10.10.2025 23:37
Hüseyin Özdemir, a farmer from the Palu district of Elazığ, collected hundreds of stones in the Murat River basin with the dream of finding a meteorite. Özdemir, who shares his interesting stones on social media, has a collection that is also being studied by scientists.
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Hüseyin Özdemir, who lives in the village of Karasalkım in the Palu district of Elazığ and works as a farmer, became interested in meteorites after news emerged about meteor fragments falling in the village of Sarıçiçek in Bingöl on September 2, 2015.
HE COLLECTED HUNDREDS OF STONES IN A ROOM OF HIS HOUSE
The 46-year-old Özdemir, who started researching and gathering information on the subject, conducted search efforts in the Murat River basin, which is approximately 722 kilometers long and one of the branches of the Euphrates River, in hopes of finding meteorites. Özdemir collected hundreds of stones that he believed to be meteorites in the Murat River basin, which originates from Aladağ in Ağrı, passes through Erzurum, Muş, Bingöl, and the Palu district of Elazığ, and reaches the Keban Dam Lake, and stored them in a room of his house.
HE SHARES ON HIS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT
Özdemir shares interesting stones with various colors and structures on his social media account, which he named "Stone Hunter Hüseyin" and has over 4,300 followers.
"I HAVE DEVELOPED MYSELF IN THIS FIELD"
Hüseyin Özdemir stated that he obtained information about meteorites, which he became curious about after the meteor event in 2015, from the internet. He explained that he read an article stating that several thousand meteorites enter the Earth's atmosphere each year, and about 500 of them fall to the ground without evaporating, and he began searching for meteorites at every point the Murat River could reach, which has a formation dating back thousands of years.
"I am looking for these in nature; I conducted research along the Murat River from the Palu district of Elazığ to Bingöl and Van, and I collected around 5,000 stones. I created a collection called the largest meteorite candidate collection in Turkey," said Özdemir, noting that he continues to collect stones.
HE DID NOT MIND THOSE WHO SAID "YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME"
Özdemir mentioned that people around him know about his years of searching for meteorites along the Murat River, and some criticized him by saying, "You are wasting your time." Despite all the criticism, Özdemir continued to search for meteorites, stating: "I continue to grow my collection; I enjoy doing this work. There were those who told me, 'You are doing a useless job,' but I find this way of spending my free time more meaningful. Additionally, I have developed myself quite a bit in this field. I communicate with professors from both domestic and international backgrounds on social media, and I have over 4,000 followers. Some call me the professor of this work; of course, I am not a professor, but I have trained myself as much as possible in this field."
"EVERY ROCK IN NATURE IS ACTUALLY A MESSAGE FROM THE PAST TO THE PRESENT"
On the other hand, Dr. Mustafa Eren Rizeli, a faculty member of the Geological Engineering Department at Fırat University, examined the stones on-site at Özdemir's invitation and took samples for laboratory analysis from the stone that is most likely to be a meteorite.
Dr. Mustafa Eren Rizeli, who examined the stones, stated that among the stones collected by Özdemir, there are more serpentine (a greenish-black type of rock formed by the transformation of rocks in the Earth's crust under high temperature and pressure), basalt (a dark volcanic rock formed when magma reaches the surface and cools quickly), andesite (a light-colored volcanic rock), and limestone.
Rizeli conveyed that the interesting stones found by Özdemir provide information about the millions of years of geological history of Elazığ and its surroundings, making them valuable in this regard, stating, "Every rock we see in nature is actually a message from the past to the present, and it is the duty of scientists to read this message and explain it to the public in an understandable way."
"HIS DETERMINATION IS COMMENDABLE"
Rizeli, who examined the collection of stones that Hüseyin Özdemir has been collecting for years, expressed that some samples among them could be evaluated as rock samples. He concluded his remarks by saying, "We advised him to send these potential samples for petrographic thin section analysis to various laboratories in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir for meteorite analysis. I want to commend Hüseyin for his determination because creating a collection with materials from nature in this way is a behavior that should serve as an example for young people and others.
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The determination shown in the investigation of the existence of meteorites, which is quite interesting and noteworthy in terms of science and economics, is commendable.
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