It’s a fireball! A huge meteor exploded over western Canada last month and there have been over 130 pieces found thus far with one peice weighing in at an enormous 30 pounds. So far total known weight to have been recovered is around 40 kilos according to this news site .
Unfortunately us American’s or any other people from any other country won’t get to see any specimens first hand unless we fly to Canada and see it in a museum or luck out and have some really nice person that found a piece on their property show you one.
OK, I’m green with envy and totally bummed now because of this travesty. Canada just had one of the largest meteorite falls in the history of their country just a month ago. How uncool is that?
Just kidding! I’m extactic about the new fall. I’d love to be able to go up there and find a few but Canada’s export laws on meteorites don’t allow it. According to Canada’s export laws it’s illegal to export a meteorite from Canada because it is considered cultural property. OK…
Here’s the actual laws governing export from the Cultural Property Export and Import Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ShowFullDoc/cs/C-51///en
“The law of ownership and control of meteorites in Canada is briefly described in an article by D.G. Schmitt in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science” SOURCE: http://easweb.eas.ualberta.ca/download/file/meteorite_regulations.pdf
…a Canadian find cannot be exported without a
permit from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA), and application
for a permit must be made by a Canadian resident. Temporary Export permits are
granted forthwith; loan periods may not exceed 5 years and the initial period is 90
days. In practice, some destructive testing may be allowed, as determined on a
case by case basis. In general, if any destructive testing is to occur outside Canada
a Permanent Export permit is required. A permit officer from the CCRA would
refer the matter to an “expert examiner” under Section 11 of the act. The expert
examiner determines whether the find is of “outstanding significance” for science
or of “national importance”, and if so, recommends denial of the Permanent
Export permit. Denial of a permit may be appealed to the Canadian Cultural
Property Export Review Board, which may either issue the permit, or impose a 2
to 6 month delay of permanent export…
Here’s More info
Canadian law regarding meteorites is very clear. In Canada, meteorites that fall on private property belong to the property owner and may be held or sold by the owner. However, meteorites are considered Cultural Property and require an export permit to be taken or shipped out of Canada. Exporting without a permit even temporarily is illegal and potentially a criminal offense. SOURCE: MeteorLab
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)
What does all this mean? Basically it mean you can’t go up to Canada and hope to export any meteorites right now. YOu can go up there and hunt for them all you want if you get a land owners permission just like here in the states, however you can’t send them home to momma. You could probably hunt and find all you wanted if you could get permission from enough landowners, and this would allow you to have a very large collection of meteorites, however the landowner would own them. You’d have make a deal to buy them from the owner of the property prior to hunting and finding any meteorites. Then if you find any, you would work out what you’re going to do with them.
PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/269743
The other issue is that you have to be a resident of Canada to export anything that falls under the CPEI Act.
Youtube.com Video Of The Fireball
Bob Haag (The Original Meteorite Man) has offered up $10,000 for pieces of the meteorite read the article here: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/269743
A University of Calgary researcher Monday showed off his team’s bounty from a meteorite field southwest Lloydminister.
Dr. Alan Hildebrand and his students have recovered more than 100 meteorite pieces after a fireball streaked across the Alberta sky on November 20th.
That number of pieces is expected to set a new Canadian record for the largest meteorite fall.
It’s all over the news, and scientists are traveling from all over the world to study this new meteorite and the value to science this fall represents is great. However with as large as this fall is, it’s possible we might see some material being exported to scientists and universities worldwide.
There might just be “enough to go around”.
Better late than never… I couldn’t let this one go by without posting something about it.
