[meteorite-list] NP Article, 11-1950 Nininger, Meteor Crater Hunt Futile

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:40 2004
Message-ID: <20030515005506.9452.qmail_at_web12708.mail.yahoo.com>

Al, and all,

I recall reading somewhere that he found some areas
where the sphereoids were very numerous. 13 tons per
acre?

But his reports of their recovery was so involved in
technique that they would hardly be worth the effort
to recover, as unfortunately the cinders that were
brought in to make the road to the visitor center also
get collected by the magnet.

He then had sort each one out by hand from the much
hugely numerous cinders. Then, I recall that he made
the process a bit more effective by using a shoe box
with the material at one end and then lifting the box
at an angle just below allowing them to drift to the
other side, and then rapping the box lightly.

The spherical vapor products would then be shaken
loose from the more irregular cinders and wind up on
the opposite side of the box. Further hand sorting
under a microscope would further separate them from
terrestrial material.

When one thinks about it, each one of these were
observed by Nininger himself, and separated out for
what they are.

When I spoke with him a year or so before he passed
on, I asked him where I could get an ounce or so of
sphereoids. He said that they were rare and that such
would probably cost a $1,000 per/oz if one could find
them. And he said that they were very hard to sort
from terrestrial material.

In my collection I have 2 special Nininger made
"Sphereoid Stars" which he made for friends, and I
have 6 grams of specially sorted sphereoids purchased
from him.

They are real treasures in my collection.

Steve Schoner
http://www.geocities.com/american_meteorite_survey
--- almitt <almitt_at_kconline.com> wrote:
> Hi Steve and all,
>
> Nininger systematically went all around the crater
> at different radiuses, collecting
> the contents of the soil (a few square inches in
> each spot) and carefully laid out in
> a grid of each section recovered. He found that
> certain areas contain more of the
> spheroids and that the further out the less
> concentrated they were. He used this
> gathering of material to calculate the size of the
> impactor. Pretty impressive work
> for that time. His philosophy of do something that
> need doing and that no one has ever
> done is a good one. He certainly lived up to his
> philosophy. This might make for a
> good Nininger Moment topic. I can remember also
> being told about the drill stopping.
> Wonder if there is a mass down there or they hit a
> geological feature. Perhaps it was
> just time to stop drilling.
>
> --AL
>
>
>


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Received on Wed 14 May 2003 08:55:06 PM PDT