[meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax.
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 __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax.
Hi Sonny, Thanks for the heads up on this (find?). Being very familiar with Texas caliche and limestone, I am curious as to how the finder cleaned the sample so well. Everyone around here knows that anything that has been entrapped in a caliche and/or limestone deposit sticks to the object worse than bubble gum sticks to the bottom of a boot on a hot day. Did the finder mention if perhaps he had dunked the iron in an acid bath? That's a quick and easy way to clean the limestone off, but a terrible way to preserve an iron. Just curious because it sure looks cleaner than picks and brushes would get it. However, the silicate inclusions and coarse crystals appear to make it a slam dunk to be an old iron. Now if you can just nail down where it's really from. Best regards, Jerry Wallace Odessa, Texas [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 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
Re: [meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax.
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 Nevadalol Ruben Garcia Phoenix, Arizona http://www.mr-meteorite.com http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=meteorfrightp=v --- On Sat, 8/23/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [meteorite-list] Texas meteorite find ...possible hoax. To: meteorite-list@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
