How to look for meteorites. Scheme, description

Dig and not break the law? Go to England, they dig there and museums buy the finds. Commentator = A.M. = sent advice on what to do with the police at the cop. Relevant for Russia and Belarus. But the general principle will be useful to everyone. We read, especially for beginners.

Where can you legally dig with a metal detector?

1. You can search and dig in places where the presence of old settlements and other traces of human activity older than a century has not been recorded.

If during such a search any archaeological objects are found, they must be handed over to the state, since, as stated in the law, the state is the owner of everything that is found in the ground or under water.

2. Let's say searching with a metal detector on public beaches. Due to the fact that there is no cultural layer there, and the finds, accordingly, cannot be of historical value and are not archaeological objects.

3. You can search in fields where plowing with tractors occurs annually - there is also no cultural layer there (a field used for agricultural purposes cannot have archaeological value). And, since you do not violate the cultural layer, you do not fall under the article.

Explanation of the law “On metal detectors”. Especially for those who consider our hobby to be something illegal.

How to avoid conflict with the police and not get charged

When law enforcement agencies approach you, it is important to have self-control, know your rights (without bending your fingers), be friendly and try to maintain a friendly atmosphere of communication. Because we are all human, and the outcome of their visit will largely depend on how you win over your comrades in uniform (verified).

Of course, you can prove to the guardians of the law for a long time that various crops are sown in this field every year and plowed from beginning to end... However, the easiest way is to say that you are looking for scrap metal or meteorites, and the metal detector itself is not prohibited.

If the police are persistent in their convictions and strongly recommend driving with them, then you need to know a few useful rules: what to say, what the police can do and what they cannot do.

So, if you are detained, there must be a reason for this - either you are digging at a site of cultural and archaeological heritage, or you have found some kind of cultural value. Both concepts can be interpreted by servants of the law in different ways.

For your inspection, the police are required to draw up an inspection report and find 2 witnesses.

This is where the most interesting thing begins - the police themselves cannot become witnesses, archaeologists who may arrive with the police also cannot become witnesses, because they are interested persons. So, if you are caught in the wilderness where there is no one, then they have no right to examine you, and therefore they will not be able to present anything.

In theory. In reality, everything may turn out to be completely different. So know your rights and use them! You can even film everything that happens on camera, it will be absolutely great. Then you can even sue them for arbitrariness when they violate your rights.
Although, of course, it’s better not to get into such a mess with the authorities alone, so it’s better to go to the cops with 2-3 people (at least).

So, you can dig, but you need to remember that the police are extremely vague about their duties and do not really know how to formulate the law. Therefore, they may begin to search you, confiscate your metal detector and create other chaos.

So, to prevent this from happening, if you have already been tied up and are being “thrown at”, then know your rights and state them correctly.

Remember - if you go anywhere with a metal detector. Just go, they have no right to inspect you, or stop you in general. If this happens, say that they are violating your rights, that you are not excavating, but are simply moving somewhere.

Metal detectors are still allowed, but they can’t be used everywhere. If they continue to press you, demand an inspection report and two witnesses.

Witnesses must have different last names and not be relatives, and also be over 18 years of age.

Who wouldn’t want to have at their disposal a real meteorite that flew from the depths of space? After all, if you think about it, in fact, it is no less valuable than lunar soil brought by both automatic stations and astronauts. Although, the meteorite may turn out to be even more interesting and valuable. It is possible that a piece of the surface of Mars, the remnant of the hypothetical planet Phaeton, or, in general, a particle of deep space material from which our solar system was created, will fall into the hands of a meteorite seeker.

It's no secret that meteorites are not only valuable material for scientific research, but also have a serious market value. It is no longer enthusiasts, but professional diggers who go in search of meteorites to all corners of the world. Often such groups are armed with the latest technology. There are metal detectors, computers, a field laboratory, and other know-how that can help identify a space alien. Such groups rarely travel with luck. The search is preceded by a scrupulous collection of information, both available information about the fall of large celestial bodies, and information gleaned from chronicles, the Internet, news channels, even social networks, where someone shared information about the flight of a bright fireball. And meteorite hunters are already here.

Note that a gram of meteorite costs from 1 dollar on the black market. So, hunters are not always driven by a thirst for knowledge and a desire to touch the cosmos. More often than not, it all comes down to the banal cost of the meteorite. Such a find, weighing ten kilograms, would easily cost on the black market as a good foreign car.

