Steve Arnold
The American meteorite hunter who dug up a 650-kilogram pallasite at Brenham, Kansas, in 2005.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Meteorite hunter
Steve Arnold is a professional meteorite hunter from Arkansas who became known to television audiences as one of the presenters of a programme about searching for meteorites.
In 2005 he searched the Brenham strewn field in Kiowa County, Kansas, where pallasite meteorites had been found since the 1880s. Working with the permission of the landowner, he used a large metal detector mounted on a frame pulled across the fields, which could sense big metal masses buried deep in the soil.
In October 2005 the detector picked up a strong signal. Digging down about two metres, Arnold uncovered a pallasite weighing about 650 kilograms. It was the largest oriented pallasite ever found, shaped like a cone by its flight through the atmosphere.
The find showed how modern equipment can still reveal large meteorites even in places that have been searched for more than a century. It also shows the importance of the law and of agreements with landowners: in the United States, a meteorite found on private land belongs to the landowner unless they agree otherwise.
On the timeline
- October 2005A giant pallasite is dug up at Brenham