A small oriented meteorite, untouched by human hands just as found in the West, Texas strewnfield.
Photograph by Steve Arnold.
Anyone who took part in the Great Texas Fireball Hunt of February, 2009 will remember it for as long as they live.
On the afternoon of February 15, while the Aerolite Meteorites team was hard at work breaking down our showroom at the close of the 2009 Tucson gem and mineral show, a spectacular fireball was caught on film by a cameraman covering a sports event in Austin, Texas. We couldn’t have imagined it at the time, but that fireball was approximately 120 miles away from the man filming — somewhere over McClennan County, near Waco.
Forty five minutes after receiving news that Ron Dilulio of the University of North Texas had recovered two fragments, my close friend and expedition partner, Steve Arnold, was in the car headed from Arkansas to central Texas. He drove all night and arrived in the vicinity of the suspected strewnfield shortly after dawn. Steve stayed up all of that day hunting, without success. On his second day he found a small freshly fallen meteorite and called me immediately. I got up at 4 am the next morning, packed my gear quickly, and headed to the airport with Suzanne Morrison, a fellow Tucson-based meteorite hunter and member of the Aerolite team. We rented a Toyota truck at Dallas, Love Field, and blasted down Interstate 35E, eager to get to the fall zone as quickly as possible.
I often wonder what we used to do before cell phones. We never could have found our colleagues out there without one. I was on the line with Steve for much of the trip. As we neared the small town of West, Texas he told me to leave the highway at an obscure exit and to “look for us by the side of the road.” We found Steve’s car parked haphazardly on a grass bank and were delighted to learn that our great friend Sonny Clary — a highly skilled meteorite hunter from Las Vegas — had already connected with Steve, and both were in hot pursuit of the new fall.
Suzanne Morrison laughs, Sonny Clary makes the secret sign, while Steve tries to act serious and figure out where the fireball went. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin
“Welcome to the strewnfield,” Steve boomed, shaking our hands — dressed as usual in a khaki shirt, baggy blue jeans, florescent yellow sunglasses, and sneakers.
Our first duty was to interview a farmer who witnessed the fireball and heard multiple sonic booms, while out trimming a tree. He pointed to the exact spot where he saw the brilliant bolide, and he was quite adamant that the meteorite had rocketed straight over his head, leaving behind a slowly fading smoke trail.
“You say it was this big?” Steve Arnold discusses the February 15 Texas fireball with a local landowner who witnessed the spectacle. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin.
We followed Steve to a site east of West (yes, I know that sounds wrong, but it isn’t) where a rival team had recovered a few meteorite specimens. More of our friends were arriving by the hour, and we hunted with them until sunset, with no luck. However, we did have the unexpected pleasure of meeting Hopper The Meteorite Dog, a petite female collie mix who somehow located a 71-gram stone meteorite which she proceeded to deposit on her owner’s porch.
Steve and our friend Ruben Garcia took off late that evening to scout, and I really should have gone with them because Steve discovered a new area of the strewnfield just around dusk. Once he’d shared this information, everyone in earshot was eager to join up with us. We agreed to meet in front of a supermarket north of Waco at 5:30 am the next morning, in order to arrive the new site by sunrise. When Suzanne and I rolled up at 5:29, we were rather surprised to find four other vehicles waiting for us, each with several passengers. It was one of the greatest meteorite hunting teams ever assembled. In addition to Steve and Sonny, Suzanne and myself, waiting for us were hardened hunters Mike Miller and Ruben also from my home state of Arizona, Rob Wesel and Patrick Thompson from Oregon, and Jason Philips from Illinois. Noted collector Jim Schwade joined us the next day, and soon after Mike Bandli arrived from Washington State.
As the sun crept up through damp hazy clouds on that first morning, we hit the ground hard. Sonny found three meteorites within ten minutes, and by 11 am, most of our team were carrying around one or more freshly fallen space rocks, reverently placed inside plastic baggies. My first find was an 18.8-gram quarter stone which was lying face up. I was standing in the grass talking to Mike Miller and complaining that I hadn’t found anything yet, when I saw it sitting about eighteen inches from his right foot. “Hey! Is that one!?” I exclaimed. And there it was — a brand new arrival from the Asteroid Belt.
A complete oriented meteorite, just as it fell in the fields of Texas.
Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin.
