[meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax.

From: Ruben Garcia <meteoritemall_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:07:36 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <699124.84338.qm_at_web32506.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hey Sonny,
Ask Mike Miller as both he and I have cut lots of this stuff - from the picture - I can say it is almost certainly old Campo. That blurred etch look comes from the extreme weathering of old campo. I've never seen another meteorite that looks the same. A few years ago we both bought the same sort of stuff as toluca. The seller was sure we'd never know the difference...we did and returned it for a refund.

Besides Steve and I are working on cleaning out all the meteorites in Nevada....lol



Ruben Garcia
Phoenix, Arizona
http://www.mr-meteorite.com
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=meteorfright&p=v


--- On Sat, 8/23/08, wahlperry at aol.com <wahlperry at aol.com> wrote:

> From: wahlperry at aol.com <wahlperry at aol.com>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax.
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008, 1:26 PM
> Hi All,
>
> I recently answered an ad regarding a meteorite for sale
> that was found
> in Texas. I have included a portion of the email below.
>
> >Thanks for your reply on the meteor. Here are some
> additional details
> on it:
>
> >I am an amateur fossil hunter and I was searching a
> river-bed in
> central Texas, outside This river bed I was searching
> within is the
> Lower Cretaceous-
> >Glen Rose formation, well known for its ammonites,
> grastropods and
> other shell fossils. It is a soft to hard limestone group
> and is
> stratified into various layers. There are no known layers
> of metals
> >such as irons, ingenious or other metamorphic type
> minerals within
> this outcrop of Texas. During my hunt I ran across a dark,
> rust colored
> "stone" sticking outside of the side bank at
> about two >feet above my
> head. Was very much out of place as this was a tan-light
> brown colored
> limestone layer. Started to pull it out, but had to pick it
> out. It was
> very heavy and was rusted. Was pretty >excited about it
> and had my
> suspension it was a meteor.
>
> >Researched on the subject and ran a few objective
> analyses on it. It
> is highly magnetic, has nickle content, shows fusion crust,
> one spot
> has very bright silver underneath the rusting and weighs in
> >at 14.2
> lbs. Consulted a couple of Geo-Techs and they agree it is a
> meteor. I
> have attached photos of the ammonites I found within the
> same layer to
> give you an idea >of the type of limestone and fossils
> found in that
> formation.
>
>
> After a lengthy phone conversation I agreed to his asking
> price. With
> the agreement; before his receiving payment I would request
> to cut and
> etch a small slice of the suspected meteorite. From the
> pictures it
> looked very much like a weathered Campo or Nantan. I
> expressed my
> concern that many of the Iron meteorites that are turning
> up today for
> sale are meteorites that were purchased and being
> misrepresented as a
> new find. Also it would be tough to find anyone to classify
> it if it
> resembled a Campo or Nantan .The finder assured me that
> this was a new
> find and another small piece was found above this location
> that
> resembled the meteorite. I thought to myself this can't
> be true, I
> better call up my hunting partner and reserve plane tickets
> now before
> Steve Arnold or Ruben find out! Just kidding ! This is when
> things
> started to get strange. The finder called a few times
> expressing
> concerns about the value of the meteorite, increased
> interest from
> potential buyers, etc. I was also forwarded a email from a
> person
> wanting to purchase the meteorite. The strange thing about
> the email it
> sounded like my previous phone call with the finder but the
> name was
> different and now the person expressing concern about the
> meteorite was
> working with a large University in meteorite studies. At
> this point I
> was starting to doubt any of this was true . I decided to
> contact the
> University and was surprised to find out that they never
> had worked
> with or heard of this person.
>
> I still thought that this could be true and waited for the
> meteorite to
> arrive ! I received a phone call from the finder the day
> before the
> meteorite was to arrive expressing ebay prices and possibly
> not wanting
> to sell the meteorite . From the prices on Ebay this could
> be worth
> thousands of dollars! Yeh right! Finding someone to
> classify it and all
> the time involved, you could make Millions!
>
> When I opened the box I could see rust fragments inside the
> bag that
> was protecting the meteorite. Still anything is possible!
> Lying in a
> limestone formation for millions of yeras that was once the
> bottom of
> the ocean. I wonder if that deep sea fishing pole I dropped
> over the
> side of the boat last year will last that long?
>
> After cutting and etching the meteorite. it appears to be a
> Coarse
> Octahedrite with silicate inclusions.
>
> I really can not prove that he did not find this meteorite
> or if it is
> a Campo or Nantan. The purpose of this post is to help
> anyone who may
> come across this meteorite. I placed a few pictures of the
> meteorite
> and cut face on my web page.
>
> Thanks,
> Sonny
>
> http://www.nevadameteorites.com/id33.htm
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Sat 23 Aug 2008 08:07:36 PM PDT