Is it worth it for a common man in the street, an astronomy buff, a person who just wants to experience the awe of a grain of sand that was destined to travel in outer space for billions of years, to try his luck?

"Grains of Sand" of the Universe.

Oddly enough, finding a meteorite is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. But we are talking about very small fragments, just grains of sand. The discovery of a large meteorite of serious scientific and material value is still a great success. But beginners are lucky. It is worth noting that approximately 2-3% of the dust in your apartment is nothing more than meteorite matter. Every day, from 30 to 150 -200 tons of meteorite matter fall on our planet. But all this is distributed over the surface of our planet. In overwhelming quantities, tons of microscopic meteorites and meteorite dust burst into the atmosphere every second. Basically, they all burn up in the upper layers of the atmosphere. By the way, meteorite dust became well known at the dawn of astronautics. At the first orbital stations, they already noticed that due to the constant bombardment of the windows with microscopic dust particles, they eventually become dull. Larger meteorites burn up at an altitude of 60-40 km above the earth. Having flared up as a bright star for a split second, they scatter into thousands of microscopic fragments, which settle as dust on our planet. But more or less large stones, the size of a tennis ball or more, often do not have time to burn completely, and, having streaked across the sky with a fireball, fall as a meteorite onto the planet. It all depends on the angle at which the celestial body entered the atmosphere, what its speed relative to the Earth was, what its mass and composition were. All this affects what can reach the surface, small fragments or an impressive stone. On average, every year 25,000 meteorites, weighing a total of 21 tons, reach the Earth's surface. It is clear that meteorites fall almost everywhere and always. And, therefore, you can find a meteorite anywhere. Even at my dacha in the garden. First of all, you need to know well what a meteorite looks like and how to distinguish it from ordinary stones and pieces of iron.

Let's give the first advice. You shouldn’t go into the field on the first day and collect all the stones and pieces of iron in a row. It is unlikely that you will be able to find anything with this approach. If you decide to become a meteorite hunter, you should always have a magnifying glass and a good magnet in your pocket. Let's begin the search for the simplest and most win-win. First of all, we arm ourselves with a broom and brush and occupy the roof where you are allowed to climb. This can be the roof of a high-rise building or the roof of an ordinary village house. A garage roof is especially valuable if it is flat. Another excellent place to search would be the area where water flows from roofs and snow falls in the spring. This is where you should start looking for micrometeorites.

Using a brush or broom, we collect everything we find on the roof. We especially carefully inspect slate slits, roofing felt fastening strips, all kinds of damage and cavities where a meteorite can get stuck. It is far from uncommon for meteorites weighing several grams to get stuck in the roofs of houses and can lie there for a year. Carefully sweep everything into a container. Along with dust particles and grains of sand, old leaves, moss, twigs and twigs will fall. Now we fill the collected garbage with water and everything that is of organic origin, such as branches, foliage, fine dust, simply floats up. After stirring well, drain the cloudy liquid, after letting it settle for about 60-80 seconds. Now let's dry what's left at the bottom. We are interested in this sand mixed with small pebbles. Let's start searching among all this for that grain of sand that has made its way through billions of years in space. We take out a magnifying glass with a magnet. Iron meteorites are the most common. We carefully inspect everything that sticks to the magnet.

Needless to say, we immediately throw away nails and small shavings that we don’t know how got onto the roof. Everything that is man-made is not difficult to recognize. But everything that has an irregular shape is most interesting to us. Small pebbles that are magnetized and have a brown or black color are most interesting to us. Most of the sand adhering to the magnet will be of meteorite origin, unless your house is located near a metallurgical plant or engineering plant. We do the same with the soil under the roof of the house and the drain. Also, after walking through the forest, field, when the grass has been mowed, or when the snow has just melted, we select suspicious stones that meet the signs described in the article. If, when examined through a magnifying glass, areas of melting are visible, or if a needle manages to scratch a dark layer and metal flashes underneath, then you can safely assume that you have a tiny heavenly wanderer in your hands.

Almost all meteorites contain iron in their composition. The type to which the meteorite belongs depends on its quantity. More information about meteorites can be found on the Internet. We’ll talk about how to recognize a meteorite in general and not confuse it with completely terrestrial material.

