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Home::Online Promotion
My New Ranch....A Meteorite Hunting Ranch
Author : Bill Hirst
Recently scientists have found five new Martian meteorites.These
were recovered in the Antarctica and the hot deserts of Oman and
the Sahara.
There are now just just 24 Martians rocks that have been found
on earth. These are wonders because these rocks contain chemical
clues about Martian history. The possibility that the planet
once possessed oceans of water and life can be deduced by
examination of these rocks. That makes finding these rocks
important and valuable to the finder. One rock weighed in at
about 30 pounds.
Hunting for meteorites does not have to be a bone chilling
adventure to the Antarctic where the temperature is 50 below
zero F and 50 mile per hour winds. Meteors enter the earth
atmosphere everywhere. They impact everywhere. The trick in
finding them is to look where they have had a good chance of
impacting or where they have been concentrated by natural forces
of the earth and HAVE NOT BEEN DESTROYED BY WEATHERING. This
means deserts are a good place to search for meteorites. Deserts
can change over the centuries. But deserts don't alway have
major weathering. Thus if you want to find meteorites you may
want to come to our Truth or Consequences Ranch. It is located
in New Mexico adjacent to the Chihuahuan Desert. There are
trillions and trillions of terrestrial rocks for each meteorite
that could be in this area. Metal detectors are used by many
professional meteorite hunters around the world. Metal detectors
can easily distinguish between ferrous and non ferrous rocks.
Since not all meteorites are ferrous only the ferrous meteorites
will be found by the metal detector. Modern metal detectors can
balance out dominant background rocks. This inhances the
detector to find the meteorites. Metal detectors creat a
constant hum. The volume and pitch of this hum increases as the
detector passes over the metallic object. There are hot rocks
which produces a signal but is a false positive. Thus detecting
requires concentration and you will see lots and lots of hot
rocks. You must also keep a visual eye for other interesting
rocks which can be meteorites. It seems that the best way to
find meteorites from this area is to use a combination of metal
detecting and good old-fashioned shoe-leather foot searching.
The weather is not hard to predict for the Truth or Consequences
area. Don't bother to bring a rain coat, it only rains 10" per
year. The winters are mild as it is Southern New Mexico. It
could get to 10F, but not for many days of the year. A clear sky
with a gentle breeze is the norm.
You can see Bill's web site for unusual travellers at
http://www.huntingrelics.com
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