Rachel Hobson interviewed the stars of Meteorite Men (On the Science Channel, see schedule here.) for the Space issue of MAKE magazine, but the magazine was only able to include a small portion of the interview. Make: Online ran the entire interview, and it's really fun.
What are the most common mistakes people make when hunting for meteorites?
We have, many, many times, been contacted by people who are certain they've found a meteorite. In most cases the hopeful have, in fact, picked up a piece of iron oxide, such a hematite or magnetite. Hematite, sometimes called kidney stone, can develop into unusual shapes and its surface often looks as if it's been, at one time, in a molten state (it hasn't). Magnetite is usually black, heavy and will adhere to a magnet, so this abundant earth rock is the most common "meteor-wrong." Early prospectors, in search of valuable metals like gold and silver, have left their mark across the planet, sometimes in the most remote and surprising places. Portable smelters were set up all over the United States, especially in the West, and the runoff, or residue, from those smelters is known as slag. Usually heavy, dark, with a burned appearance, slag is mistaken for meteorites all the time.What are the top two or three things you wish you had known when you started hunting for meteorites?
We should have known how difficult it was actually going to be, so we could have been better prepared for the many disappointments and unsuccessful hunts that are part of a meteorite hunter's life.It also would have helped if we had been more familiar the mechanics of strewnfields – zones in which numerous meteorites from the same parent body have fallen at the same time. Understanding how strewnfields form, and how meteorites are distributed within them can aid an experienced hunter with meteorite recovery.
