The 1997 Meteorite Show in Tucson
By O. Richard Norton

Once again we were dazzled by the Tucson Gem and Mineral show, alias the Tucson Meteorite show, full of familiar faces and names, mixtures of old meteorites and new, and lots of wishful thinking and agonizing decisions. On our way down to Tucson from Oregon we stopped by Las Vegas to experience the roll of the dice and flow of the money. In many ways, this year's meteorite show reminded me of Las Vegas. The guidelines you must abide by to survive the ordeal are only too familiar. Rule #1: keep your credit card at home. Rule #2: set limits to what you can afford (which in the case of meteorites seems to be damn little these days). Rule #3: insist upon well-prepared specimens (little enough to ask since you're paying the price). Never have the prices been so high for celestial treasure. (Damn that Mars meteorite!) I pity those hapless individuals just starting their collections. I met one fellow who accused me of being the cause of his financial ruin. "I just bought it because it seemed like an interesting book (he was referring to Rocks from Space) and it has led to this," he said as he signed another credit card receipt. Here was yet another meteorite junkie. They seem to be multiplying these days.

If you can somehow set the prices aside, the show becomes a dream world. I first walked into Robert Haag's room, and there was Bob, his usual exuberance gushing forth. The instant he saw us he thrust his new Field Guide of Meteorites into our hands, another hallmark in the meteorite business. Sporting more pages than ever before, the Field Guide was jacketed by Dorothy Norton's beautiful painting of a meteorite breaking up high in the atmosphere; and the interior was collectors' heaven. More meteorite specimens graced its pages, superbly photographed and described. This, along with the continuing saga of Haag's adventures, makes the Field Guide a "must have". Collectors want this Field Guide because it represents the best collection of color photographs of meteorites of all kinds available, published books not withstanding. It is Haag's flamboyant way of turning people on to the world of meteorite collecting _ to wow them, to educate them, and, most definitely, to sell them meteorites.

Bob usually has something "under the table" that will surprise you. I had just finished reading about the Gibeon crystals in Meteorite! and there, from a hiding place he retrieved a small box loaded with Gibeon crystals. All were different in size and form but all had that unmistakable octahedral dipyramidal shape. They weren't for sale; only to admire.

This year, Haag had the most expensive meteorite of the show. He had sliced his moon rock and it was up for sale _ only $250,000, a paltry sum if you consider the alternative (retrieving one from the Moon, of course).

I next wandered over to Blaine Reed's place for a bit of low key atmosphere. Reed usually has a nice collection of small slices of many meteorite types. This is especially nice after being confronted with sticker shock for the larger slabs on display in every room. These small specimens are perfect for making thin sections. They are thick enough to allow one section with material left over to examine in reflected light. Though still expensive, they were among the more moderately priced meteorites. Among them were Gretna, an L5 OC from Phillips City, Kansas; Dalgety Downs, the L4 OC recovered by Brian Mason (see the Feb., 1997 issue of Meteorite!); Mont Dieu, France, a fine octahedrite; Dimmitt, Texas to mention but a few. Of course, there were expensive specimens also. How about a Zagami slice at $12,000 or a capsule of Murchison dust for $25.00?

Edwin Thompson's fantasy came true when Dorothy Norton delivered her most recent painting depicting a daylight fireball that actually occurred over Crater Lake, Oregon several years ago. Dorothy made the painting from eye witness descriptions. I can't imagine a more surrealistic spot for a fireball sighting. E.T. had a small sample of the Klamath Falls, Oregon fine octahedrite (IIIF). All but this specimen is in the collection at New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics. Need I say that this specimen didn't remain homeless too long?

Usually when collectors find their way into Allan Lang's room they expect to see some of the most beautiful specimens of the show _ large expertly prepared masterpieces and I wasn't surprised to find them. But there was a startling difference this time. When I walked into Lang's room, I thought I had walked into a museum of meteoritics. There, in a large case were samples of specimens one only reads about but seldom if ever sees in person. There was the Krasnoyarsk (Pallas) pallasite (found 1749), Shergotty (the SNC type specimen, fell 1865), Homestead, Iowa L5 OC (fell 1875), Benares, India LL6 OC (fell 1798), Nininger's Melrose L5 OC said to contain gold, and small slabs of the Tucson Ring also from the Nininger collection. These were only a few among many in the collection. All were accompanied by original labels from the world's great museums. Lang was understandably not anxious to part with them.

Michael Casper had the best prices on Zagami _ a 7.9g piece for $5000. He also had the rarest meteorite in the show, a brachinite from Australia. There was an 18g and 2.0g piece. I lusted for a thin section of that one. Casper had the largest Gibeons I saw at the show, each in the 50 to 100+ pound class. He also had a large bag of freshly cut Cleo Springs, a beautiful H4 OC, a must have for anyone's collection. He had plenty of nice small (50-100g size) individual Gao specimens along with Guénié both from the same strewn field and easy to mix up if one isn't careful. (See Meteorite!. Nov. 1995).

Marvin Killgore had lots of Mbale at $5-10/g, a specimen that was otherwise rather rare at this year's show. He also had two "holy relics" of the meteorite sanctuary: Cape York and Tucson Ring. But it wasn't the meteorites that held my attention. Rather it was Killgore's story of his investigation of what may be a meteorite impact structure in Honduras. The event occurred on November 22, 1996 at 10:00 pm local time. He spent Christmas at the site looking for evidence. In a nutshell: no evidence of an explosion, no ejecta, no meteorites. What he did find was an area the size of two football fields cleared of brush and trees and some trees sheared off at the 20 foot level. There was a crater-like depression partially filled with landslide material and a large shattercone-like structure. Killgore tells me Eugene Shoemaker is investigating the site.

