|
|
|
| Thiel Mountains PAL; Antarctica, found in 1962, 11.38 g, ex JNMC Zurich. |
Only a few meteorites had been found by field parties in Antarctica between 1912 and 1964. Then in 1969,
the 10th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition found nine meteorites on a blue ice field near the Yamato Mountains. Their
analyses showed that these nine meteorites were not fragments of one single meteorite fall but samples of four different stony
meteorites.With this discovery, came the realization that movement of ice sheets might act to concentrate meteorites in certain
areas. In 1974, a Japanese expedition was launched to search for meteorites. Shortly thereafter, the United States began its
own program to search for Antarctic meteorites, the ANtarctic Search for METeorites (ANSMET) program.
The third U. S.-Japan joint program entitled "Antarctic search for meteorites" (ANSMET) was carried out during the 1978-1979
field season. Three Japanese and four U. S. scientists collaborated in the search for meteorites and found 311 specimens.
Several treaties prevent a trade of nearly all of the Antarctic meteorites, yet a handful of material made it to the collectors
market prior to these treaties. The four Antarctic meteorites shown here are Pre-Treaty meteorites!
One of the US scientist of the 1978/79 ANSMET team was Dr. Ursula B. Marvin who wrote a letter to Dr. Edward Olsen from
the Field Museum in Chicago (see picture below). Dr. Ursula B. Marvin is a senior geologist emerita of geology and historian
of science at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Between 1978 and 1985, she spent three field seasons in Antarctica.
Asteroid Marvin was named for her in 1991 by the Minor Planet Bureau of the International Astronomical Union, and Marvin Nunatak,
a mountain peak in Antarctica, was named in her honor in 1992.
|
|
| Original letter from Ursula B. Marvin to the Field Museum, Chicago. |
|
|
| Mount Baldr H6; first meteorite found in Antarctica by ANSMET; 5.97 g (ex FM,Chicago) |
|
|
| Copies of labels from the SML (Swiss Meteorite Lab) showing provenance of the Mt.Baldr. |
With
the great help of a German professor, I was able to trace back the origin of the 5.97 g Mt. Baldr:
The
late Mr. Buhler (SML, Swiss Meteorite Lab) traded a 118.1g piece with the Field Museum in Chicago (cut from MBRA 76001, "Me
2767" in Chicago).
Buhler
was the curator of the BMS (Bally Museumsstiftung Schönenwerd, Switzerland). The 118.1g piece was part of this collection
as "BMS 16477/80". A 24.5 g fragment was cut (BMS 16477/1) and from this piece a 5.97 g fragment was traded with a German
Professor. He sold the piece to a German collector. A German lady bought it from this person and traded it with a Canadian
collector for a big slice of Estherville. The Canadian collector sold it to an American collector who sold it to another Canadian
collector. This collector sold it back to the American collector who offered it to me. So finally this nice piece is back
in Switzerland!
|
|
| Lazarev IRUNGR Om anom; Humboldt Mountains, Antarctica 1961, ex. DuPont Coll., 4.0 g |
The Lazarev meteorite was found on January 21, 1961 by geologists Prof. M.G. Ravich and B.I. Revnov, participants of the 6th
Soviet Antarctic expedition, during a geological study of the southern ridges of the Humboldt Mountains in the central part
of Queen Maude Land at an altitude of 3000 m above sea level. The meteorite (2 pieces weighing 8 kg and 2 kg) was in a small
foothold covered by chips of sandstone. Lazarev was the first find of an iron meteorite in Antarctica.
|
|
| ALH76001 L6; found in Antarctica in January 1977; cut fragment 0.445 g (ex coll. NEMS) |
|
|
| ALH76005 Eucrite; Antarctica, found in 1976/77 by ANSMET, 0.655 g, (ex coll. Prof. T. Schmidt). |
|
|
| ALH76009 L6; Antarctica, found in 1976/77 by the ANSMET team, 12.4 g |
|
|
| Yamato 86768, not classified; found 1986, 1.51 g, half indiv., ex coll. NEMS. |
text
|
