Port Orford meteorite hoax

The Port Orford meteorite hoax concerns a 19th-century claimed meteorite discovery near Port Orford, Oregon in 1856. The meteorite has attracted the interest of meteorite hunters,[2] with a value reported as high as $300 million.[4]

Port Orford meteorite
ClassPallasite
CountryUnited States
RegionOregon
Coordinates42°48′N 124°06′W[1]
Observed fallNo
Found date1856 (claimed)
TKW28 g[2]
10–11 short tons (9,100–10,000 kg) (estimated, claimed)[3]
Letter from John Evans discussing a "meteor" discovered on Bald Mountain in Oregon, dated November 25, 1859

Claimed discovery

Dr. John Evans, a medical doctor and government-appointed geologist working for the United States Department of the Interior, claimed to have found a 10-ton (10,000 kg) pallasite meteorite in coastal Oregon (then Oregon Territory) on a "bald mountain" above Port Orford in 1856. Evans returned a sample to the East Coast, but he died of pneumonia in 1861 before the discovery could be corroborated.[5][4]

Hoax

It has been reported as a hoax, with modern metallurgical and other analysis showing that a 28 gram specimen[2] collected by Evans was actually part of the Imilac Chilean meteorite of 1822 and probably acquired by him in Panama on his return to the United States East Coast.[5][6] The mountain of Evans' claimed find has been tentatively identified as Johnson Mountain from Evans' reports and field notes; surveys of the area with sensitive proton magnetometers in the 1980s failed to show evidence of a nickel-rich meteorite there.[7]

References

Notes
  1. Clarke 1993, p. 10.
  2. Pruett 2012.
  3. Clarke 1993, p. 8.
  4. John 2011.
  5. Clarke 2006.
  6. LaLande 2016.
  7. Clarke 1993, pp. 7–11.

Sources
  • Clarke, Roy S. (1993), "The Port Orford, Oregon, Meteorite Mystery", Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences, 31: 1–43, doi:10.5479/si.00810274.31.1
  • R.S. Clarke et al. (2006), "Meteorites and the Smithsonian Institution", in Gerald Joseph Home McCall; A. J. Bowden; Richard John Howarth (eds.), The History of Meteoritics and Key Meteorite Collections: Fireballs, Falls and Finds, Geological Society of London, p. 242, ISBN 9781862391949CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  • Henderson, E.P.; Dole, Hollis M. (1964), "The Port Orford Meteorite" (PDF), The Ore Bin, 26 (7)
  • John, Finn J.D. (December 11, 2011), "The Port Orford Meteorite: Was it all a big hoax?", Offbeat Oregon ( cc-by-sa )
  • LaLande, Jeff (2016), "Port Orford Meteorite Hoax", Encyclopedia of Oregon, Oregon Historical Society and Portland State University
  • Pruett, J. Hugh (June 15, 2012), "The Lost Port Orford, Oregon, Meteorite (ECN =+ 1245,428:)", Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 4 (16): 286–290, doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1950.tb00135.x
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