Treasure Hunting For Meteorites

Written By: admin - May• 27•10

Meteorites

Have you ever dreamed a pulling a star out of the sky and putting it in your pocket? Guess what you can. Of course we’re not actually talking a real star, but a falling star, most often called a meteorite.

If you find the right one, these wonderful pieces of the cosmos can be very valuable to both collectors and museums.

current prices on meteorite specimens from the Gold Basin here!

current prices on meteorite specimens from around the world here!

How To Find A Meteorite

Treasure Hunting For Meteorites can be a fun adventure for all.

Meteorites can be found almost anywhere in the world from your local park (yes it does happen) to the deserts of Morocco. It’s estimated that over 500 meteorites fall to Earth every year.

So what’s the best way for you to find meteorites, well it’s to be shown how to find them by folks that do it all the time, you’ll see who these folks are shortly.

But, before we get into how to find meteorites or where to find them, you need to know what they are. Also, you’ll need to have an understanding of some of the words you will encounter out in the field while searching for meteorites.

The world of meteorites and meteorite hunting can become very exacting and specific if you want it to be, but for your needs, on a first trip to find them with a guide, all you’ll need is some basic knowledge.

Meteorites On Earth

Meteorites are discovered on earth one of two ways.

The first is by people actually seeing them fall and figuring out where they landed, or they actually see it impact the ground and go and get it. These are called “falls” and are very rare events.

The most common ways meteorites are found is by accident or by going to identified meteor impact sites and looking for them, these are call “finds”.

Not much to it, right? Meteorites are discovered as either falls or finds, and what you’ll be looking for are probably going to be classified as…

Finds, hey I knew you where paying attention.

Classifying Meteorites

Ok, so now you know that, it’s time to talk about the 3 basic types of meteorites and they are:

-Stony meteorites, which are rocks.

-Iron meteorites, which are made of metallic iron-nickel.
-Stony-iron meteorites, can you guess what they are? Yes, a mix of the stony and iron meteorites.

There are many more specific ways to classify your meteorites including by their mineralogy, chemical and isotopic composition, and structure.

If you need some good bedtime reading material go to the Meteorite Classification page at Wikipedia and print out the classification guide. Otherwise just stick to the 3 classifications you just learned about for now.

How To Find Meteorites

The most commonly found types are the iron or stony-iron meteorites. This is due to the use of metal detectors, which is the easiest way to find meteorites.

Most of the places you will be looking for your meteorites will contain more then just a single specimen. This is because they often break up on their way through the Earths atmosphere.

So, when they do impact the Earth they are usually in close proximity to one another. These areas are called “strewn fields” and can have up to many thousands of specimens in them.

Meteorite strewn fields are usually elliptical in shape, with the largest meteorites being found at one end of the elongated sides of the ellipse.

Also, you should know that unlike what Hollywood might like to portray in the movies, most meteorites do not make impact craters. As a mater of fact, most simply make a little hole in the ground, or make a little divot and stay on the surface.

There you have it everything you need to know to go find meteors with a guide, so lets take a 30 second review.

Meteorites will be discovered either as a “fall” or a “find”, and yours will be a…
“Find”, let’s hope it’s a real find and it may help you find more money in the bank.

There are 3 broad types of meteorites stony, iron, and stony-iron, and you’ll most often use a metal detector to find iron and stony-iron meteorites.

Finally meteorites often land in what are called strewn fields, which may contain just a couple too many thousands of meteorites.

Companies That Can Show You How To Find Meteorites

So are you ready to go out and find your own piece of the galaxy? Wonderful, the folks listed below specialize in making your meteorite hunting as fruitful as possible. They’ll be happy to show you the ins and outs of finding them for yourself.

Meteorite Adventures Tucson, AZ

Gold Basin Meteorite Expeditions Meadview, AZ