The Lost Meteorite

February 24, 2024 5:10 AM

A giant meteorite has been lost in the desert since 1916—here’s how we might find it "Captain Gaston Ripert was in charge of the Chinguetti camel corps. One day he overheard a conversation among the chameliers (camel drivers) about an unusual iron hill in the desert. He convinced a local chief to guide him there one night, taking Ripert on a 10-hour camel ride along a "disorienting" route, making a few detours along the way....The 4-kilogram fragment Ripert collected was later analyzed by noted geologist Alfred Lacroix, who considered it a significant discovery. But when others failed to locate the larger Chinguetti meteorite, people started to doubt Ripert's story."
posted by dhruva (6 comments total)

First, get a really big metal detector....
posted by chavenet at 6:07 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Oh hey, physicsmatt, once of this parish, makes an appearance.

What a fascinating story, I hope the researchers gain access to the data.
posted by Kattullus at 6:59 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

French official in 1916? Once again, WWI is hard to escape.
posted by doctornemo at 9:03 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

I'm assuming there's a reason why asking around in Chinguetti has not been an option?

All the actual information we have about the alleged rock seems to come from local knowledge, yet all we seem to have are secondhand accounts from conversations with / overheard by French colonial officials in 1916 and 1934.
posted by Not A Thing at 9:54 AM on February 24

^ and having raised that question I should note that the implied scope of the first-person plural in both my comment and the article might go a considerable way toward answering it.
posted by Not A Thing at 10:02 AM on February 24

Thanks for sharing this; I have swiped it for a rpg scenario.
posted by BrashTech at 4:10 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]