Obsession with meteorites is the theme of this tome.The author, an amateur astronomer who teaches creative writing, takes great care over scientific details, and has been meticulous in his research – witness over 70 pages of notes and references. Meteorites are (usually) fragments of asteroids that have fallen to earth. (Before they hit the ground, they are meteors, or shooting stars). Trade in these bits of cosmic debris has become an industry; money fuels some people’s obsession, but not this author’s. His interest is almost spiritual.
Three characters dominate the early chapters: Harvey Nininger gave up a safe job as a college biology professor to search for meteorites after seeing a shooting star one evening. He endured poverty and hardship (as did his wife!), but his scientific studies finally earned him vindication and veneration, not to mention a substantial sum when he finally sold his collection. Over nearly five decades, half of all the meteorites found in the USA were due to him.
Robert Peary, the explorer who claimed to be the first man to reach the North Pole, was motivated by glory. His meteorite hunt was for three huge lumps of iron, the largest of which weighed 34 tons. The Inuit had chipped flakes from them to use on their harpoons. Peary risked the lives of himself and his crew to dig them out and transport them to America, a magnificent achievement – or theft.
Finally, we have Daniel Barringer, whose motivation was money. He made a fortune from mining, and then squandered it trying to dig out an iron meteorite that didn’t exist.
These stories are fascinating, but Cokinos entwines them with accounts of his own journeys in their footsteps, which grates after a while. The chronicle of his divorce and remarriage gets increasingly boring and seems to be some form of catharsis.
It is a pity, because he does a very good job of presenting fascinating scientific ideas. For example, studies of the Lake Acraman crater in Australia suggest that meteorite impacts are not just destructive, but might actually accelerate evolution and the production of new species by providing a congenial microclimate in the resulting crater.
The author’s self-obsession wins out in the final section, where over 120 pages are devoted to his journey to Antarctica to search for meteorites as part of a scientific expedition. The trivia of his daily life are described in detail. He has some kind of mental breakdown and has to be airlifted back to base. I wasn’t clear what his problem was and I didn’t care. The reader can skim through this section.
The whole book is too long and could do with some photographs, but check it out. It is worth reading for the stories – especially Harvey Nininger’s – and for the science.
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