We have planned and written this book to be a sound and yet largely nontechnical introduction to the science of meteoritics. Our daily experiences in the Institute of Meteoritics have afforded us a fortunate advantage in making such a presentation. For, in addition to our work in the field, laboratory, and classrooms, we have frequently conducted young people through the museum and workrooms of the Institute and so have had the opportunity of learning their point of view at the same time they were venturing into ours. We hope our book will instill in the reader an abiding interest in the location and protection, the recovery and preservation and especially in the study of those cosmic missiles of iron, iron-stone, or stony composition that represent mankind’s only ponderable links with the vast universe lying beyond the limits of the earth’s atmosphere. Although all photographs and special depictions not made by our staff are individually credited, we wish to express our personal thanks for the privilege of reprinting them here. All photographs that are without a credit line have been made by members of our staff. _Lincoln LaPaz_ _Jean LaPaz__University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, March 20, 1961_ TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 5 1. A METEORITE FALLS IN THE TAIGA, U.S.S.R. 11 2. A METEORITE FALLS IN THE WHEATLAND, U.S.A. 23 3. FOUND AND LOST GIANTS 36 4. WHEN IS A CRATER A METEORITE CRATER? 42 5. HEAVEN KNOWS WHERE OR WHEN 66 6. FINDERS FOOLISH, FINDERS WISE 75 7. LANDMARKS, SKYMARKS, & DETECTORS 84 8. THE NATURE OF METEORS 101 9. THE NATURE OF METEORITES 118 10. TEKTITES, IMPACTITES, & “FOSSIL” METEORITES 134 11. OMENS AND FANTASIES 147 12. THE MODERN VIEW 158 13. PRESENT AND FUTURE APPLICATIONS 166 FOR FURTHER READING 177 INDEX 181 SPACE NOMADS METEORITES IN SKY, FIELD, & LABORATORY [Illustration: Painting of the Ussuri fireball by the Iman artist, P. I. Medvedev.] 1. A METEORITE FALLS IN THE TAIGA, U.S.S.R.