Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Meteorite

OK, what’s this?

CAI%2028%20Marzo meteor

A truffle!

No!

Look, you’re not gonna guess, so I’ll tell you. It’s a meteorite, found on the mountain this Sunday when we trekked up Mt Amandola with our CAI group (Club Alpini Italia) and were rewarded with a the most spectacular views across the hilltop towns of Le Marche to the sea, as well as a meteorite. Isn’t that marvellous though? To find a meteorite? We climbed to about 2000m,

 

CAI%2028%20Marzo snow 

 

CAI%2028%20Marzo 2

 

……….ate a banana and a packet of crisps (classic) and rested awhile on one of the peaks before climbing down slowly to the trattoria where we’d left our cars. Then a long and dozy lunch. And the day before I was at the sea spending the morning costing our June workshop with Patrizia the owner of I Cigni, . It was almost tropical in comparison.

 

DSC_ mf 1

 

This part of Le Marche is where the mountains pushed towards the sea millions of years ago. In fact a great part of the sea was itself thrust up trapping a species of red shrimp in what is now a glacial lake (Lago di Pilato) in the process. Red shrimps and meteorites.

So, lucky we are, to have the mountains and the sea within a short driving distance of each other.

So, here’s an idea. Spend a fantastic weekend on our workshop and spend the rest of the week touring this beautiful area; even go meteorite hunting up in the Sibillini mountains. You’ll find one, you will, with a bit of guidance.

1 comment:

Meteorites USA said...

Hi, The stone you found is most probably not a meteorite. Sorry but it's hollow, and of the thousands of meteorites I've examined consisting of chondrites (stone), pallasites (stony iron), and iron meteorites, none of them were hollow. A Google search for "meteorite photos" will show you thousands of images of authentic meteorites for comparison. Meteorites are solid masses of stone, iron, or a mixture of olivine and iron. Meteorites also have a much higher content of nickel than earth rocks. Research the area to see if there were ever any industrial activities in the past. It's probably just a piece of iron slag. Regards