Meteorites – Antarctica

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Chicken Little had it partly right. Meteorites have fallen from the sky all over the Earth for millennia. But there’s one place on our planet where you’re more likely to find a meteorite than any other – can you guess where it is? I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“Meteorites fall probably with the same frequency everywhere on the planet, but in most places they’ll tend to either be buried, covered up by vegetation, or quickly weathered into unrecognizability. But if a meteorite falls in an extremely arid region, like the Sahara Desert or the Arabian Desert, nothing much will happen to it for a very long time. “

James Edward Mungall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto. He says there’s even a better place than the desert to find meteorites.

“The best place to collect meteorites is actually in Antarctica. Because the Antarctic ice cap has been collecting its rain of meteorites for millions of years. And there are places in Antarctica where after the meteorites have fallen, they’ve been covered up by snow, and the ice flow brings it up against mountain ranges where it rises towards the surface again, and the ice at the surface is actually being removed. (64:55) The wind actually transforms the ice directly into vapor without melting it, so even at very low temperatures, the ice is being consumed . So, new ice is moving up to fill the space, and as that ice moves up like a conveyor belt, it brings the meteorites with it. And then, when the ice is removed, the meteorites just stay there on the surface. So, expeditions have gone to Antarctica to look for these places, and they’ve found fields of meteorites, sometimes numbering in the thousands, just sitting there on top of the ice. So, they go out there, they photograph them. They put little flags next to them, and then they collect them all. So, in the past couple of decades, literally thousands of meteorites have been collected from Antarctica.”

We’ll hear more on meteorites in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation . I’m Jim Metzner. music

Meteorites - Antarctica

Quick, what's the best spot in the world for finding meteorites?
Air Date:01/19/2006
Scientist:
Transcript:

music
Chicken Little had it partly right. Meteorites have fallen from the sky all over the Earth for millennia. But there's one place on our planet where you're more likely to find a meteorite than any other - can you guess where it is? I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

"Meteorites fall probably with the same frequency everywhere on the planet, but in most places they’ll tend to either be buried, covered up by vegetation, or quickly weathered into unrecognizability. But if a meteorite falls in an extremely arid region, like the Sahara Desert or the Arabian Desert, nothing much will happen to it for a very long time. "

James Edward Mungall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto. He says there's even a better place than the desert to find meteorites.

"The best place to collect meteorites is actually in Antarctica. Because the Antarctic ice cap has been collecting its rain of meteorites for millions of years. And there are places in Antarctica where after the meteorites have fallen, they’ve been covered up by snow, and the ice flow brings it up against mountain ranges where it rises towards the surface again, and the ice at the surface is actually being removed. (64:55) The wind actually transforms the ice directly into vapor without melting it, so even at very low temperatures, the ice is being consumed . So, new ice is moving up to fill the space, and as that ice moves up like a conveyor belt, it brings the meteorites with it. And then, when the ice is removed, the meteorites just stay there on the surface. So, expeditions have gone to Antarctica to look for these places, and they’ve found fields of meteorites, sometimes numbering in the thousands, just sitting there on top of the ice. So, they go out there, they photograph them. They put little flags next to them, and then they collect them all. So, in the past couple of decades, literally thousands of meteorites have been collected from Antarctica."

We'll hear more on meteorites in future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation . I'm Jim Metzner. music