Killgore also spent time at the Imilac site in the high Atacama Desert. In surveying the strewn field he found many specimens along lines leading radially out from an apparent impact point near where the largest specimens were found. Similar ejecta patterns are known around some of the terrestrial impact craters associated with iron meteorites but this is the first time such patterns have been found associated with a pallasite.

I was hoping that Tony Nikischer of Excalibur Mineral Co. (1000 North division St., Peekskill, N.Y. 10566) would bring some of the Russian-built microscopes I recommended in my thin section article (February, 1997, Meteorite!.) He did, and along with the $499 model, he had a fully outfitted binocular microscope equipped with a photographic module including a 35mm single lens reflex camera with a diverting prism and third eyepiece that allows for focusing through the microscope and then diverting the image onto the camera film plane without refocusing. It comes with a high intensity halogen fiber optic unit. This is just about all one would need to study thin sections, all for $999. This would be a bargain at twice the price.

Now for general impressions. Murchison seemed to be rapidly disappearing and the price was going up at the same rate. Very few individuals beyond a few grams were available. It was being sold by the capsule, which means the crumbs or the bottom of the proverbial barrel. The most plentiful meteorite was still Gibeon but not as plentiful as last year. Some dealers say the strewn field is almost searched out. Gao continues to be available for as little as $1.00/g, still the best bargain in OCs. There were many Sikhote-Alin fragments, outnumbering individuals by at least 10 or 15 to one. Some of them were ruined by too much wirebrushing. Some were completely stripped, their ridges rounded, and they had an unnatural silvery-brassy finish. These are now essentially worthless to the serious collector. It seemed that anything remotely connected to meteorites was for sale at prices one used to pay for real meteorites. Libyan glass was everywhere at about $3.00/g. Meteoritic shale from Meteor Crater, the material that used to be discarded as worthless years ago, is now selling for $3.00/g. The rust king, Nantan (now called Nandan) was being sold as shale balls for $10.00/lb. But wait! There's more! For the first time ever at the Tucson show you can get, yes, genuine "stardust" in a capsule (dust from the diamond saw) and ...meteorite bubble gum...sigh.

Alain Carion and his son Louie were again selling impact products. There were shatter cones from Steinheim, Nordlinger Ries impact glass, Aouelloul and Wabar glass, Libyan glass and suevite. This interesting material would enhance any meteorite collection.

Wandering into Buddy Eisler's room (Magic Mountain), I came across knives made of meteoritic iron. Normally I would pay little attention to such handiwork. Turning meteorites into jewelry or tools is not my idea of the preservation of meteorites. Yet, we only have to look back into history to see the use of meteoritic iron in many cultures. Meteoritic iron was the only iron available to civilizations before the iron age. I'm reminded of the Cape York meteorites used by the Eskimos to fashion tools. I have seen meteorite knives in the show almost every year but these were different. These were works of art. OK, I thought. Let's check it out. The knives were made by David Broadwell, a well known artist in metals. His signature is on all specimens. They are made of 30% Gibeon meteorites, using a metallurgical process invented by Tim Lowada in which the meteorite iron is laminated with steel. During the forging process the Widmanstätten pattern, of course, is destroyed. But when the knives are fashioned into daggers, letter openers and pocket knives, they go through an etching process that brings out a beautiful striped pattern of dark and light metal. Eisler assures me that only the Gibeon "slugs" are used for the process, not
display pieces.

Gibeons have been so plentiful that it has become the meteorite of choice for the artisan. It is highly stable, easy to work and does not readily rust. All around the show I found Gibeon spheres, Gibeon pyramids and cubes, Gibeon medallions, Gibeon belt buckles, Gibeon knives, Gibeon watches, Gibeon plates _ and the list goes on. I must admit that I worry about the consequences of this, if any. Is this appropriate use of celestial iron? Should there be any use of meteorites other than for scientific purposes or for education? How much Gibeon does science need? These questions are certain to bring heated debate.

I have watched the meteorite market now for the last 15 years grow from its meagre beginnings to the present, here at the Tucson show. What happens here is reflected worldwide. Every year the prices rise in an increasing spiral. The market is vastly inflated. One wonders if there is a limit to the price of meteorites. As marketable commodities, are meteorites subject to the laws of supply and demand? Surely enough, when the supplies dwindle, the prices rise. But for how long and how high? Is there any doubt that many collectors have by now thrown in the towel, so to speak, their enthusiasm curtailed by the dollar sign? One dealer said of the 1997 show that the high and low priced specimens were selling but the middle range was stagnant. "The high priced rare specimens are sought by avid collectors who will buy at any price. The low priced specimens sell because the non-collector and novice collector want a meteorite, any meteorite." But it's the middle range in which ardent mainstay collectors make their purchases. If this dealer is right, these collectors are reaching their financial limits and are pulling back like hands on a hot stove. There were ominous rumblings among the dealers. Some dealers believe the "bubble will burst" and soon. If indeed the doom and gloomers are right and there is a "crash" of the meteorite market, then perhaps that will be the time to pick up the pieces at an affordable price.