How Morocco Became the Meteorite Hunting Capital of the World

In the world The most famous meteorite show in France’s Ensishim, I noticed that there were many businessmen from Morocco. Unlike most of Europeans and Americans – whose cases and labels and books were displayed – Moroccan stalls were minimal. Probably a white sheet covered with reddish-brown stone molasses. Scale of one pair. Sometimes a piece of paper with prices per kilo written in Biro. It just returned to England that I learned about the Saharan Gold Rush.

The number of meteorite found in Morocco has exploded since that year. The officially recognized number has exceeded a thousand – though it is described as “an gross depreciation” of scientists. For comparison, there are only 23 waterfalls in the UK and search.

“You must talk to laughter,” Darrill Pitt, a dealer wrote me. “He has tried to turn the chaos of the meteorite trade of North Africa into something more orderly – and something has been successful.” This was not the first time his name did not come up.

Hasna Chennaau, Professor of the Second University of Casablanka, is accustomed to being an external house in Audzhehan. In its meetings Meteorite The committee for the meteorite name, the group, was responsible for the formally recognized meteorite, when he was a member, “a unique representative of any Arab or Muslim country”. (He is a consultant of the committee.) When I preached the export of Morocco, he shouted. “The situation is insane with the meteorite,” he said. “It’s immoral.”

There are several reasons for making Morocco as a meteor hot spot by the end of the last century. First, climate and geography. For the difference in the total surface field, such a meteorite is likely to land in the hill region of Scotland like Sahara, but it will be much more difficult to find heather, The Rocks – and “terrestrial” earlier – rain, mud, snow. Most (though not all) tattoos reach the earth with the dark fusion crust exterior. In the Sahara, these rocks stand opposite the sand.

Secondly, Morocco already had a network of western fossils, minerals and archaeological hunters and traders, while many Moroccans – especially members of the John group – were extremely skilled in search Rock And patterns in the desert. When I walked with my beast, I looked at the ground, “A traveler explained to a journalist in the Middle East. He said the stone business had rescued many traveling families from poverty.

Third, the legal and geo -political situation in Morocco helped the things as well. Chenau said, “We, thanks to God Shawar, a peaceful country.” “It’s something unique in this region.” Looking here is safe to wander the Saharan Sands (comparatively) to the Saharan Sands here. Furthermore, the meteorite of the country had no dedicated control. If you find a meteor in Morocco, it was likely to do it as you like.

The American dealer Michael Gilmer started the Saharan Gold Rush in the mid -1990s. Foreign dealers quickly discovered that obsolete weather could be purchased at a very low price from Morocco traders, formally analyzed in the west and sold for enough profit.

In the southeast of Morocco, the city of Erfood, known as “Sahara’s entrance” in the Dia-Tafilate region of Morocco, has become a center for those who are hoping for money from meteorite. A visitor shops will see the weather and fossil selling shops, including some small ad hoc museums. Some traveled stones have been diverse to take tourists and collectors to the desert to find stones.