[meteorite-list] Barringer Meteor $$$$

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:36 2004
Message-ID: <3EB9E0D2.9138FDBB_at_bhil.com>

Everybody,

    While these stories make great folklore, they are metallurgically unlikely.
The XIXth century technology for handling the impure poorly crystalized iron of
those days would be useless against meteoritic iron, a notoriously difficult
material.
    You may recall the story told of the Tolucca meteorite (XVIIIth century
Mexico), that a local smith spent weeks trying to get a small corner off and
failed after ruining most of his tools.
    The West is peppered with ghost towns where every commercial iron artifact
turned to red dust in 60 years, while an iron meteorite in the high desert has an
exposure lifetime 50,000 times longer. If they ever put a big chunk of Canyon
Diablo in a smelter in El Paso, I bet it ruined the smelter!
    I can't recall the date when Barringer first bought the mineral rights to the
crater and surrounding lands, but I believe it was early enough (1915?) to rule
out engine blocks! But if you ever find a Canyon Diablo bathtub, just think of
what it would bring on eBay!
    Dr. Moulton is Forest Ray Moulton of the University of Chicago whose book,
Celestial Mechanics, had its last edition in 1929, but the problem discussion of
calculating the kinetic energy release of a big meteorite had been in the book
for many previous editions.
    It's still a killer book on celestial mechanics, by the way, and still in
print. I can recommend it if you like difficulty and challenge. I was forced to
work my way through it (and its infamous problems) by my teacher, Noah Crane, who
had been one of Moulton's grad students in 1907, and every time I pick up a
pencil to scribble a calculation, I can feel Dr. Moulton frowning behind me even
though I never experienced his formidable frown in real life.


Sterling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Gwilliam wrote:

> Michael and List,
> Like Michael, I remember hearing stories about meteorites being shipped
> from Meteor Crater by rail to a smelter somewhere here in the west. If my
> memory is correct, I believe the smelter location was in El Paso, but I
> could be wrong. If the stories are true, then it's possible that there are
> cast iron engine blocks, bathtubs, decorative iron fences or the like that
> were made from meteorites. Sounds kind of improbable to me, but it would
> be interesting to know if anyone has actual documentation that this really
> happened.
>
> Best,
> John
>
> At 06:13 PM 5/7/03 -0700, Michael L Blood wrote:
> >Hi Steve & all,
> > Not to dispute ANY of this, but I have heard TONS AND TONS of
> >meteorites were, in fact, taken from the area and transported via
> >the rail roads to smelters at some incredibly low price - something
> >like 9 cents per TON! While it never came close to the "production"
> >hoped for, tons upon tons of Canyon Diablos were smelted down.
> > Anyone else heard this?
> > Michael
> >
> >on 5/7/03 5:26 PM, Steve Schoner at steve_schoner_at_yahoo.com wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > --- StarHarvest_at_aol.com wrote:
> > >> I found Mark's information about the location and
> > >> exploitation of the. Barringer Meteor in Arizona
> > >> interesting yet perplexing.
> > >>
> > >> My question is this: If a mining operation ensues
> > >> based on the task of breaking up and refining ore
> > >> from the HUGE Barringer meteor, What will this do to
> > >> the world worth of meteorites in general? I mean,
> > >> think of it! One could actually end up driving a
> > >> car made of ore derived from exospace!.
> > >> Extraterestrial material could become common stuff!
> > >> Why, we might even end up using paper-clips from
> > >> meteoritic ore! OH NO!
> > >>
> > >> Remember, the reason why diamonds are so priceless,
> > >> is because the DeBoer (spelling?) family has
> > >> controlled the flow of diamomds into the market.
> > >> Diamonds happen to be NOT as rare as one may suppose
> > >> but their availability has been controlled. What
> > >> will happen to the monetary value of meteorites if
> > >> one of the world's largest sources of nickel,
> > >> iron...and possibly diamonds, is from a meteor?
> > >> Rand Kluge
> > >>
> > >
> > > Rand,
> > >
> > > The impactor that made Meteor Crater was vaporized on
> > > impact as Dr. Moulton had predicted in 1929. Dr.
> > > Barringer's original idea was that it was intact
> > > underneath the south rim.
> > >
> > > The late '40's proof of Dr. Moulton's prediction came
> > > with Dr. Nininger's discovery of the vapor products
> > > scattered in the soil around Meteor Crater. Then,
> > > later, Dr. Shoemaker proved that all explosive
> > > cratering events vaporize the impactor as well.
> > >
> > > So, the above notion that mining meteorite craters for
> > > a bonanza of meteorites is without merit.
> > >
> > > Steve Schoner
> > >
> > > http://www.geocities.com/meteorite_identificaton
> > >
> > >
> > > __
Received on Thu 08 May 2003 12:45:07 AM PDT