Meteorite collector shares some of his discoveries
Water Resource Engineer and a Meteorite Collector Ronnie Mckenzie speaks to John Robbie about his journey to Botswana in search of the meteorite that burst into our skies over the weekend. He also brought some samples of meteorites he’s collected over the years.
John Robbie: Now Tony, hi, you wanna talk about meteorites?
Tony: Yes, good morning John, how are you?
JR: I’m very well.
T: John if a meteorite falls in my back garden, who does it belong to?
JR: All right, who does it belong to? All right, well, I’ll tell you, we got someone here who can answer that question, Tony. Okay, thank you very much, indeed, because we are joined by Ronnie Mckenzie, and he’s a water resource engineer, but now he’s a famous meteorite collector, and he’s been off searching. Ronnie, thanks for coming in. You got meteors coming out of your ears here, but answer that question first, falls in the back garden, what happens?
Ronnie Mckenzie: Uhm, in South Africa it belongs to the state.
JR: All right, so you have to hand it in, otherwise you’re breaking the law.
RM: You have to, otherwise you’re breaking the law.
JR: And they take it for research, presumably it goes to the universities or the government of whatever.
RM: That’s the theory of it, yes.
JR: Why do you say the theory? [Laughs]
RM: I don’t think there’s that many people studying them in South Africa. I don’t think anyone’s really been handing them in, in the past 20 or 30 years.
JR: All right, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be hauled off in a yellow fan, but, the right thing to do, would be to give it in.
RM: Ja, I think probably they’d give you have of it back again, that’s the normal sort of standard around the world.
JR: Okay, talking about meteorites, what’s the story with Botswana? You were up there searching, were you?
RM: Yes, no we’ve just come back last night, uhm, we think it’s passed from South Africa into Southern Botswana. It may have gone on as far as Zimbabwe, but we are narrowing it down. At the moment we believe it’s in Botswana, and we believe that there’s a good chance it will be found in the next couple of weeks.
JR: Have you been talking to people? Eye-witnesses?
RM: Uhm, we’ve chatted to about a hundred people, all of whom have given us eye-witness accounts of seeing it, hearing it, vibrations, roofs falling in (?!?), all sorts of things, so, it’s quite a spectacular event.
JR: What happens, do they have to hand it over in Botswana to the government?
RM: Ja, the government’s put sort of, uhm, a moratorium on it, that it’s now, they’re cordoning sort off the area to prevent other people going in to hunt for it.
JR: Oh!
RM: So it’s, uhm, the government’s taking it quite seriously in Botswana.
JR: Okay. All right. You’ve got meteorites here that have knocked everybody’s socks out. I mean this one here, cause, some of them are actually machined out, you treat them, I mean this looks like a bit of machined metal, tell us about that one?
RM: Uhm, that one, that’s from Russia, it’s a sencham, and uhm, it’s basically been cut and polished to a mirror finish, and then etched with nitric acid to bring out the crystal structure.
JR: And this one here, which is amazing, I mean it looks like a…a piece of silver with pieces of maybe amber inside it, and when you actually hold it up to the light, you can see through it. I mean that looks like a piece of a hut?
RM: Ja, that’s, uhm, the crystals of peredoit, which is almost a gem, and, uhm, that’s an esqual palisade, which is one of the more sought after meteorites, because it looks good.
JR: And when you say, is that from one particular meteorite? Or is that one of a particular type?
RM: Uhm, the type, it’s a…palisade is a type of meteorite. Esqual is where it comes from. I think it’s from Chile or Argentina, and they only found the one stone. It was a fairly big one.
JR: Yeah. Yeah.
RM: And it’s been in 1956, and they cut it up and sell it all over the world.
JR: When did you get interested in this?
RM: Uhm, probably about 20 years ago. Uhm, in South Africa.
JR: Why?
RM: Uhm, it’s just interesting. Same as you.
JR: [Laughs].
RM: Something from outer space.
JR: And the one there, the one that everyone can’t believe how heavy it is, this one here, ja…
RM: Ja, that one’s, uhm, that one is a taza, which is an iron. They call it irons. You’ve got solid iron and nickel.
JR: Yeah.
RM: And, uhm, it comes from Morocco. It’s one of the sort of rare irons that you get. So, it’s quite a nice one that.
JR: Fantastic, and in terms of getting them, obviously if you can find them, hand them in, get half back, but otherwise there’s a sort of market in them, isn’t there?
RM: Uhm, definitely. I mean it’s big business to the people that do it professionally. But there are a lot of people that collect as a hobby. Uhm, the professionals chase them around the world, and actually try and get as many as they can when they fall…
JR: Yeah.
RM: …and then they sell them to museums around the world and swap them with big collectors, and basically build up collections.
JR: I presume the internet has facilitated this greatly.
RM: Oh jeah, I mean everyone, if you look on the internet, the prices quoted on the internet are a bit deceptive.
JR: Ja. Ja.
RM: What people ask for a meteorite is sometimes a lot more than it’s worth…
JR: …actually worth. And this one here is from Mars.
RM: That’s a Martian, ja, that’s a sherigade from Mars.
JR: So you actually know, you look at it and say this must be Mars because they…
RM: Uhm, I wouldn’t have known looking at it. You have to have it tested. But that one has been tested, and it’s about 1.3 billion years old, as opposed to the four and a half billion years of most meteorites, so they can tell from the age where it comes from.
JR: And you’ve knocked me out, cause you’ve actually given me a piece of meteorite now, which I can’t believe. Where did this one come from?
RM: Uhm, that’s from Morocco. That’s a NWE-869, which means it’s the 869th fall of meteorites that was found in Morocco, and classified.
JR: Well, thank you very much, indeed. That will be treasured along with other things. We got a question, a quick question, I think from Ronnie. If you’d like to put your headphones on there. For Ronnie from Alan. Alan, thanks for calling. Morning.
Alan: Pleasure John, morning to you. I’d be very keen to know where the most Northerly account currently comes from for our meteorite.
JR: All right, we have a slight problem with the sound here. Where does the most Northerly what?
A: Eye-witness account come from?
JR: Eye-witness account. Where does the most Northerly…are you talking about this particular meteorite, hey?
A: Correct. Correct.
RM: Uhm, as far as we can gather, we’ve had accounts from, uhm, Zimbabwe, and from the North up in Harare, as well as to the West from Maun, to the East from Maputo, and to the South obviously Kimberley. So I mean that’s, the light show has been over the whole of Southern Africa.
JR: Are you a collector, Alan?
A: Yes. Yes. Thank you very much.
JR: Are you? Okay. All right. So presumably you take them all, all these accounts and then you plot them and you narrow it down, and get into the area, and that’s how you work out where they fall.
RM: That’s basically how we ended up in Botswana.
JR: Fantastic. So do you have a website? If people wanna get into it? Are there societies? Associations?
RM: Uhm, I’ve got a web address which I can leave with you. I don’t have a website myself. I don’t do it as a business.
JR: Okay, just a hobby. All right, well listen, thanks very much indeed. What we’re gonna do is take some pictures of some of these magnificent meteorites, and we’ll put them up on our website. It’s absolutely fascinating. Ronnie thanks you very much for coming in.
RM: It’s a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
JR: Cheers. That is Ronnie Mckenzie, and he’s a water resource engineer and a meteorite collector. Fascinating.
I guess there must be some sort of incentive, otherwise no-one would hand them in.