Meteorites are divided into three main groups. Iron meteorites are essentially a monolithic piece of iron. Such a meteorite can consist of either pure iron or include nickel, and less often other metals. Stone-iron meteorites are a type of metal sponge interspersed with minerals, such as olivine.

Stony meteorites are the rarest and most difficult to distinguish from ordinary earthly rocks. On the chip they have inclusions in the form of silicate balls (chondrules) and metal particles. By the way, if you find the same silicate balls in the sand from the roof, then you can safely say that they are of purely cosmic origin.

Purely stony meteorites are rarely found. But even they have metal. Consequently, the meteorite deflects the compass needle and is attracted by the magnet. Naturally, the more it is on the surface of the earth and in contact with water, the more iron oxide will be on it. By the way, it is the humid climate that is the main killer of meteorites. Oxidation leads to the destruction of the meteorite.

Further, the meteorite will exhibit regmaglypts. These are pits and cavities that are created during exposure to high temperatures when it flies through the atmosphere. But often a meteorite can be smooth and not have such depressions and pits. This happens when a meteorite explodes at a high altitude, and its small parts fly in different directions like shrapnel. If the fragments rotate, they will have an irregular shape, dotted with regmaglypts. But those that did not have rotation often have the shape of a bullet, a cone, and can look like a piece of the tip of a fang. At the end of such meteorites there will be visible traces of the melt, which was blown away when the atmosphere passed backwards. On the conical part, the meteorite will have a melting crust only a micron or several thick. But at the end, up to a millimeter. We must remember that a meteorite can never burn out completely and have a porous structure.

If you come across something like this, it is most likely slag, which is of entirely terrestrial origin, or waste from a foundry. Also, a meteorite cannot contain substances that crumble easily, such as chalk, spar or gypsum. Therefore, if you have also collected material in the field, on the road, under the roof of buildings, where everything from the roof was washed away with snow and water, where there may be larger suspicious objects, after scraping you will see that it is easily destroyed and crumbles, most likely it is not a meteorite.

If you are lucky and have a decent suspicious object in your hands that is well magnetic, deflects the compass needle, and has a melting crust, you should try to polish one part of it. If the size allows, then simply rub it with fine sandpaper, or, holding it in a vice, work with a file. Then try to polish the cut. By etching a polished cut with nitric acid (or a cut if the meteorite is quite large), the Widmanstätt structure will immediately become visible.

Another important detail. A meteorite always has a higher density than any rock. It's heavy. Even if you take granite and meteorite of the same volume, the latter will be noticeably heavier. If the combination of signs is sufficient, you can safely say that you have a space guest in your hands.

Most often, meteorites are confused with metallurgical waste - slag. They have a melt, are heavy in weight, and have shiny inclusions of metal. But at the same time they have a porous structure. A meteorite is never porous. Igneous rocks and magnetites are also often mistaken for meteorites. Their weak magnetization is confusing. But on the chip, quartz crystals will be visible, which will even form veins. This does not happen in meteorites. And the magnetic properties of such rocks are given by the presence of magnetite, hematite, ilmenite, etc. in them.

The knowledge described above is quite enough to avoid carrying home all the stones in a row. Also, all of the above will allow the reader not to pass by some, at first glance, cobblestone lying on the road, dug up in a garden bed, or a stone lying on fresh arable land, which may turn out to be a serious example of a meteorite that flew to us from the depths of space. Therefore, here is the last piece of advice for you - it is better to give any major finds, in whole or in part, to a museum. Scientists will “talk” them there. Even if you are able to sell your stone, will your conscience be tormented by the possibility that, due to your greed, some secret of the Universe has remained unsolved?

If three bright meteors had not streaked across the sky over the South China Sea seven years ago, Zhang Bo would still be an office worker in Shanghai. Bright flashes illuminated not only the sky, but also Zhang's life.

“I looked at the sky all night, I couldn’t close my eyes, because I kept thinking and wondering what happens to the space material that falls to the ground,”- says Zhang.

Zhang, 34, has already become one of China's top meteorite researchers. His passion leads him to travel around the world in search of cosmic bodies. Last month, he sent 4 miraculous meteorites to the new Shanghai Planetarium, which is still under construction and due to open in 2020.

