Who owns this meteorite?

[Tuberale]

Will be hunting for a 22' meteorite. Stone is visible from google earth photos. 2' of stone is above ground.
Stone currently is on federal land, but not originally.
Currently on a protected area, that has rare plants and animals. Evidently road building is still allowed in some areas. There is a road which ends about a mile away from it.
Before I try to get a piece of it, should I be worrying about the ownership issue?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[Kray Gelder]

Unbelievable.

 

[Rick K]

Of course not there originally - originally it was in outer space - lol.

a 22’ Meteorite would have had impact energy like a nuclear weapon - not ending up like a big rock stuck in the ground.

The largest visible meteor crater on earth is here in AZ. It is estimated that a 100’ to 200’ meteor did that.

Here is a picture of a recently discovered impact site in the Sahara - the meteor that did that was estimated to be about 5’ across - imagine what a 22’ One would do...

 

[MidMoTreasure]

Here is the official BLM policy for collecting meteorites from public lands: https://www.blm.gov/policy/im-2012-182

The casual collection rules state:

Casual Collection: Meteorites may be casually collected (i.e., free and without a permit), pursuant to BLM’s regulations at 43 CFR 8365.1-5. In accordance with those regulations:

- Collection of meteorites is limited to certain public lands. Public lands closed to casual collection include: developed recreation sites, certain units of the National Landscape Conservation System, areas excluded from casual collection in a Land Use Plan such as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) or a wilderness area, and areas closed by supplemental regulations;
- Individuals are limited to collecting what can be easily hand-carried, up to a maximum of ten pounds of meteorites per individual, per year;
- Only surface collection of meteorites using non-motorized and non-mechanical equipment is allowed (metal detectors may be used); and
- Casually-collected meteorites are for personal use only, and may not be bartered or sold for commercial purposes.

Hope this helps answer your question.

 

[Tuberale]

The stone is on federal land, not BLM. Witnessed fall, found within a week of falling. {There was an old logging camp nearby.} Site has been clearcut several times since the stone came down. Fell soft as a feather for a meteorite. 2 feet of the stone is still above found.

 

[Rick K]

Dream on.

BLM land is federal.

Meteorites enter the atmosphere at hypersonic speed and are only slightly slowed by friction with the atmosphere.

“Fell soft as a feather for a meteorite” - WHAT!!!

They aren’t like the turkeys in the famous WKRP in Cincinnati turkey drop.



Read up on meteorites - you are delusional if you believe what you have written.

 

[ecmjamsit]

Average velocity of a meteorite is 22,000 KM an hour. Calculator for impact effects, see link below. If it was a irony type of asteroid, it would probably knock out the electrical grid. I have a background in electronic warfare. What you describe would have killed millions if it had hit New York City.

https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEarth/ImpactEffects/

 

[Pick_axe]

When something of that size enters our atmosphere at say 30KM per second, it pushes a column of compressed air ahead of it so dense that it acts like a piston. It ionizes the atmosphere around it. Much of the damage is done before the actual object ever hits the surface. As ECMJAMSIT put it, the EMP would be like a pony nuke.

 

[Rick K]

Ain’t science beautiful - sad so many folks slept through high school science classes.

 

[Tuberale]

Ain’t science beautiful - sad so many folks slept through high school science classes.

I didn't sleep through high school science classes. I have tested to be in the upper 98 percentile of people in science. I'm just saying what others have already said about the meteorite.

 

[Rick K]

I didn’t say that you slept through high school science class. I do wonder however how you can believe that a meteorite entering the earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity (and they all do so) and weighing many thousands of tons can fall to earth “soft as a feather”. Ample facts have been pointed out here that show that no massive meteorite - having fallen recently as you assert - can possibly be resting partially buried on the surface of the ground - no crater - no nuclear-class explosion - “soft as a feather” - IMPOSSIBLE.

 

[Molewacker]

Dream on.

BLM land is federal.

Meteorites enter the atmosphere at hypersonic speed and are only slightly slowed by friction with the atmosphere.

“Fell soft as a feather for a meteorite” - WHAT!!!

They aren’t like the turkeys in the famous WKRP in Cincinnati turkey drop.



Read up on meteorites - you are delusional if you believe what you have written.

"Falling to the ground like sacks of wet cement!" My favorite clip from WKRP
Thanks for the smile!

 

[Kray Gelder]

Recent witnessed meteor shower.

 

[galenrog]

Any chance we can see a source document alleging the witnessed meteorite fall? Newspaper account? Written account of any kind?

Time for more coffee.

 

[BillA]

I didn't sleep through high school science classes. I have tested to be in the upper 98 percentile of people in science. I'm just saying what others have already said about the meteorite.

my bolding
it matters little how clever one is if they are without facts

stoney or iron meteorite ?
if iron: and an airborne mag survey line has never picked it up ?

2' chord of a (nominal) sphere whose section is how many feet ?
- so the diameter is . . . .
- weight . . . . .

totally implausible, do it
let us know

edit: ah, 22' size
would that be the 'core' or a piece ?
was it seen to break up ?
what would have been the size/tonnage before ablation in the atmosphere ?
wow

 

[Tuberale]

Yeah, big one. Bigger than the Hoba. How did this manage to not bury itself? Why wasn't it going faster? And where did it come from?

 

[Tuberale]

Don't know if the stone ever broke up. Fell in the 1800's so I wasn't there at the time. Several sources, including history books (A History of Coos County) and newspaper articles. Fell during a blizzard. Blizzards in area not common, but one reaason it wasn't found immediately.

 

[galenrog]

Now that I know what you are after (the South Slough Meteorite), I have no doubt that you are going to find a lot of rocks, both big and small. The heads of South Slough make up dozens of square miles of everything from marshes to rugged hills. The remains of basaltic flows are plentiful, as are tree covered sand hills. Please do not be surprised should the object of your attention turns out to be just another boulder.

Please note that if the item you are after is in the part of South Slough managed by NOAA, recovery will need their written permission.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

That little crater in AZ is definitely not the biggest one visible from Google earth.
Hartman's rocks in gunnison makes that look like an empty puddle. Hartman's is a much bigger crater being 8.5 km across. It hit so hard it bent the crust of the earth during a time we were covered by a shallow sea.

 

[Tuberale]

Now that I know what you are after (the South Slough Meteorite), I have no doubt that you are going to find a lot of rocks, both big and small. The heads of South Slough make up dozens of square miles of everything from marshes to rugged hills. The remains of basaltic flows are plentiful, as are tree covered sand hills. Please do not be surprised should the object of your attention turns out to be just another boulder.

Please note that if the item you are after is in the part of South Slough managed by NOAA, recovery will need their written permission.

Oddly rocks in this area are few and far between. The few that I have found are mostly sandstone. Gold is found in the area as well. Wouldn't mind finding some of that (or a lot of that)!