Directory

G058: The Antarctic Search for Meteorites

Start date:
Mid November
End date:
late January
Locations:
Miller Range, Transantarctic Mountains
Principle Investigator:
Ralph Harvey
Organisation:
Case Western Reserve University
State
Ohio
Field season overview:
Immediately prior to the season researchers are requesting a Basler reconnaissance flight to review landing sites in the MIller Range and to establish a fuel cache. The field team will be equipped with standard remote field equipment, living in Scott tents and conducting searches on snowmobiles. Fixed-wing (Basler) support will take the team and its gear directly to an open field landing site adjacent to the blue ice west of the Miller Range. Once in the field, the team will generally be self-sufficient, but there will be at least two resupply flights including one pax switch in mid-season. The pull-out at the end of the field season will be a reverse of the put-in.
Since 1976, the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) project has traveled to Antarctica in search of meteorites. Project researchers have found over 10,000 specimens exposed through wind and weather in the blue-ice fields. Meteorites do not fall preferentially on Antarctica, but fall randomly across the globe. Antarctica is simply an easy place to find meteorites because of the immense white and blue ice sheet that all but covers the continent; also because the ice transport and ablation process leads to accumulation in certain areas. When rocks are found on the surface in east Antarctica, they most certainly fell there from outer space.