Among the gifts to the planetarium are one shard of the Moon, a sample of a meteorite that fell in Qinghai province in August 2016, and a 10-kilogram stone that looks like a gold bar found in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

“I consider it my duty to try to awaken interest in meteorites among people, especially among children,”- says Zhang.

The road to heaven was winding. Zhang graduated from law school and completed an internship at the prosecutor's office. He subsequently ran a gym and then developed the family's jewelry business. Now his only passion is meteorites.

At first it was difficult, he says, because in China there was almost no such direction as the study of meteorites. And Zhang had to do his own research using libraries and the Internet. He contacted the Shanghai Observatory, hoping to find meteorite specialists there, but was told that there were none in the state. However, he was advised to go to an observatory in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. However, the enthusiast was not accepted there - he did not go further than the guards. Random people were not accepted there.

Entrance to Zijinshan Observatory in Nanjing.

But that didn't stop Zhang. He managed to get to an annual open event held with the participation of observatory employees, and there he met Xu Weibao, who later became Zhang’s mentor on meteorites.

Within four years, Zhang turned his life around and became completely immersed in the study of meteorites. He studied books on rocks and minerals and paid close attention to the latest scientific reports from NASA. He learned the names of breeds in English so he could read foreign magazines.

“I did nothing during those years except research. I felt like I was back at university. It was difficult, but every minute brought me pleasure,”- says our hero.

Every year, around the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year, he flies to a small town in the US, located in the desert of Arizona. This is a real place of pilgrimage for meteorite searchers. There is a show there - the sale of precious stones, relics and fragments of meteorites (We think we know what town this is. It's not listed in the Chinese article, but it's obviously Tucson. - approx. MDRegion).

Prices for meteorites there can reach up to 10 thousand US dollars, depending on the rarity of the fragment. Zhang was once sold a fake there for $8,700. So he realized how important it is to understand the composition of meteorites on his own.

In 2013, Zhang began his own search for rocks from space. “All the meteorites I bought were found by people. If they can find it, why can’t I?”- the search engine reasoned.

He began his search in the Sonoran Desert on the border of the United States and Mexico after learning that many meteorites had previously been found there. This is a dangerous region, as the borderlands are usually infested with gangs and drug dealers. Zhang shares that he was often approached by unsavory individuals who mistook him for an Asian drug dealer. Also, living in a tent in the desert, Zhang was afraid of predators.

“I never managed to find anything then, but it was an unforgettable experience,”- says Zhang.

His further expeditions were among the snow-covered fields of Siberia and the remote deserts of China's northwestern Xinjiang region. He met wolves and bears, and found himself trapped in the most severe storms.

He found his first meteorite in the Sahara Desert in 2014. Zhang was just about to fry eggs on the hot hood of his SUV when he suddenly saw a pile of black stones next to the car, which stood out against the background of yellow sand. He immediately realized what it was. These were fragments of a meteorite.

He was so stunned that he froze in place for a moment, just looking at the stones.

“I felt surprisingly calm,- he says. “I just couldn’t believe I found them so unexpectedly.”

After laboratory tests, it turned out that these stones were indeed meteorites that arrived on Earth from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

“Luck is the most important element in finding meteorites, much more important than experience. You can spend your whole life searching and find nothing. It's like a lottery"- Zhang reasons.

Zhang uses NASA reports, history books and eyewitness accounts to determine where he will go next. In August 2016, one of his sources told him about a meteorite that fell in Qinghai province. Zhang Bo immediately went to that area and found a meteorite fragment, which he subsequently donated to the new planetarium in Shanghai.

By the way, old archives and ancient poems are also good sources pointing to astronomical events - including the fall of meteorites. Zhang says he read the story of a shooting star that fell in Nandang in Guangxi Zhuan in 1516. And he went to the highlands. He eventually found two meteorite fragments, which a local farmer used as bricks to build a pigsty.

During a trip to Xinjiang in 2012, Zhang heard an ancient myth about a "tear of god" that reportedly fell from the sky and was used in local rituals. As the researcher realized, the “tear” could very well be a meteorite. Zhang spent four years searching for this stone in the rocks. His search took him through Mongolia to Russia. And his persistence was rewarded in 2016, when he found a stone under a layer of granite. This fragment of a cosmic body is more than 10 thousand years old, Zhang proudly admitted.

Zhang travels in a jeep to search, taking with him a metal detector, a shovel, a GPS system, a compass, a satellite phone, a tent, a sleeping bag, food and gasoline.

