Meteorite mania spreads across Palouse

Rosalia’s own alleged meteorite got a look-see Monday from a field scientist touring the Palouse this week.

Portland State University scientist Dick Pugh gave presentations at Palouse, St. John and Colfax this week, drawing crowds as he talked on how to identify and report on the rocks from outer space.

He took a side trip to check out the Rosalia “meteorite.” Pugh identified the Rosalia rock as a fulgurite; a porous rock formed when lightening hits a clot of dirt with enough energy to melt it.

A crowd of 27 collected in the Palouse library Monday to examine Pugh’s meteorite collection.

The PSU scientist is traveling on a grant from NASA. Residents were encouraged to bring in their suspected meteorites for Pugh to examine. The scientist presented a slide show that flashed different types of meteorites and facts on meteorite showers.

Eleven-year-old Travis Knauff of Palouse said he liked touching and examining the meteorites on display.

“I found it interesting that they found a life form- an iron-eating mineral [on one meteorite],” said Knauff.

Scientists have ventured a theory that life on earth started when meteorites from Mars carrying the right natural substances hit earth.

“I actually found it believable,” Knauff said.

Palouse resident Joyce Beeson, Travis’s grandmother, said the slides of meteorites during the Palouse presentation were particularly interesting. One depicted a meteorite suspected to be from Mars. Scientists suspect the spots on the meteorite could be fossils older than the earth.

“It had round spots on it. It’s looking more like fossils of a form of life before the oceans. It’s so old it would have been before the oceans on earth were there,” Beeson said.

The Rosalia fulgurite was found in a field three miles south of Rosalia under a fence row and brought to the museum in the 1950s, according to Erma Jean Widman, a museum volunteer.

Pugh Monday told her the rock was clearly a fulgurite, as evidenced by the rock’s rough surface which is a sign of dirt.

“It’s just an unusual find in this county because of our soil,” said Widman.

Pugh guessed the rock was possibly formed when lightning hit a tree down to the roots, striking the dirt beneath so hard it melted.

“It looks like a porous rock. And it’s lava colored. It’s gray; it has flecks of something else in it. When the power and heat of lightning hit dirt, it melts it into a glob,” Widman said.

The rock was labeled in the museum as a “possible meteorite.” Widman said she will re-label the rock as a “fulgurite” following Monday’s visit from Pugh.