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How Morocco Became the Meteorite Hunting Capital of the World
Since the “Saharan Gold Rush” in the 1990s, one researcher has been fighting for the North African country’s contributions to science to be recognized.
Allowing for the difference in total surface area, a meteorite is as likely to land in the Highlands of Scotland as in the Sahara, but in the former it will be a lot harder to find—the heather, the rocks—and will “terrestrialize” much more quickly—the rain, the mud, the snow. Secondly, Morocco already had a network of Western fossil, mineral, and archaeological hunters and dealers, while many Moroccans—members of nomadic groups in particular—were highly skilled in searching for rocks and artifacts in the desert. Foreign dealers quickly discovered that unclassified meteorites could be purchased from Moroccan traders at very low prices, formally analyzed in the West, and sold on for considerable profit.
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