New rules for hunting meteorites Options

[Woody]

Looks like the Feds are stepping up and placing restrictions on collecting meteorites. I recognize the interest and benefit science might have but the way I interpret this means more regulations placed on our public lands and activities. This might be a bit of a rant on my part but I hate all these rules and regulations on our public lands. I am reminded about the last time I was in the California N.F. I wanted to spend a couple of days in the back country camping. I found out that I needed a permit in order to even have a campfire. Here is another extreme, I was in Germany a few years ago and got an annual fishing license. It cost about 100$. However, if you actually wanted to use it you had to go down to the county court house before the last business day, and pay an additional cost for each and every day you planned on fishing. It was about 10$ extra per day.

This kind of suggest the same thing, you can’t go out hunting meteorites unless you buy a permit.



http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/15/...intcmp=features

[EMac]

I think you must have missed the point about Berringer's presentation - there was no buried meteorite mass. Berringer, a very wealthy man, nearly bankrupted in his efforts to prove there was a buried metal mass below the crater. That was after he obtained patent based on his surface discoveries that were selling for $1,300 a ton at the time of his purchase. I have inspected the property by invitation and have a few of the found meteorite masses from there. All those masses were either found exposed on the surface near the crater (as large as 25 tons) or are found within a few inches of the surface. The slightly buried pieces are easily spotted by eye due to surface alteration rings immediate to the meteorite fragment. There is nothing of value there associated with the mineralogy of the country rock.

Do you have source material for this as well? I'm curious what he was selling for $1300 a ton when hot rolled steel was selling for less than $1.60 per 100 pounds (quick math says that's less than $32 a ton). Wikipedia (granted, not exactly a perfect source) says that variety of iron ore was selling for $125/ton. Still a far cry from $1300, so my interest is piqued.


I haven't read them, so I'm also curious about the various suits filed against family. I'll poke around for those, but if you have links to them already, I thank you in advance!

This piece seems similar to the Schrodinger's cat thought experiment...minus the quantum positioning stuff.
When Barringer presented the papers in 1906 and 1909, he thought there was a mass buried. In 1928 (19 years after his presentation), he still thought a mass was present, and he was gathering investors to mine what he still thought was millions of tons of iron. It wasn't until Moulton's estimates that the meteorite was much smaller (300k tons) and was likely vaporized, that he stopped mining operations. So for 25 years, the impression (at least from Barringer) was there was a massive deposit of iron to be mined. This, to me, renders the lack of clarity about in situ vs surficial interesting. From what I've read (and I'm hoping you have material to help refine this for me), the scientific community thought it was a volcano and meteorite pieces were coincidental. It would stand to reason then that the community assumed Barringer intended to mine a volcano which suggests to me the claim type should have been a lode claim when he filed placer claims. Interesting indeed.

Edited for grammar.