Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica

Antarctica is a great place to find meteorites of all kinds. Dr. Sandford has made three trips to the Antarctic as an expedition member with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) Program. Scott participated in the 1984-1985 expedition to the Allan Hills in North Victoria Land, the 1988-1989 expedition to the Lewis Cliff Ice Tongue and MacAlpine Hills in the mid-Transantarctic Mountain range, and the 1998-1999 expedition to Graves Nunataks near the South Pole.

These expeditions have returned a large number of meteorites for scientific study. Several of these meteorites have turned out to be extremely interesting. Below are pictures of two of the more unique meteorites. The first is MAC88105 (found at the MacAlpine Hills Icefield during the 1988-89 field season) and the second is ALH84001 (found at the Allan Hills Far Western Icefield during the 1984-85 field season).

MAC88105 is a lunar meteorite. Its origin has been confirmed on the basis of the comparison of its composition and structure with lunar rock brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts. It is believed to be a piece of rock that was blown off the surface of the Moon by the impact of a comet or asteroid. Once free of the Moon, the rock eventually collided with the Earth and came to rest on the surface in Antarctica. Although uncertain, it is likely that the collision that blew this rock off the Moon occured within the last 10 million years.

An account of the circumstances of the lunar meteorite find was published in 1999 in Volume 11 of the journal Creative Nonfiction.

ALH84001 is Martian meteorite. Its origin has been confirmed on the basis of a comparison of the gases trapped in it with measurements of the Martian atmosphere made by the Viking lander. As with the lunar meteorite, it is believed that this rock was blown off the surface of Mars by the impact of a comet or asteroid. This rock has been the source of a great deal of interest ever since it was suggested that it might contain evidence for past microbial life on Mars (I remain unconvinced).

An Interesting Aside:

As many of you may know, after the dissolution of the USSR, the Russians auctioned off some paraphernalia associated with the ex-soviet space program. One of the items sold was a plastic block containing three "grape nut sized" grains of moon material returned by the Lunar 16 robotic vehicle. The purchase price was $ 442,500 US or ~ 18.5 million dollars per CC. If this is the going rate for lunar materials, Dr. Sandford was walking around the MacAlpine Hills with about 10 BILLION dollars in his pocket! Fortunately, MAC88105 is now safely tucked away at the curatorial facility for Antarctic meteorites at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.