An Article In Meteorite-Times Magazine
by Robert Verish
Weekend Outing from 5 Years Ago
Looking back: A year-end reminiscing at what we were doing in December of 2001
Hard to believe that 5 years have gone by since our last trip to Gold Basin. It’s not that I haven’t returned to this part of northern Mohave County, Arizona, since then, it’s just that there are so many other spots in this area to search for meteorites. And when I did return, I would usually be leading a small meteorite-recovery team, and they would always opt for going to a dry lake, as opposed to going to an alluvial fan and swinging a metal detector all weekend. So, every time that we found ourselves in the Hualapai Valley, we would usually end up on a large playa near Gold Basin called, Red [Dry] Lake, and I would never find the time to re-visit the Gold Basin strewn field.
But, on this weekend our destination was to be Gold Basin. I drummed-up interest for this excursion by telling the team members about my previous recon trip and my success at what I called, “a proof of concept” meteorite-recovery. The “concept” was that, if the proper surfaces could be found, a person could find Gold Basin meteorites just by their eye-sight alone. And on that first recon trip I "proved the concept" by finding a small fragment after only a few hours of walking.
Of course, on that prior “recon trip” I was searching by myself because the other team members thought I was crazy to go to a strewn field that was “so thoroughly worked-out!” But I was able to find the “proper surfaces”; namely, erosional surfaces that were sufficiently old AND extensive.
This news generated a lot of interest among the team members, but come that Saturday morning, only two of them showed up for this excursion – James LaBarbera, the son of Jerry LaBarbera, and Daniel Abel, a friend of my son. Daniel had never gone meteorite hunting before, and although he didn’t find one on this trip, his youthful eagerness (particularly to do all the driving) gave the rest of us the added energy which would be instrumental in making this M-R effort a success.
We arrived at Gold Basin before the sun rose. The plan was to hike in to the deepest, most remote area of the strewn field before we would even start to search visually, all in the hope that we would find a suitable area that was "under-searched" by prospectors with metal-detectors. we parked the truck along the main graded-road, and James jumped out immediately in order to attend to some long overdue personal business. Now, believe me! This is no exaggeration, but before I could even turn off the engine and get out of the truck, James was already walking up to my driver-side window with arm extended, holding a plum-sized chondrite! It appears that right along side that main road, right under a bush that James had gone behind to conduct his business, is where he found the first Gold Basin Area meteorite of the day!
(Daniel suggested that I put on my gloves before examining it, "just in case it turns out to be a urinlite meteorite"!)
Daniel offered to stay close to the truck. He may have been tired from driving all night, but probably was more impressed with how close to the truck was the first find of the day. So, it was up to James and I to start hiking.
Long story short, before the morning was over, I found a meteorite fragment (images below). Although I was equipped with a magnet stick, it wasn't necessary to use it to make this find. I made this find with my eyes only, and I knew this was a meteorite even from several meters away.
While I recorded the find with my GPS and digital camera, James continued searching by circling around and away in ever increasing circles. But then I remembered something that John Blennert told me. JB has found numerous clusters of GB fragments over the years and has noticed that the fragments form a linear pattern on the ground. More importantly, the trend of this pattern is nearly the same (parallel) for all clusters, roughly NNE to SSW. So, instead of having James walk a broad search pattern, I suggest to James that he turn to the NNE and start searching in a straight line. Within the next two minutes, James had made the 2nd find. I told him to mark the spot and keep on walking to the NNE. And before I could finish recording my first find, James had recovered all of the GB fragments that would be found that day! All found along that straight line.
Over 1.5 kg of fragments and individual chondritic stones.
The images below are from our 2001 December 26th visit to Gold Basin:
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1st Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies in-situ in the foreground - |
12/26/2001 03:27 |
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1st Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies as found on the ground - |
12/26/2001 03:39 |
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1st Gold Basin meteorite find of the day still lies ground where it was found- |
12/26/2001 03:52 |
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1st Gold Basin meteorite find of the day held for the first time - |
12/26/2001 04:00 |
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Near the first find lies a cluster of more Gold Basin chondrite fragments - |
12/26/2001 04:12 |
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Darkly-weathered meteorites stand out against a pavement of light-colored carbonate rock - |
12/26/2001 04:29 |
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James LaBarbera shows the width of the next cluster of fragments - |
12/26/2001 04:44 |
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James LaBarbera uses a magnet stick to extract meteorites from a cluster of fragments - |
12/26/2001 04:58 |
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James LaBarbera points to the next scattering of chondritic fragments - |
12/26/2001 05:09 |
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Close-up of the 2nd GB find of the day still in-situ - |
12/26/2001 05:25 |
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2nd Gold Basin meteorite find of the day held for the first time - |
12/26/2001 05:34 |
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1st Gold Basin meteorite find of the day hand held to show opposite side - |
12/26/2001 05:43 |
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3rd Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies as found on the ground - |
12/26/2001 05:58 |
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3rd Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies next to the hole it was exracted from in the ground - |
12/26/2001 06:17 |
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4th Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies as found on the ground - |
12/26/2001 06:31 |
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5th Gold Basin meteorite find of the day lies as found on the ground - |
12/26/2001 06:46 |
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Last cluster for the day of Gold Basin meteorite fragments was taken from this hole - |
12/26/2001 07:59 |
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The next morning as we drove from Meadview back to Gold Basin, we could clearly see Red Dry lake out in the distance. As we drove down into the Hualapai Valley (and because the early morning light was still dim from an overcast sky), I was able to see features on the lake that I hadn't seen before.