We spent that day, and the following six days hiking across fields, ravines, through woodlands, and along white gravel roads. As we fanned out and began mapping the strewnfield I started to realize what a very bizarre strewnfield it was. After studying the fireball video, and noticing what appeared to be four separate fragmentations, I suggested to Steve that we should probably be looking for four overlapping strewnfields. We repeatedly found large and small stones mixed together. Five miles north of what we considered to be the little end of the strewnfield, we discovered stones tinier than the ones at the small end. In addition, nearly all stones were spaced far apart, and in only a couple of instances did we see two meteorites in close proximity. Stone meteorite showers often produce small clusters of meteorites which landed near each other (example: Gold Basin), but even in the most densely packed section of the strewnfield, stones were, on average, about 0.2 miles apart.
Sonny and Steve hiked off on their own and found an encouraging open space with flat, dry, hard, yellow/ochre soil. It was such a promising spot that the entire team spent the next 2 1/2 days gridding every inch of it, and the field produced over sixty stones, with our team collecting over one hundred stones total, from various different sites. The best part: the vast majority of the stones were perfect 100% fusion-crusted individuals. Many were oriented, and a few showed flow lines and rollover lips. The crust was so fresh it almost glowed blue black in the bright Texas sun. Only about one stone in ten was broken. A few were found face up, their white interiors difficult to spot against light colored earth.
Who said meteorite hunting is serious business? [left to right] Jason Philips, Rob Wesel, Steve Arnold, Jim Schwade, Suzanne Morrison and Patrick Thompson goof around for a few minutes while celebrating another new find. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin.
My great friend John Sinclair rolled in from Virginia and it was a treat to see him again. We hadn’t hunted together since the Park Forest fall of 2003. Most nights, our entire gang got together for a raucous dinner — eight, nine or ten hungry and thirsty meteorite hunters who had hoofed it for at least ten miles across rough terrain in record high temperatures for that time of year. Mike Bandli kept his GPS attached to him at all times and clocked eighteen miles during one day’s hike.
I was walking right beside Mike, early in the chilly morning of our sixth day on the ground, when he suddenly dropped to his knees, and shouted out: “Oh my god, I found one!” He is an experienced collector but it was his first-ever personal find. He almost went into orbit for a moment himself, but kept his wits about him and immediately handed me his digital video recorder. “Geoff, would you do the honors?” And it was a real treat to document that moment for him.
Patrick Thomspon, son of veteran meteorite dealer Edwin “E.T.” Thompson stunned everyone by finding more stones that some of the pros. It was his first successful meteorite hunt, and I’m going to have to keep a very close watch on that guy in the future : )
“I know it’s windy, but try not to blink.” Geoff doing an on-site interview for Austin Channel 8 News
Photograph by Mike Bandli.
Sonny found a gorgeous oriented individual next to a wire fence that looks uncannily like a black flying saucer. But it was my good friend, and fellow Tucsonan, Suzanne Morrison who won the prize. While scouting with Sonny she came across a large complete individual, completely crusted and highly oriented. It’s one of the most fabulous stone meteorites I’ve ever seen, and I shall remain pleasantly jealous for many years.
I hiked over a hundred miles, and put almost 900 miles on the rental truck, driving around the strewnfield. Most of the landowners we met were extremely gracious and generous in giving permission to hunt on their properties, but we did encounter a couple of lunatics who shouted and ordered us off their land. We were careful and respectful of our hosts’ land, packed out all our trash and kept landowners posted regarding our finds.
When planting began, the big tractors rolled in and tore up the pristine flat surfaces in just a couple of days, making it almost impossible to find additional pieces but, hey, I got to ride with the owner in his big planter, and that was almost as fabulous as finding meteorites.
One night, near the end of the trip, I was too exhausted to hunt past sunset, and started heading back to the truck an hour earlier than usual. On some odd whim, I decided to backtrack, and cut diagonally across a section of ground we had not fully covered. And there it was, plain as day: a triangular, 100% crusted, perfectly oriented stone half buried in the dirt. It was my favorite find of the trip.
Look at that impact pit. A 100% fusion crusted individual from the Texas meteorite fall, smacked into the hard, dry soil. Photograph by Geoffrey Notkin.
I returned to the Aerolite Meteorites HQ in Tucson with thirteen new arrivals to planet Earth in my field pack. Eleven were complete individuals, with one half stone and one quarter stone. The total recovered weight of this fall is very low. Estimates are currently around two to three kilograms, which is a tiny amount. There are a lot of collectors out there, and specimens are changing hands for good money.
My thirteen West, Texas black beauties will stay with me as long as I’m around. I worked hard to get them, and they are worth more than money to me. Steve Arnold has a few left for sale, and if you want one, contact him soon and tell him Geoff sent you. Maybe I’ll get a kickback : )
One of my best expeditions — ever. I’ll never forget those long sunny days east of West.
With my birthday twin and expedition partner, the mighty Steve Arnold.
Photograph by Suzanne Morrison.
WATCH THE SKIES!
