Collecting Meteorites in Antarctica

Google TechTalks
January 26, 2006

Dr. Monika Kress

Dr. Kress was a member of the ANSMET 2003-04 Expedition. (ANSMET = Antarctic search for meteorites)
http://geology.cwru.edu/~ansmet/

ABSTRACT
Every year since the late 70’s the US National Science Foundation has supported a team of space scientists to search for meteorites in Antarctica. Why Antarctica? The polar desert environment best preserves these precious samples of other worlds, which include shattered planetesimals, fragments of asteroids, and even rocks from the Moon and Mars. In this talk, I will discuss the scientific importance of meteorites, and the methods used to recover them from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.