Types of Metal Detecting Activities, page 39
Meteorite Metal Detecting: Accessories and Equipment Required for Meteorite Hunting
Listed below are basic accessories and equipment essential for meteorite hunting. Depending on your needs and preferences, you may end up using fewer items than included in the list.
• Headphones are required for maximum ability to hear weak audio responses to tiny meteorites.
• Pick/Mattock or a Pickaxe or a Pick-Hoe or a Rock Hammer - the choice is yours - for digging shallow holes or chipping a specimen. A powerful magnet (see next item) should be attached to this tool. And a simple but effective belt ring/cradle loop hanger or hammer holder is recommended.
• Quality Strong Magnet (Rare-Earth magnet) is the most important tool for quick identification of meteorites in the field. However, one must be very careful while transporting strong magnets because they will damage credit cards, cell phones, computers, and other electronic equipment. Never carry a magnet near your wallet or in your pocket.
The best way to utilize a Rare-Earth magnet is to mount it on a blade of your pickaxe or rock hammer. A small-sized but still powerful rare-earth magnet is usually affixed to a passive part (that is not a contact area) of the pick's blade.
• Magnet Rake is great to have in addition to a rare-earth magnet attached to a pickaxe, and can be used for sweeping a "hot spot" - a small area containing numerous tiny meteorites, that may be a part of the strewn field or just a spot overlooked by previous meteorite hunters. The magnet rake becomes an essential tool in cases when your metal detector can not be ground balanced over the highly mineralized ground and, therefore, can not perform. The rare-earth-magnet rake can pick up even the meteorites with the ultra-low iron content.
The magnet rake can be constructed by attaching a few rare-earth magnets to a regular rake (metal or plastic). Some enthusiasts go for "Grand Meteorite Gathering" when they attach "iron sweepers" - commercial magnets used in construction and on driveways to pick up metal debris, to the rare bumpers of their off-road vehicles and drive through the meteorite-bearing areas that also bear lots of superficial rocks.
• Magnet Stick (also called Meteorite Stick) is another basic tool for meteorite hunting, and usually used by meteorite spotters for quick touching the superficial rocks that look suspicious, and easy picking up meteorites and metallic rocks off the ground's surface without bending over (there are many more meteorwrongs than meteorites on the ground!).
The magnet stick can be made by attaching (epoxy works best) a rare-earth magnet to one end of any light walking stick or a ski pole. Telescopic magnet sticks are commercially produced and can be purchased on-line.
• Soft Paint Brush (artist brush) and a Toothbrush - for removing dust and dirt off the meteorite's surface. You should never put water on a suspected rock to enhance surface details! Watering the rock's surface can dissolve and alter the meteorite's constituents thus decreasing its density, and enhance its oxidation, i.e. rusting.
• Field Hand Lens (sometimes referred to as a folding pocket magnifier, loupe, eye loupe, or jeweler's loupe) with magnification of 7x to 20x - for a quick and close examination of small details such as metal flecks, chondrules and bits of fusion crust on suspected rocks. The lens should be foldable having a durable metal case for protection against breakage and scratches. Since you are going to use your hand lens frequently, a leather lanyard should be attached to the lens to wear it around your neck.
• Diamond File - for grinding a tiny spot on meteorite's surface to check for metal or chondrules
• Specimen Bags of the zip-lock type are the most practical. And a permanent Marker will help you keep your finds organized.
• Camera - for photographing both your finds and the area where you found them. A GPS with coordinates visible on its screen is usually placed next to a meteorite find to be in a picture. Placement of the GPS in a frame will save you a lot of time otherwise lost in the field writing notes. A scale cube is also placed in the picture frame to give the specimen's size.
• 1inch/1cm Scale or Scale Cube is used to communicate the size of a meteorite when photographing it. The scale is photographed with the meteorite and placed in the frame's corner or where it is not obtrusive. The scale cube is the most practical as it has direction letters, N (North), E (East), W (West), S (South), B (Bottom) and T (Top), on its sides for indicating the direction the picture is taken.
• Field Notebook and a Pencil - for recording details of your finds
• GPS unit - for registering exact locations of your meteorite finds and developing "treasure maps" of potential strewn fields so that you can trace where the main mass of the fall could be. It is always practical to map your meteorite finds because where there is one meteorite, there might be many more, and you may want to return to the location to search for additional pieces. Plus, you need to know where you have hunted and where you have not yet searched. Moreover, recording meteorite location and the strewnfield data is vital to preserving scientifically valuable information. Finally, a GPS will help you easily get back to where you started no matter how far you walk while searching for meteorites.
• Pocket Electronic Weight Scale - for weighing multiple finds and conducting a Density Test at home. The digital scale should have a minimum capacity of 200 grams and no less than 0.01 gram (1/100th gram) readability as well as ability to tare ("zero out") any additional weight.
• Headlamp is good to have when your daylight meteorite hunting is likely to continue into the night hours.
• Bottled Water is not equipment but essential if you hunt in hot day temperatures and under the sun, and must be carried in large amounts. It is a pretty simple rule: do not happen to be without liquids in the desert. Just like in any land metal detecting activity, liquids must be at the top of the safety list. And one's safety is an important issue whenever meteorite hunting. Try not to go alone. Take enough snacks to last you a couple of days just in case. It is also a good idea to take a whistle and a magnetic compass.
• Sunblock and a Hat are essential if you are going to be out in the sun for several hours.
• Backpack should be large enough to carry the bottled water and food, have a leather bottom so you will not have to worry about dragging it on rocky surfaces and tearing out the fabric, and have a lot of small pouches and compartments with zippers to hold other important items.
• Shovel is not required unless you hunt in areas covered with soil and vegetation, or on farm fields. However, sometimes a meteorites is buried and you will have to dig it up. For this, a shovel or, at least, a folding spade is needed. The shovel's size and design depends on a type of terrain you hunt.
• Sturdy Gloves - to protect your hands from abrasions and accidental cuts
• Measuring Tape is useful in many ways
• A reliable and powerful 4x4 vehicle is sometimes the "must have" to get to the remote and less accessible areas.
Happy hunting cosmic treasures!
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In January of 2020, I started a one-time fund-raising campaign in attempt to accumulate enough money to buy a simple but reliable 4x4 vehicle. My old 4x4 car (made in 1995) had faithfully served me for 10 years before it eventually went beyond repair last October. Without a 4WD, I will not be able to get to my hunt sites and test-plots hidden in the remote wooded areas inaccessible by a regular car.
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DonateIf you would like to read in details about the types of meteorites, their conductivities, a method for discerning meteorites from other rocks by using a metal detector, and other tips for meteorite hunting, you might want to visit my article on Classification, Conductivities and Identification of Meteorites.
Types of Metal Detecting Activities
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