Author name: Robert Verish

 – Hosted by NASA & SETI Institute at the Furness Creek – Death Valley National Park, Visitors Center   Recently I was given an invite to be a presenter/volunteer at the SETI Institute’s “MarsFest 2017” program, and to man a public outreach booth displaying my Mojave Desert meteorites. There was a last minute opening when Dr. Peter Jenniskins (NASA-SETI) was

The Story of the Old Woman Meteorite – Another victim of the Post-Truth Era –   It all started innocently enough. It was the early hours of January 5th of this year when I got an email notification from Paul Schwartz that his latest installment of Meteorite Picture of the Day (MPOD) was now up on his website. At the

Bob’s Bulletin – Vol. 2 No. 3 A newsletter for unclassified meteorites found in the USA. In all of my previous Bob’s Bulletins, I explained the meaning of the phrase “orphaned-meteorites from the USA”. I defined these “orphans” as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite “finds” that are recovered in the U.S., but that the finders of these meteorites have

Preliminary results from quick tests with a handheld XRF show that you can tell the difference.   Recently I was able to get access to a hand-held XRF analyzer (a Thermo Niton XL2 GOLDD unit). After much delay due to hardware problems and scheduled maintenance, I was finally able to test the various specimens of tektites, impactites, and obsidian that

Takysie Lake – The Classic “Pseudometeorite” – Found By Harvey H. Nininger – Still a Mystery? The first time I saw a specimen of Takysie Lake was 16 years ago (in 2000). I had purchased a small stone from an old collector from San Diego. He explained that it was self-collected in 1991 from the “strewn-field” as described by Nininger

 A newsletter for unclassified meteorites found in the USA.   In all of my previous Bob’s Bulletins, I explained the meaning of the phrase “orphaned-meteorites from the USA”. I defined these “orphans” as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite “finds” that are recovered in the U.S., but that the finders of these meteorites have found great difficulty in getting their

Is it a Tektite or a Pseudo-tektite? Now there is a quick test to tell the difference. As they say in Hollywood, “Let’s cut to the chase.” So, I will admit right now, this “quick test” will require a hand-held XRF analyzer. At least, that was the device that I was lucky enough to get access and to run my

A newsletter for “orphaned” meteorites from the USA. Featured this month is Coyote Dry Lake (circa 1995-2004)   This volume of my Bulletin of unclassified U.S. meteorites features a new format for documenting these “orphaned” finds. Hopefully this will be a more convenient format for when there are more than 100 finds to be reported. It is also conveniently coincidental

A newsletter for “orphaned” meteorites from the USA.   In my first Bulletin, I introduced the phrase “orphaned-meteorites from the USA”. I defined these “orphans” as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite “finds” that are recovered in the U.S., but that the finders of these meteorites have found great difficulty in getting their finds recorded, let alone accepted for classification.

A newsletter for “orphaned” meteorites from the USA. In my first Bulletin, I introduced the phrase “orphaned-meteorites from the USA”. I defined these “orphans” as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite “finds” that are recovered in the U.S. Unfortunately, the vast majority of U.S. finds are of this type. I went on to write that these U.S. finds were being

Last reported in a 1904 newspaper article. Image location: The historical (Old) Point Loma Lighthouse is located in the Cabrillo National Monument at the southern tip of Point Loma in San Diego. Latitude: 32.66503 — Longitude: -117.24266 For a larger map of the area around the Point Loma (Old & New) Lighthouses, click here: Mapquest. First and foremost, I would

A newsletter for “orphaned” meteorites from the USA. In my previous article, I introduced the phrase “orphaned-meteorites from the USA”. I defined these “orphans” as being non-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite “finds” that are recovered in the U.S. Unfortunately, the vast majority of finds are of this type. It wasn’t very long ago that this (being an OC) wouldn’t have

Here in the United States of America, if you want to get a meteorite classified, you have to pay some professional to get it done. It does sound like the American-way, but there was a time not too long ago that you could get a classification done on your meteorite just for the price of a type-specimen. But even back

Nomenclature Committee voted on my 2012 finds and officially named them San Bernardino Wash Since my first article on this subject back in January 2014, there has been a lot of effort (including additional fieldwork) to get my UCLA-classified finds from the San Bernardino Wash (SBW) strewn-field (as well as subsequent finds) approved by the Nomenclature Committee (NomCom) and included

The long anticipated paper by Peter Jenniskens and The Novato Meteorite Consortium has finally been published. The meteorite that fell onto the roof of Lisa Webber’s house in Novato, California, on Oct. 17, 2012, has revealed a detailed picture of its origin and tumultuous journey through space and Earth’s atmosphere. Peter Jenniskens led an international consortium of fifty researchers that