The price of meteorites

The price of meteorites

A number of Moroccans are presenting on the Internet valuable meteors at fantastic prices

Idris, a meteorite seller from Khenifra, placed an advertisement on one of the Arab commodity-selling websites, displaying a stone he says is a lunar meteorite called “Laurent”. The "Al-Akhbar" journalist called his phone number published on the site, and deluded him that a foreigner wanted to buy the meteorite and that it was only an intermediary

Idris’s answer was as follows: “I live in the city of Khenifra, and I wrote the city of Rashidiya, and it was mediated to attract the attention of customers because these areas are known to sell valuable meteors.” Regarding “Laurent”, Idris revealed that he wants to sell them for 2000 dirhams per gram, adding that the meteorite of Laurent is of a lunar type and that the weight of the piece is In possession of 160 grams. He confirmed that he obtained it from a person living in the desert who found it in the outskirts of Rashidiya, specifically in the Bodnib region, about a year and a half ago. In order to make sure of the stone, Idris consulted a person with great experience in this field from among the sons of Rashidiyah, adding that until today he has not been able to sell it because he has not yet found a person who appreciates the value of this meteorite

Precious meteors

The desert regions of Morocco, such as Ouarzazate, Tata and Errachidia, witness the fall of various meteorites, and they may be rare and precious at times, as they are captured by nomads

Lahcen, nicknamed "the meteor hunter", devotes all his time to searching for precious meteors. He tells during his conversation with "Al-Akhbar" that he has accumulated a lot of experience in this field, as the desert regions facilitate the search for meteorites, unlike other areas where stone mixes On planet earth with the other He adds that some types of meteorite stones cost more than 10,000 dirhams per gram, especially rare ones

Lahcen says, in one of the areas located on the outskirts of Tata, after the fall of a meteorite, fragments of it were found

He confirms that dozens roam this area daily, while foreigners have set up tents on the grounds that they are tourists, but they have bought from some simple people meteors for two hundred dirhams per gram, taking advantage of their poverty, need and ignorance of the real value of these meteors. Which generates huge money if sold to specialists, as some types of meteorites are sold for more than ten thousand dirhams per gram and are currently found in international museums

Meteorite "Ticent"

The "Ticent" meteorite, or the beautiful black stone, is among the most expensive stones found in the village of Ticent near Tata, five years ago, as the residents of the region saw the fall of this meteor, which penetrated the sky in the form of a fireball, followed by an explosion, to receive great attention from Before many amateurs, scientists and merchants, especially when they learned that it came from Mars

"The New York Times" revealed that the "Tisent" meteorite had received great attention and admiration for its rare scientific value, before it was eventually acquired by the Natural History Museum in London

The American newspaper noted that although the amount of the deal was not disclosed, it is related to a financial envelope that represents times the budget that this museum allocates annually for these acquisitions, noting that one of the private supporters donated half the price allocated for this operation alone. The people of the region revealed that the meteorite was sold in Morocco for ten thousand dirhams per gram

Scientists have estimated the age of this "Martian" stone at about 2.1 billion years. However, in their view it is a new type of Martian stone that fell on Earth, dating back to the relatively recent geological period on Mars known as "Amazonian"

The stone weighs 320 grams and was given the name "NWA 7034". The letters are an abbreviation for the area that was found, which is "North West Africa", but they also call it "beautiful lions"

And the importance of the Martian stone is due to the belief that it is the oldest stones or meteorites coming from Mars, according to NASA scientist Mitch Schulte.

Schulte believes that this stone, which differs from the Martian stones in terms of shape and texture, sheds light on an important historical period in the history of the evolution and origin of the planet Mars

The stone contains basaltic material and volcanic magma that was cooled very quickly, and due to the nature of its chemical components, it is believed to be compatible with the components of the crust of the Red Planet

And the agency "NASA" that the agency's scientists spent a year studying this stone, as it was found that it contains a large amount of water equal to about 10 times the amount found in other meteorites. The Martian stone also contains a mixture of isotopes of the oxygen element that could be the result of interactions with the Martian atmosphere during meteorite formation