Socorro rock analysis
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 3 May 2003 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Nuclear & missile sites (topic) |
| People | Christopher "Kit" Green, Lonnie Zamora, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 151 |
| Year | 2003 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2003 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 13 |
The Socorro rock analysis concerns a stone bearing metallic-looking specks recovered from the site of the 24 April 1964 Socorro landing report in New Mexico. Three conflicting accounts exist of what the specks were: an ordinary silica mineral, according to NASA's written report; an unusual zinc-iron alloy, according to investigator Ray Stanford; and an alloy analysed at Los Alamos, according to an entry in Jacques Vallée's journals that the person quoted has denied.[1][2]
Background
At about 5:45 p.m. on 24 April 1964, police officer Lonnie Zamora reported a shiny, egg- or O-shaped object and two figures in white overalls in a gully south of Socorro; it rose with a roar and a flame and flew away. Officers found smouldering brush and shallow depressions, and Zamora pointed out a broken rock at the edge of one impression. Project Blue Book listed the case as "unknown"; skeptics have suggested a hoax by New Mexico Tech students or a test of a lunar-landing vehicle.[1][3]
The Goddard analysis
Investigator Ray Stanford, who reached the site soon after the event, removed the rock and, with NICAP's Richard Hall and Walter Webb, took it to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where metallurgist Henry Frankel examined the specks. According to Stanford, Frankel phoned him on 5 August 1964 to say the particles were a material that could not occur naturally, made mostly of zinc and iron; Hall said Frankel had given only tentative findings. NASA's written analysis, dated 11 September 1964 and published by NICAP, identified the specks as silica and other complex silicate minerals. Stanford told the story in his self-published 1976 book Socorro "Saucer" in a Pentagon Pantry, which Hall criticised as exaggerated.[2][4]
The Los Alamos claim
In Forbidden Science 5 (2023), Vallée recorded a conversation of 3 May 2003 in which former CIA physician Kit Green reportedly said Stanford's sample had reached the CIA in 1982 and been analysed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where it proved to be an unusual aluminium-titanium alloy. When researcher Douglas Dean Johnson asked Green about this in May 2024, Green replied on the record that he had no knowledge of any metallic samples from the site and that no such tests had been done under his auspices.[2]
Status
No independent analysis of the specks has been published, so the official silica finding is the only documented result. Stanford died in June 2025.[2]
People and topics
- Christopher "Kit" Green — CIA physician and analyst who became a long-time contact of Jacques Vallée and studied UAP-related injuries.
- Socorro landing — The April 1964 landing reported by police officer Lonnie Zamora.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
- Lonnie Zamora — Police officer who reported the 1964 Socorro landing.
- Socorro — The New Mexico town where Lonnie Zamora reported a landing in 1964.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
On the Timeline
- Peter Sturrock on zero-point energy (2003) (22 March 2003) — Stanford's Peter Sturrock tells Vallée he doubts Puthoff's zero-point energy work.
- MITRE high-frequency gravitational wave workshop (6 May 2003) — MITRE hosts a conference on high-frequency gravitational wave research.
See every 2003 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Lonnie Zamora incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Kevin Randle, "Ray Stanford is gone", A Different Perspective (Jun 2025), with comments by Douglas Dean Johnson and David Rudiak · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "Official files on the Socorro UFO landing, April 24, 1964", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Kevin Randle, "Socorro UFO landing analysis", A Different Perspective (Nov 2009) · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Kit Green in Vallée's journals — Forbidden Science Dispatches · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Kit Green, Garry Nolan and UAP-related injuries — IBTimes · ibtimes.co.uk · archived copy
- Former CIA officer on UFO-related injuries — TweakTown · tweaktown.com · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Kit Green — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Garry Nolan on UFO materials and Kit Green's patient studies (Vice interview) · exo.substack.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Los Alamos National Laboratory — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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