“And I don’t care anymore if I find anything. I’m interested in the search process itself,”- says Zhang.

By the way, Zhang also found some other things in his search: ancient coins, arrows, human skeletons, elements of the uniform of soldiers of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Sometimes, in the old docks near the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Zhang holds small master classes for meteorite searchers, and shows his finds there.

“Meteorites are the form of my life. Stones do not speak, but they bring peace to my soul when I am among them.”

Most users expect to use it to search for gold, coins and treasures. The fact that pieces of meteorites can be much more valuable than inexpensive scales does not always come to mind; only an accident can prompt the idea of ​​searching for meteorites with a metal detector.

Meteorites regularly fall in various parts of the world; one of the most famous meteorites of recent years landed in Chelyabinsk and was named “Chebarkulsky”. More than 100 fragments were collected around the perimeter of Lake Chebarkul; advertisements for the sale of pieces of the meteorite can still be found on the Internet.

The most inexpensive are stone meteorites, their price varies from 0.5 to 1.5 $/gram. Iron ones are a little more expensive - on average about $3/gram. Stone meteorites are very easy to find because they are immediately visible - a crater forms around the fallen object.

Iron meteorites are not so easy to distinguish from ordinary stone; they melt and merge with their surroundings. You can find an iron meteorite using a metal detector. You can try to sell iron meteorites for $20-30/gram.

Pallasites are of much greater interest to treasure hunters - iron-stone meteorites containing semi-precious stones "olivine", such representatives can go for $50/gram, and given their decent weight, you can really get rich. Iron and stony meteorites make up about 20% of all known meteorites.

Rare samples of lunar and Mexican meteorites can sell for more than gold - $1000/gram. Of course, all prices are approximate and strongly depend on the place and time of the meteorite fall, but even according to conservative estimates, you can make good money searching for meteorites with a metal detector.

How to look for meteorites with a metal detector

Iron and stony meteorites are quite easy to detect with a regular metal detector without any bells and whistles - the very principle of the metal detector allows you to quickly identify metals, so when searching you will feel a fairly quick response. It is not at all necessary to go in search of distant countries where, according to available data, meteorites fell - about half of all meteorites found are found in the steppes or fields, and this is where you need to go for finds.

When choosing a metal detector to search for meteorites, pay attention to the presence of the “All Metals” mode; with these models, the detection of valuable objects will go much faster.

Most often, in the places where meteorites are found there is very little greenery - look for just such places, pay attention to ravines with sparse vegetation. Of course, you can use official historical sources about meteorite impact sites and go in search of known examples. But even in an abandoned field you can find a rather valuable piece weighing several hundred grams.

The type of meteorite can be determined by its external features. Iron meteorites have a shiny surface on the fracture; iron-stone meteorites have silvery inclusions on the fracture. In any case, if you find inclusions of different colors in a found piece of iron, you should hide the find. Only professional expertise can give an accurate classification.

Video

Watch the video on how you can make money on meteorites!

It is noteworthy that the search for meteorites is not prohibited, unlike the search for relics and archaeological objects, regulated by Federal Law No. 245-FZ of July 23, 2013 “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation regarding the suppression of illegal activities in the field of archaeology.” Therefore, treasure hunters have received a very wide loophole that allows them to avoid responsibility for the search and removal from places of occurrence of objects of cultural heritage and others that are the property of the state.

The Fortis team is scientists, writers, clairvoyants, ufologists, who have gathered together with one goal: to unravel the secrets of the Russian land.
Strong not only in spirit and physically, but also in knowledge, many areas of which today are only opening up to the thinking part of humanity.... Read more...

Search for meteorites.

Since childhood, we all love to watch “falling stars” in the night sky and make wishes. We have known the nature of this phenomenon since school: every day a huge number of solid space objects and particles enter the atmosphere of our planet. Many of them do not reach the Earth's surface, burning up in dense layers of the atmosphere (such objects have a speed of 10-15 kilometers per second). We see traces of the combustion of these objects, called meteors, in the night sky. But there are also larger and more solid objects that, having been severely burned and having lost most of their mass, still fall to the surface of the Earth. These are meteorites, the search for which will be discussed further.
To successfully search for meteorites, we need to decide what we will look for, where, and with what tools and devices.
All meteorites that fell to Earth can be divided according to several determining factors: composition; integrity; period of stay in the ground.
Based on their composition, meteorites are divided into iron, stony and stony-iron.