I had never noticed before how large the dunes were at the south end of the playa. The presence of such large dunes suggested to me that, contrary to thepredominant wind direction (which is from the southwest in this part of Arizona), there must have been episodes of energetic winds blowing out of the North!
And whatever direction the wind blows, that's the direction I will go; I will follow the wind to where ever those meteorites will accumulate.
It didn't take much talking to convince James and Daniel to take a detour to Red Dry Lake.
The images below are from our 2001 December 27th visit to Red Dry Lake:
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89k |
12/27/2001 09:07 |
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12/27/2001 10:13 |
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12/27/2001 11:18 |
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12/27/2001 12:26 |
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12/27/2001 13:27 |
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12/27/2001 14:27 |
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12/27/2001 15:32 |
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12/27/2001 16:40 |
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12/27/2001 17:44 |
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12/27/2001 18:46 |
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88k |
12/27/2001 19:53 |
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12/27/2001 20:59 |
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12/27/2001 22:03 |
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12/27/2001 23:10 |
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12/27/2001 24:15 |
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12/27/2001 25:22 |
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12/27/2001 26:27 |
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12/27/2001 27:34 |
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12/27/2001 28:35 |
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12/27/2001 29:31 |
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12/27/2001 30:37 |
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12/27/2001 31:42 |
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12/27/2001 32:47 |
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12/27/2001 33:48 |
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12/27/2001 34:44 |
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12/27/2001 35:50 |
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12/27/2001 36:56 |
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12/27/2001 37:57 |
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12/27/2001 38:59 |
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12/27/2001 39:57 |
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12/27/2001 41:01 |
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12/27/2001 42:05 |
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12/27/2001 43:08 |
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12/27/2001 44:12 |
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12/27/2001 45:17 |
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12/27/2001 46:18 |
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12/27/2001 47:25 |
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All of the meteorites depicted in the images below have been reported to Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society, and a provisional name WITH numbers were assigned by Board member, Rhian Jones. Most of these chondritic stones have been classified (by UCLA) and some of them have already appeared in the Meteoritical Bulletin. This means that the name "Red Dry Lake nnn" is a formally approved meteorite name, but unlike "Gold Basin area" meteorites, each "Red Dry Lake" meteorite find has been assigned a Nom Comm formally-approved number. Although this number is provisional until the meteorite is classified and appears in the Meteoritical Bulletin, this number is the only indicator of whether the find has been reported to the Nom Comm, and hence, is using "official" nomenclature, or whether it is an unreported meteorite, and hence, is unofficial.
Only if an individual mass has been assigned a Nom Comm approved number can it be considered as an officially named "Red Dry Lake" meteorite.
The images below were taken at our M-R Lab shortly after the 2001 December 27th trip to Red Dry Lake:
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The usual suspects |
84k |
12/30/2001 11:39 |
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Red Dry Lake 004 |
85k |
12/30/2001 11:43 |
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Red Dry Lake 004 |
81k |
12/30/2001 11:45 |
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Red Dry Lake 005 |
88k |
12/30/2001 11:54 |
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Red Dry Lake 005 |
89k |
12/30/2001 00:02 |
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Red Dry Lake 004 |
83k |
12/30/2001 00:06 |
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Red Dry Lake 002 |
89k |
12/30/2001 00:14 |
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Red Dry Lake 002 |
83k |
12/30/2001 00:18 |
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Red Dry Lake 002 |
85k |
12/30/2001 00:23 |
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Red Dry Lake 006 |
82k |
12/30/2001 00:27 |
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Red Dry Lake 007 |
86k |
12/30/2001 00:33 |
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Red Dry Lake 008 |
86k |
12/30/2001 00:39 |
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Red Dry Lake 009 |
78k |
12/30/2001 01:39 |
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Red Dry Lake 009 |
79k |
12/30/2001 02:38 |
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Red Dry Lake 008 |
83k |
12/30/2001 03:42 |
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Red Dry Lake 008 |
84k |
12/30/2001 04:46 |
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Red Dry Lake 006 |
85k |
12/30/2001 05:51 |
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Red Dry Lake 006 |
83k |
12/30/2001 06:57 |
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Red Dry Lake 003 |
87k |
12/30/2001 08:09 |
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Red Dry Lake 007 |
82k |
12/30/2001 09:13 |
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Red Dry Lake 007 |
87k |
12/30/2001 10:22 |
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Red Dry Lake 003 |
86k |
12/30/2001 11:27 |
REFERENCES:
Link for local info' on the Gold Basin Area Meteorites
Has other links for the area around Meadview, Arizona.
Link for info' on the Red Dry Lake Area Meteorites
At the "search table" type in "Red Dry Lake", then search on "Names", and you will get as a result:
Official list of all of the 13 classified chondrites.
Link to Reference #3.
Red Lake Flat area (Red Lake Playa), Hualapai Valley, Mohave Co., Arizona, USA.
Link to Reference #4.
65th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2002) 5263.pdf
...successful recovery of multiple, unpaired meteorites at each of five locations:
Cuddeback Dry Lake (CA), Bluewing (NV), Superior. Valley (CA), Red Dry Lake (AZ)...
Link to Reference #5.
Geosciences Department - The University of Montana.
Link to Reference #6.
Bedforms in cohesive sediments - modern desiccation cracks and polygons on a dry playa lake deposit..
Text for Link to Reference #7.
The other Red Lake, Arizona.
My previous articles can be found *HERE*
For for more information, please contact me by email:
Bolide*chaser
