal detector, watched the instructional video, put
> in new batteries and
> started looking for gold.
>
> Only 45 minutes into their maiden search along a dry
> streambed on private
> property near Cotopaxi, the machine went bonkers.
>
> Sharon started digging. She unearthed a rusty,
> jagged rock about the size of
> a child's fist. It seemed heavy for its size.
>
> "This is weird," Richard Walker said he thought.
> "This is a weird,
> funny-looking rock."
>
> The Walkers, both investigators for the Department
> of Defense in Colorado
> Springs, said they didn't realize they had just
> uncovered a museum piece - a
> rare, iron meteorite.
>
> The 8.5-ounce rock is a mere 4.5 billion years old
> and the first iron
> meteorite found in Colorado in 30 years.
>
> There have only been 75 known meteorites discovered
> in Colorado, and only 14
> of those are iron.
>
> Richard and Sharon said they took their October 2000
> find to a rock shop in
> Colorado Springs. A rock expert tentatively
> identified it as a meteorite but
> said the Walkers should get more proof.
>
> The Walkers took it home and put it "on a shelf in
> with the dirty clothes,"
> Richard said. It sat for nearly two years.
>
> Then, the Walkers saw that Jack Murphy, curator of
> geology at the Denver
> Museum of Nature & Science, would be in Saguache
> over Memorial Day weekend
> this year to teach people how to identify
> meteorites. A fireball had fallen
> in that area Aug. 17, 2001.
>
> "We introduced ourselves and showed him our
> meteorite. All the staff said,
> 'Wow' and when they said, 'Wow,' we said, 'Wow."'
>
> Murphy said he wanted John Wasson, a meteorite
> expert at the University of
> California at Los Angeles, to look at it. Two months
> ago, "We got an e-mail
> from Dr. Wasson, and it said, 'Wow. I'm excited.' By
> that time, we'd almost
> had a heart attack," Richard said.
>
> The Walkers gave permission for Wasson to slice off
> two pieces, one for UCLA
> and the other for the Denver museum, which will
> feature it in its permanent
> meteorite collection. The museum held a news
> conference Thursday.
>
> The meteorite will be on display during Astronomy
> Day on Saturday.
>
> Most meteorites are from the asteroid belt between
> Mars and Jupiter. Iron
> meteorites are rarely found because they hit the
> Earth with enough force to
> bury themselves in the dirt.
>
> "The primary question to be learned is where they
> come from," Murphy said.
>
> What's particularly unique about the Cotopaxi
> meteorite - named because it
> was found near the south-central Colorado town along
> the Arkansas River - is
> that it contains varying amounts of nickel, gallium,
> arsenic and iridium.
> Those elements make it unusual compared to other
> iron meteorites.
>
> "The new find is significant to science because it
> represents a new grouping
> within one of the main classifications of iron
> meteorites," Wasson said.
>
> The Cotopaxi meteorite will be registered in the
> World Meteorite Registry
> Book at the London Museum, and it will be on loan to
> the Denver museum until
> January.
>
> The Walkers' meteorite isn't related toFuneral
> ireballs seen streaking
> across the skies this week from Utah to Kansas to
> New Mexico.
>
> The Walkers' rock probably crashed to Earth about
> 100 years ago.
>
> The Walkers have turned down $6,000 for the rock.
> They haven't decided what
> to do with it - keep it, sell it, donate it to a
> museum.
>
> Richard Walker said he has tried to find another one
> with his metal
> detector, but so far he's found only a collection of
> barbed wire, bullets,
> nails and beer cans.
>
> "You know, if I never find another one in my life,
> we hit the jackpot on
> this," Walker said. "Let's just say the odds of us
> finding it, and the way
> we did, were astronomic."
>
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>
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Received on Fri 11 Oct 2002 08:48:48 PM PDT