[Rockhounds] Re: METEORITE ? FOUND IN FIELD IN ALPAUGH, CA

[Moni Waiblinger]

Hello Veva,

I regularly search for meteorites with other rockhounds from Bakersfield and Los Angeles.  
The meteorites that we find from California and Nevada we send to Dr. Rubin in the Geology Department at UCLA  (90095) for classification.
<http://www.ess.ucla.edu/researchers/rubin/index.asp>

(The meteorites that we find in Arizona we send to ASU, if they agree to accept them.  Not all universities are interested in classifying meteorites.)

When we're not 100% sure that the rock we found is a meteorite, we have it checked-out before sending it to UCLA (we don't want to waste their time with our meteor-wrongs;-).  We have one of our team-members, Bob Verish, take a look at it, first, before he hand-carries the find to Dr. Rubin. (You may remember Bob as being the "rockhound" that found the Mars meteorite called Los Angeles.)  

Although Bob had originally mis-identified his Mars rock as being a terrestrial volcanic bomb, he has since then gone on to learn a lot about meteorites.  Over the past 10 years Bob's record at identifying meteorites has been unblemished; having no false positives, and more importantly, no false negatives.  Over this period of time the number of "classified" California meteorites has gone from 30 to 190.  About half of these new "finds" were first identified by Bob before they were "classified" by UCLA.  So, Bob's perfect record isn't based on a small number of meteorites.

There are a number of local colleges and labs that I can refer you to, Veva, but it's been our experience that they will take too long and will eventually just defer to the opinion of experts having more expertise with meteorites.  Many of the museums and small colleges in LA County and San Bernardino County will contact Bob if they have a "meteorite ?" sent to them, anyway, so I can't make a better recommendation.

Feel free to contact me off-list if you have any additional questions,
Moni

> [Rockhounds-Digest]
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>    2. Re: Emailing: METEORITE ? FOUND IN FIELD IN ALPAUGH, CA
>       (VevaBailey at aol.com)
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:18:32 EST
> From: VevaBailey at aol.com
> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Emailing: METEORITE ? FOUND IN FIELD IN
> 	ALPAUGH, CA
> To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
> Message-ID: <c7b.4717fdde.3664b188 at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> 
> Thank you Kreigh, I never thought about Jerry's local rock club. 
> I am knowledgeable about some minerals but I didn't see anything in this  
> rock. I didn't have a magnet to test it with, so I didn't. 
> Because of where Jerry found the rock and knowing there aren't rocks around  
> there I was thinking that it could have been a meteorite.
> The same night I saw a meteorite fall just north of the prison which is  
> about 5 miles north of where Jerry lives. I thought about going and seeing if I  
> could find it but thought better of going around a prison in the dark.  LOL.
>  
> Veva B
>
> On Sunday, Nov  30, 2008, at 19:44 America/Detroit, VevaBailey at aol.com 
> wrote:
> 
> >  Hello List!
> > My husbands cousin, Jerry, found this "rock" in Alpaugh,  CA 
> > while plowing upa field.
> > He said it was just laying  on top of the soil, not buried.
> > There aren't very many rocks that are  natural in that area.
> > Alpaugh is or was a lake bed many thousands of  years ago and is 
> > completely flat.
> > This field is used to grow  cotton and other crops.
> > I don't know how to tell if the "rock" is a  meteorite or what, so 
> > could  some of you give me some  input?
> >
> > Veva B.
> >
> >
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> End of Rockhounds Digest, Vol 55, Issue 1
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