A Moroccan scientific laboratory examines daily the quality of what meteorites offer from space rocks

MOHAMED NAJIB SAAAD

4 Jun, 2017

A Moroccan scientific laboratory examines daily the quality of what meteorites offer from space rocks

A Moroccan scientific laboratory examines daily the quality of what meteorites offer from space rocks

New York Times, six months after the fall of a meteorite in the village of Ticent, about 70 km north of the Moroccan city of Tata, the meteorite is specifically a space stone coming from Mars, and that the Museum of Natural History in London has bought a financial amount of imagination more than several times The annual budget allocated by this museum for the acquisition of such stones

The meteorite was called the meteorite of Ticent, a small village that fell on its southeastern outskirts of Morocco. The meteorite formed one of the most important space stones that fell on Earth over the past 100 years, according to specialized scientific reports

The stone also raised many questions about the activities of the meteorological trade networks in Morocco, prompting many to pay more attention to what has become an area of competition and conflict between scientists and traders.

"The trade of meteorites in the south is an active market, where the real mix is mixed with the visitor, run by traders and intermediaries who buy these stones from the simple population and from nomads in the desert at low prices and exploit their poverty, need and ignorance of the true scientific value of these meteorites," said Ibrahim al-Yadouni

In the southern city of Agadir, young Jalal al-Rokibi, from the desert town of Samara, carrying a bag of rocks of various sizes, said that it was important meteorites and was awaiting examination in the laboratory to ascertain its quality and scientific and commercial value

In the mid-1930s, Rukibi explains that the search for meteorites in the desert "is a risky experience and requires great patience to reach a sample of space rocks," adding that they go out with the nomads to the desert to look for meteorites when they know that they fall in a certain place. Search sometimes takes more than two months

"When we find some small grains of the meteorite, it gives us an indication of larger parts in nearby areas, sometimes weighing more than seven kilograms," he said

In Morocco, it is argued that nets are not organized networks, but rather are networks that combine trade relations and interests. They are divided into categories, the most important of which are called "meteorite hunters." They are the main source of these deserts and areas where they fall. , Or purchase them from the population and herders, at prices that are often cheap compared to the imaginary prices in which these stones are sold in the world markets, and their prices vary according to their value and quality.

And sometimes worth between 500 and 1000 dollars per gram, depending on the type and value of scientific life on the ground, and sold one gram of the Tesent meteor, at a price more than twenty times the price of the same weight of gold, according to the same source.

Another class of meteorite brokers acts as intermediaries with large traders, and these intermediaries are often stable in major cities adjacent to known meteoric fall zones, such as Tata, Kalimim, Rashidiya, Erfoud Ouarzazate and other desert cities.

The stars go through the stages of selling and smuggling them to the most important stage, which is to transfer them to traders outside Morocco who sell them in the world markets and to the major museums in the capitals of the world, often doing the task of traders of European and American nationalities to visit Morocco, whenever they received news of the fall of an important meteor .

These stones are required goods for research institutes, major museums and precious stone collectors from the wealthy in Europe and America. NASA is at the head of these scientific institutions that reach high-value space stones

In his laboratory at the Faculty of Science at Ibn Azhar University in Agadir, southern Morocco, Dr. Abdelrahman Ebhi, a Moroccan meteorologist, is studying some samples of meteorites that are falling in southern Morocco, and daily visits by backpackers and amateurs who come from areas Carrying what they found in the deserts of the space rocks for examination in this laboratory specialized in the study of crystals and minerals.

Says that this laboratory, the second of its kind in Morocco, contributed significantly to the publication of what he described as "the culture of meteorites" among the inhabitants of the desert and the travelers in the southern regions where meteorites fall, pointing out that Morocco tops the countries that market meteorites to the world, There has been increasing interest in this issue in recent years and the smuggling of a large number of precious meteorites out of Morocco.

He confirms that the meteoric Tesent, which was the sky's glory on southern Morocco, "is of great scientific importance because it will reveal invaluable information about Mars."

because it is a heritage that must be preserved in Morocco

He also called on the Moroccan expert to "create a national museum specialized in the conservation of meteorites, because it is an important national heritage must be preserved in Morocco and be available to people and future generations," adding that "the number of meteorites Mars in the world is 50 meteorites, 21 of them picked up in Morocco and all left abroad , Without any knowledge of the circumstances of its transfer to the outside of the border, including meteorites sold at auctions in America for the museums of the world known

According to Ehbi, the meteorites that fall in the Moroccan deserts are of great scientific importance because they fall in the desert, and are not exposed to the effects of water pollution or the chemical reactions of the soil, which helps to preserve their original components, for example the meteor coming from Mars, Fell four years ago near the village of Ticent.

Dr. Ibhi's laboratory at Ben-Zahr University in Agadir tried to fill a large vacuum in research institutions on meteorites in Morocco, where there are only two laboratories in all of Morocco.

The laboratories are a meeting place between the traders of meteorites who need the science to know the reality of their rocks and quality to determine the price in the market, and the scientific need for researchers and specialists who always require samples of meteorites falling for study and analysis and extract new scientific facts