Look For Martian Rocks on My Ranch
You can search for meteorites from Mars on our Ranch!!!! Yes
they may be present. Not very likly but possible. How will you
know Ttey are from Mars? Martian meteorites are young in cosmic
terms. They are volcanic rocks. Confirmation of their Martian
origin has come came when the gases trapped in glassy nodules on
these meteorites were found to be the same to the Martian
atmosphere as measured Nasa's the Viking Lander.
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. This is where a Martian rock
was found. 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