Iron meteorites They consist of a mixture of iron and nickel; in addition, they may contain inclusions and impurities of other chemical elements. Most often, two types of iron-nickel minerals are found in meteorites - kamasite with a nickel content of up to 7.5% and taenite with a nickel content of 27% to 65%. Depending on the content and distribution of these minerals, classical meteorology divides them into three structural classes:
- Octahedrites, consisting of kamacite and taenite, which form a three-dimensional octagonal structure. After processing, such meteorites have very beautiful geometric patterns.
- Hexahedrites, almost entirely consisting of kamazite, poor in nickel, and when processed have a slightly deformed metal structure.
- Ataxites, almost entirely consisting of taenite and containing only microscopic inclusions of kamazite. These are the rarest meteorites.
In addition to the iron and nickel content, meteorites vary in the content of other chemical elements. There are 13 main chemical groups of meteorites. In this article we will not consider these groups, since this cannot help in searching and identifying finds. Subsequently, you can read about them in books on meteoritics.

Stone meteorites - the most common type. They account for approximately 93% of the finds. Such meteorites consist mainly of silicate sand with small amounts of iron-nickel inclusions. Stone meteorites are divided into chondrites, characterized by the presence of chondrules (these are spherical or elliptical formations of predominantly silicate composition), and achondrites, which, accordingly, do not have such chondrules. The most common finds are chondrites (more than 80%).

Stone-iron meteorites - a rare species containing approximately half silicate sand and half iron-nickel alloy. Stone-iron meteorites are divided into two types:
- Pallasites- consisting of olivine crystals located in a matrix of iron-nickel alloy. Unattractive in appearance, spongy stones become real jewels after processing. By the way, such meteorites are often used to make the most exquisite jewelry.
- Mesosiderites - are a complex structure of a varied combination of iron-nickel alloy and pyroxene, plagioclase and olivine and other basaltic rocks. Such a meteorite, which has lain in the ground for a long time, is difficult to distinguish from an ordinary piece of basalt.
There is also a division into meteorites and meteorite showers, which are formed due to the destruction of an object while moving in the atmosphere. The fragments that arise under the influence of air resistance are “sorted” by size and mass (large and heavy fragments retain their speed and, accordingly, trajectory longer). Accordingly, the surface of the earth, under the section of the trajectory of the fall of one or more celestial bodies, after crushing the meteorite, will be strewn with small fragments. Of course, there are much more of them than large ones. Moreover, large ones should be looked for only at the end of the trajectory.
In addition, a distinction is made between meteorites found immediately after the fall (they are called “falls”), and those whose fall was not noticed (they are called “finds”).

It is possible to find falls only by carrying out a prompt visit to the place calculated from the words of eyewitnesses. These meteorites are of the greatest value for both researchers and collectors, however, the search for such meteorites is difficult - due to the fact that people are reluctant to share information about the burning plumes they observed in the sky, and the most efficient ones themselves try to find gifts from space! Therefore, most often we find meteorites that have lain in the ground for years, and sometimes thousands of years. Such meteorites change the color and structure of their outer layers over time, sometimes beyond recognition, and, accordingly, they are much more difficult to find and identify.
Now you need to decide on the search location.
The best places to search for meteorites are steppes and deserts, but, alas, for residents of central Russia it is very difficult to get out into the desert to search for meteorites, and, after walking several tens of hectares, return home empty, and most often this is what happens. Therefore, we will look for a place to search for our heavenly jewels closer to the capital. As mentioned above, meteorites fall to Earth constantly. This is what is happening now, this is how it was many centuries ago, and this is how it will be as long as our planet and space exist. In addition, we must take into account that fallen meteorites are distributed evenly over the surface of the Earth. Specialists from the Fortis team have carried out calculations, from which it follows that, on average, in central Russia, a meteorite can be found on every 30-35 hectares of land. In places where meteorite showers occur frequently, the density of meteorite matter can reach 5-6 fragments per hectare. A striking example is the Sikhote-Alin meteorite shower, where finds can be found within a few meters of each other. As a result of working in the archives and studying ancient legends, our specialists have established places of repeated meteorite showers in the Moscow and bordering regions, therefore, by going with us on a meteorite tour, you can most likely find your piece of heavenly treasure not far from home , without serious expenditure of effort and money.
For those who still want to search for meteorites on their own, we will try to give some tips on finding promising places:

1. Carefully study the maps of the selected region. Most often, craters formed by falling meteorites fill with water over time and form a network of reservoirs, elongated in the shape of an ellipse. For example, Lake Smerdyachee in the Moscow region and many small lakes nearby. Such places are typical for fairly large meteorite showers.
2. Chat with old-timers in small towns. People can tell rumors and legends about burning and tailed stars observed in the sky, heavenly thunder, etc. If you receive such information, you need to roughly determine the trajectory of the meteorite and examine the expected impact site. Particular attention should be paid to small craters. Unfortunately, in battlefields, which is approximately half of the European part of Russia, the search is complicated by the presence of a large number of craters from ammunition explosions and a high density of fragments in the ground.
3. Information about falls can also be gleaned by studying old books and documents, but, unfortunately, there are few such sources in free circulation.
4. It is necessary to pay attention to stories about rusty stones and stains found in fields and forests. These may be fragments of meteorites lying on the surface.
5. In places of known finds, it makes sense to conduct an instrumental search, since the probability of any find depends not only on the knowledge and skills of a person, but also on simple luck.

Once you have decided on the search location, you need to select equipment. To search for meteorites you will need:

1. Metal detector. We present reliable and proven Minelab devices. The device must be selected based on budget and work experience. For beginner searchers, an inexpensive and simple option is quite suitable - x-terra 505. You can also buy a reliable and convenient Fiskars shovel in our store.
2. A search magnet may be needed to examine craters filled with water. Such a search can be effective, since small fragments are often washed out of the banks and lie at the bottom of the reservoir.
3. A GPS navigator will help reduce time when examining large areas (fields, forests), as it will allow you to avoid going through the same place several times.
4. Dosimeter-radiometer. It is advisable to check all finds with this device, since some meteorites may have an increased background radiation, which is unlikely to have a positive effect on health.
5. Other expedition equipment, which you can select by consulting ours, or by contacting the specialists of the Fortis team.

So, the departure has been completed. The finds have been washed. One of the most crucial moments comes - identification. Unfortunately, many meteorites look like ordinary stones, and in places rich in metal ores, the metal detector clearly reacts to such stones. Identification of finds should be carried out in several stages. First, you need to sift out finds that are stones interspersed with non-ferrous metal ores (most often chalcopyrite). A compass will help with this. When a sample rich in iron is brought near it, the needle will move. Then we carefully examine the finds. On the surface of meteorites there is a melting crust and so-called regmaglypts - protrusions and depressions melted during the fall. Meteorites lying in the ground for a long time will be covered with rust. Iron meteorites, unlike ammunition fragments, will show clear traces of melting and deformation depending on the position and stability of flight.

After such screening, it is necessary to conduct a detailed analysis of the remaining samples. It is advisable to make cuts, or process one of the sides with a file or sharpening wheel to a smooth plane, grind and polish. There are many photographs of meteorites on the Internet with which the results can be compared. It is also possible to carry out a qualitative reaction for nickel. To prepare a simple test, you need to dissolve a small amount of dimethylglyoxime (C4H8N2O2) in alcohol, soak blotting paper with this solution and dry. To carry out the analysis, it is enough to drop a drop of ammonia or vinegar solution onto the sample, and after some time blot it with test paper: if nickel is present, it will turn bright pink.
The polished surface of an iron meteorite can be treated with a solution of nitric acid in alcohol in a ratio of 1:10 until the so-called Widmanstätten figures of a crystalline structure appear on the surface, but such a structure does not appear in ataxites.
It is still better to entrust a more accurate study of your find to professionals. You can do this yourself by sending the sawn-off part by postal parcel to the laboratory of meteoritics of the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a letter where you must indicate your full name, contact information, location and circumstance of the find, weight and a detailed description of it. In this case, the analysis will be carried out completely free of charge, but it should be noted that often the entire procedure is delayed for a long time, and if the unearthly origin of the sample is confirmed, you will most likely lose it. You can also entrust the examination of your find to specialists from the Fortis team. In this case, you will receive a conclusion in a short time and at a reasonable price.

Good luck with your search!