Argentina tries to fight the theft of its precious meteorites

The first thing you see when you step into 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’s a crater made by a massive meteorite. One of thousands that peppered this whole area roughly 4,000 years ago.

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

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

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

Groups of green parrots flew overhead. On a short walk around the area, a row of huge meteorites can be seen, including the second and third largest in the world, weighing almost 29 and 31 metric tons, respectively. They sit on large circular slabs of concrete and visitors can walk right up to them and touch and hug them. It’s a pretty incredible experience.

Ayelen Santillán has worked as the main guide at the park for the past decade. She said there’s no place like this on the planet.

“This is unique, because although the largest meteorite is in Africa, you don’t have the ability to get up close like you do with these meteorites,” she said.

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

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

In another news report from 2019, a group of people was caught trying to steal three large meteorites. This June, two people were detained again in western Argentina, trying to make off with 77 stolen space rocks. Back in 1990, a US meteorite collector even tried to steal El Chaco, then, the second largest meteorite in the world.

Meteorites of varying sizes used to litter the ground. 

“They aren’t that easy to find now,” said one Argentine researcher, in a clip from a 2014 documentary about the Campo del Cielo meteorite field. “But there were plantations, where the entire road was lined on both sides with meteorites. Every rock you found here was a meteorite.” 

The Argentine state has 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 the meteorites a cultural patrimony of the nation. 

Rogelio Daniel Acevedo is a geologist and meteorite specialist, who’s retired from Argentina’s science and research agency, CONICET.

“So, they can’t 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 markets of the world where precious metals and rocks are sold, there is always an Argentine meteorite for sale. 

Be it at a gift shop in the United States or online, a quick search on eBay revealed dozens of listings just for Campo del Cielo meteorites.

“It’s really unfortunate,” said guide Santillán. “This question of meteorite theft and contraband is really hard to control.”

She said that even though the sale of Argentina’s meteorites abroad is still illegal under Argentine law, it’s hard to regulate. 

Her message: Please don’t buy or sell our meteorites. “This is something that belongs to us,” she said. “Something that’s unique — [a] world heritage.”  

But Santillán said these meteorites are just used, sold and commercialized, like everything today.

And that, she said, is a shame.