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Finding Small Iron Meteorites With Gold Bug 2


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Thanks again Steve, you are definitely speeding up my learning curve. I live in Nevada now so it will probably be a few weeks before I can get back to the beach (my wife travels to California often and has a free companion pass so I tag along for free). I will share anything new I learn.

Most of my experience has been with the Fisher GB2 on meteorites and while not related to beach hunting I have learned a few tips recently that have paid off. I usually hunt the Franconia Strewn field which consists of chondrites and tiny irons. Most of the chondrites have been found and most folks think the irons have as well. But many of the irons are tiny, some smaller than 0.1 gram. The irons exist in an area that has been more or less entirely gridded. I recently bought a 14" coil for my GB2 to allow me to cover more area and went back to Franconia a few weeks ago. I hunted the usual area of "iron alley". I kept the sensitivity maxed out at 10, as well as the audio and the audio boost switch on. I ground balanced often, but with these settings the GB2 more or less is continuously noisy. Anything less than max sensitivity would be a waste of time because most hunters run maxed out.

Anyway, with all the visible scrapes and dig holes on the smooth desert pavement areas I decided to instead concentrate mostly on the areas with large basalt rocks from golf ball size to around softball size. The GB2 was screaming from all the hot rocks but every now and then I could hear a slight faint blip in the background. Sure enough many of these blips turned out to be irons and many were larger than normal up to 1.5 grams or so. After 3 days of hunting I had 49 irons and 2 chondrites, a new record for me! What I learned from all of this is to focus on the specific target sound or blip that usually indicates an iron and ignore all the hot rock sounds. It can be tough to do because the basalt hot rocks create a loud background chatter that is almost continuous. And most folks avoid the basalt area for that reason. This technique probably won't be much good with the ATX because it runs so quiet, but just thought I would share it. ....jim

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That is how I hunt gold with the Gold Bug 2! A different noise in the midst of the noise. I promise you similar methods will work with the ATX.

The problem and promise with modern metal detectors still is signal processing. If your ear can discern those signals with a Gold Bug 2 then in theory proper software can do the same, eliminating the noise and allowing the signal to be heard. For now though we have to use our ears and brains. The good news is the expertise to do so is rare and I dare say you have got it!

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Paleomanjim, Thanks for the meteorite post. Two nights ago I saw several come down and have been thinking it would be great fun to put those on the bucket list. Don`t have a clue how to go about it..

Sounds similar to how I hunt gold with the GB2. Can you post a picture? Has anyone tried to hunt meteorites in Alaska?

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Here are pics of the last finds. Irons at Franconia are small and are believed to have been part of the larger stony parent body. Because of their greater density they probably broke free during the atmospheric phase and separated. Looking at them with a 10X loop shows all kinds of cool features, melted nose cones, rollover lips, etc. ....I am headed to Gold Basin this morning and will return Wednesday...later....jim

 

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Great pictures Jim. Not at all what I thought they would look like. I`m thinking I have to have some in the specimen collection.

So how do you set about finding a meteorite? Gold is very predictable with weight density and concentration, it is easy to get started but a meteor I assume just falls randomly. What indicators get your hunt started?

I am not aware of any being found in Alaska but I would think its possible. I can imagine our terrain is not conducive to meteor finds.

Anyway would love to here more on the subject.

Thanks.

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I know if only four confirmed meteorite discoveries in Alaska, and one of those is suspicious. I have no doubt many meteorites exist in Alaska, but most would be very deep beneath muck and muskeg. Worth looking for though because a genuine Alaska discovery would be worth a lot of money just because of the cachet attached to anything Alaska these days.

Aggie Creek, Alaska Meteorite

http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM34/AM34_229.pdf

Hope Creek, Alaska Meteorite (possibly from Texas)

(http://www.meteoritemarket.com/HCR.htm)

Chilkoot and Cold Bay Meteorites

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=Alaska&sfor=places&stype=exact&lrec=50&country=United+States&srt=

More on Chilkoot Meteorite see page 457 http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/35669/vol2-Cent-China(LO).pdf

Meteorite Crater Near Bettles, Alaska

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF1/172.html

Avak Impact Crater, Alaska

http://impactcraters.us/avak_alaska

Overall Location Map http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2013/07/alaska-meteorites.html

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Steve thanks. This topic has peaked my interest and I plan to spend some time researching this. If you can find more, post it I would be interested.

I would imagine that a find would be not only rare but inherently valuable, defiantly worth a looksee.

This bring a thought to mind. Something that I have pondered from time to time is with all the water bodies in Alaska  do you know of any prospecting in any lakes. I have read that in Canada they have found diamonds under lakes in the northern parts. Seems to be an area that is overlooked.

 

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When you think about it, Meteorites, more or less, constantly bombard the earth in all directions.  They're just more easily found and recovered in areas such as dry lake beds, deserts, ice fields, etc.  Most are Micro Meteorites and you never see them coming through the atmosphere.  We found our first Meteorite "Cotopaxi" by accident while detecting for gold with our White's Goldmaster.  It's quite a process to get your Meteorite examined and verified and our's was done by the Geologists at UCLA.  It was officially named "Cotopaxi" due to the nearest geographical location that we found it, namely a Post Office here in Colorado.  We eventually donated it to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for their Meteorite collection.  

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All meteorite falls are random; strewn fields are just lots of pieces from a break-up of one very large random fall.

 

Any of O.Richard Norton's books will give you a good foundation in all-things meteoric...his Field Guide or Rocks From Space would be prefered unless you have a need for very technical information...

 

The alder covered areas of Alaska could have ton sized meteorites and they would never be seen...the artic tundra areas that I see on hunting or wildlife shows would be a better place to find exposed meteorites-similar to the desert pavement areas...

 

The guy that found the diamond fields in Canada started his search in Alaska and folllowed the clues to Canada...the lakes which hold diamonds are submerged kimberlite pipes that tend to erode faster than the surrounds...

 

These are all things I have read in books...I don't actually know anything.

fred

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Cotapaxi, Awesome name sounds otherworldly. And my hats off to you for donating it for all to enjoy. Any pictures?

I will look up Richard Norton's book at the library. It would be good to at least be able to identify one in the unlikely event that I happen on one.

Problem with large areas of tundra. They are frozen during the winter months but in the summer they are what is called muskeg and basically that is a marsh. Good luck finding anything in that.

Maybe the best plan is to look for impact craters and go from there?

Not many know about the artic desert in Alaska it`s called The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes.

It is in the Kobuk National Park. Here is a link.

http://www.nps.gov/kova/index.htm

Thanks for the info guys.

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