Argentina is trying to combat the theft of its precious meteorites

The first thing you see when you open the Campo del Cielo Nature Reserve parking lot is what looks like a large bowl in the ground, about half the size of a football field.

It is a crater made by a huge meteorite. One of thousands which crossed this entire area about 4000 years ago.

The reserve was a place where people could see some of the largest meteorites in the world. But Argentina has been trying to prevent the theft of the space rocks for years.

Just behind it is an interactive museum, with hundreds of meteorites on display.

“The experience is wonderful,” said Alexis Saul, who was visiting with his wife and daughter from a few hours away. “It’s so important for the world. We have to appreciate this place so much more than we do.”

Groups of green parrots flew over us. A short walk through the area reveals a row of enormous meteorites, including… the second and third largest in the world, weighing almost 29 and 31 tons respectively. They sit on large round concrete slabs and visitors can walk straight up to them and touch and cuddle them. It’s a pretty incredible experience.

Ayelen Santillán has worked as the head guide in the park for the past ten years. She said there is no place like it on the planet.

“This is unique because even though the largest meteorite is in Africa, you can’t get as close as you can with these meteorites,” she said.

But theft has been a big problem there. Santillán said the scale of the theft is impossible to calculate. But it’s been happening for decades. And it still happens.

In 2015, The Argentine police foiled the theft of 3,300 pounds of space rocks from Campo del Cielo.

In another news item in 2019, a group of people were caught stealing three large meteorites. In June this year, two people were again arrested in western Argentina for trying to make off with 77 stolen space rocks. In 1990 even an American meteorite collector tried to steal El Chacothus the second largest meteorite in the world.

Meteorites of different sizes used to lie on the ground.

“They are not so easy to find now,” an Argentine researcher said in an excerpt from one Documentary from 2014 over the Campo del Cielo meteorite field. “But there were plantations where the entire road on either side was lined with meteorites. Every rock you found here was a meteorite.”

The Argentine state tried to respond. Since the 1990s, laws have prohibited the removal and sale of the country’s meteorites. In 2004, Argentina passed a law declaring meteorites part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

Rogelio Daniel Acevedo is a geologist and meteorite specialist, retired from the Argentine Science and Research Agency, CONICET.

“So they cannot be sold,” he said. “If I find one on my property I don’t have to turn it in, but I can’t sell it.”

Nevertheless, he explained, in the world’s markets where precious metals and rocks are sold, there is always an Argentine meteorite for sale.

Whether in a gift shop in the United States or online, a quick search on eBay turned up dozens of listings specifically for Campo del Cielo meteorites.

“It’s really a shame,” said guide Santillán. “This issue of meteorite theft and contraband is really difficult to control.”

She said that although the sale of Argentine meteorites abroad is still illegal under Argentine law, it is difficult to regulate.

Her message: Please do not buy or sell our meteorites. “This is something that belongs to us,” she said. “Something that is unique – (a) world heritage.”

But Santillán said these meteorites are simply used, sold and commercialized, like everything these days.

And that, she says, is a shame.