NWA Meteorite

NWA meteorites - money for terrorism?

1. NWA meteorites are undocumented stones "bought" in Morocco.
2. There is no potential prospecting field in Morocco to supply this market.
3. More than 95% of the NWA meteorites come from Algeria, Libya and up into Egypt.
4. The border between Morocco and Algeria has been officially closed since 1994. Islamic army groups cross the border.

Some serious facts:

• 2 of the 11 international terrorist organizations which have been the targets of the Bush government since September 11th live in Algeria:
  - GIA (Armed Islamic Group)
  - GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat)
• 30 European hostages have been rescued from Islamic groups by a military attack between the Acfer and the Tanezrouf meteorite strewnfields in 2003.
• Well organized smuggling rings act through the militarized no man's land between the two countries.
• NWA meteorite contraband is still financed by private investors who prefer to stay "anonymous".
• The track of the millions of dollars involved in this traffic is lost on the Algerian border.

"Active groups included the Armed Islamic Group, which had for several years been indiscriminately targeting civilians, and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which was better known for attacks on military targets."

Reminder of the two constants for meteorite recoveries.

1 - Meteorites = dry areas (cold or hot dry deserts)

• Morocco is a small mountainous country bordering on the Sahara desert and Algeria. Morocco is not a desert land. The potential of South Morocco for the discovery of meteorites is the same as the potential of South Spain, Tunisia or California. Rain falls and geological features can't be compared with the soil and the atmospheric conditions (dry wind) in the Sahara.
• The average annual precipitation in Morocco ranges from 100 mm/year in the south of the country (semi-arid climate) to a maximum of 1200 mm/year. Meteorites can't be preserved a long time under these environmental conditions. The density of meteorites is 100 times lower than in central Sahara and the area of the Sahara desert is 20 times the area of Morocco.
  - For one find in Morocco you have 2000 potential finds in the Sahara.

• Only the major Saharan strewnfields can provide numerous meteorites and supply the Moroccan market.
• Saharan strewnfields are very dry areas with two major components: particular geological features which preserve meteorites for 50000 years from weathering effects and fast erosion process. Outside these strewnfields the discovery of a meteorite is something rare, even in the extremely arid central part of the Sahara.
• It is a common misconception, perpetrated by many people involved in the collection of NWA meteorites, that thousands of nomadic tribesmen are routinely collecting these meteorites in situ. There is no vegetation and no nomadism on these strewnfields.
  

  List of the Saharan strewnfields

  
  

• Saharan prospecting fields are flat areas stretching for hundreds of kilometers without obstacles. These prospecting fields are crossed by smugglers and army groups with 4WDs to avoid main roads and military check points.

Historical outline of NWA meteorites:

In 1989, Swiss and German desert passionate people discover a fabulous meteorite potential in Algeria and Libya on particular soils subject to fast erosion. These areas are very limited compared to the 9,000,000 square kilometers of the whole Sahara.
German laboratories have very quickly found interest in these fully documented meteorites (localization by GPS, weight, photos in situ...) and they have analyzed "all" of them.
Parts of these items are available on the meteorite market to pay expeditions, others are kept in museums. The first find of a non Antarctica Martian meteorite comes from the Dar al Gani strewnfield.

The "commercial" interest led the smugglers crossing the no man's land on the Moroccan/Algerian border (closed since 1994) to add to their traffic the meteorites coming from these places unknown to them previously.
European dealers of fossils and prehistorical tools also got interested and added these Algerian meteorites to their Moroccan business. To increase the value of these items and to avoid incoming problems they decided to declare all the meteorites from the Moroccan backshops as "Moroccan finds" with false location names: Agoult, Aoufous, Smarra... That's the time of the false Moroccan strewnfields: Tagounite, Zagora... True false papers could easily be obtained in Morocco.

American collectors started to finance their own business trips to Morocco. Dealers flew to this nice country located at the doors of the Sahara (around 10 million tourists per year) and they established contact with the smugglers who cross the border. Meteorites can be paid for with cash.

The Meteoritical Society, the organization which gives the official name to meteorites created the special appellation NWA for all the meteorite issued from this contraband and to avoid the proliferation of false Moroccan names. The goal is to keep minimum information on these scientific items. But, the Meteoritical Society wants in no case to "launder" these meteorites (G. Huss president of the Met. Soc.). The Met. Soc. also recommends that scientists make no publicity regarding these NWA meteorites.

The French "Consortium Theodore Monod" asked for the use of the name of this great French naturalist, who has recently died and who is so admired of all for his work in the Sahara. Just like they have done with the names of Louise Michel and Jules Vernes to give a better image to these meteorites in the press.

The goal of this newly created consortium (2001) was to prove the French capacity to analyze rocks from the future Mars Sample Return Mission in studying planetary meteorites. French scientists didn't want to finance their own meteorite prospecting teams like NASA in Antarctica, so they decided to take the help of NWA dealers to obtain their first Martian meteorite for their laboratories. The Moroccan prospecting stories were essential to present the project in April 2001 to the press.

Of course, the Consortium doesn't publish directly in the press about the Moroccan Eldorado, transferring the responsibility on the journalists. Nevertheless, in the press articles which serve a commercial strategy for the sale of these meteorites, they are quoted, helping this business.

Later, their answer to Charline Zeitoun about the contraband subject was: "for us it doesn't matter, these meteorites come from the sky, that's all !"

• All the meteorites numbered in a NWA series:
  to quote: nwa 011 (eucrite), nwa 032 (lunar), 047, 049 (HED), 053 (rumurutite), 060 (CK), 062 (CO), 176 (iron), 305 (enstatite), 468 (iron), 470 (CH), 479 (lunar), 480 (mars), nwa 482 (lunar), 502 (CO3), 516 (winonaite), 521 (CK), 530 (CR), 595 (brachinite), 723 (CV), 725 (acapulcoite), 735 (CK), 739 (CH), 753, 755 (rumurutiite), 760 (CV), 763 (CO), 765 (CK), 766 (ureilite), 769 (eucrite), 771 (ureilite), 773 (lunar), nwa 817 (nakhlite), 851 (rumurutiite), 852 (CR2), 853 (ureilite), 854 (iron), nwa 856 (SNC), 859, 860 (iron), 974 (enstatite), 978 (rumurutiite), 998 (mars), 1000 (eucrite), nwa 1068, 1110 (mars), 1150 (howardite), 1152 (CV), 1180 (CR), 1181, 1182 (How), 1195 (SNC), 1222 (enstatite), 1235 (aubrite), 1239 (diogenite), 1241 (ureilite), 1242 (mesosiderite), 1460, 1669, 1950, nwa 2046 (mars) ...
  
• Anonymous desert finds sold on mineral shows and eBay.
  
  
• Best fakes:
  Agoult, Aoufous, Igdi, Smara (HED meteorites), El Gouanem (Ureilite), Ouzina (Rumurutite), Amzrou, Begaa (unclassified meteorite), Beni Semguine, Bensour, Fezna (CK4/5), Oum Rokba, Tafraouite, Tata, Taza, Tinaf (CV3), Tissemoumine (acapulcoite)
  
  
• Black awards:
  - to museums and curators who are buying/trading NWA meteorites.
  - to dealers who spread false hunting stories.