[meteorite-list] Antarctica is a Hot Spot for UA Researchers Hunting Meteorites for Science

From: D. Hill <dhill_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Nov 10 17:39:41 2005
Message-ID: <4373CC27.5010707_at_lpl.arizona.edu>

Don't forget Kevin Righter who now curates the Antarctic meteorites at
JSC and
Anna Spitz whose expedition was cancelled the night before departure due
to "active sunspots".
I feel like I've forgotten someone, too.

-Dolores Hill
LPL

Ron Baalke wrote:

>ANTARCTICA IS A HOT SPOT FOR UA RESEARCHERS HUNTING METEORITES FOR SCIENCE
>>From Lori Stiles, University Communications, 520-621-1877
>November 10, 2005
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>Contact Information
> Jani Radebaugh 520-626-0761 jani_at_lpl.arizona.edu
> Julia Goreva 520-626-5741 jgoreva_at_lpl.arizona.edu
>
>Related Web sites
>Antarctic Search for Meteorites - http://geology.cwru.edu/~ansmet/
>NSF Office of Polar Programs - http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=opp
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Not many people celebrate their year-end holidays on the east Antarctic ice
>sheet. But nearly every year for more than a decade, University of Arizona
>Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) professors, graduate students or alumni
>have.
>
>They have been part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program,
>intent on collecting pieces of asteroids, the moon and Mars which have
>landed as meteorites on the whitest place on Earth.
>
>"ANSMET is such an amazing program," UA postdoctoral researcher Jani
>Radebaugh says. "It's like getting free samples from outer space, free
>except for the cost of traveling to Antarctica to collect them."
>
>Radebaugh is among 15 scientists and mountaineers selected for the
>2005-2006 ANSMET program. So is Gordon Osinski, a recent LPL postdoctoral
>researcher now with the Canadian Space Agency. The 20-year-old ANSMET
>program is funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar
>Programs and by NASA's Solar System Exploration Division. Planetary
>scientist Ralph Harvey of Case Western Reserve University heads the
>collecting expeditions.
>
>"The program is a wonderful thing, because now there's a push to go back to
>the moon and Mars and return samples to try to understand these bodies,"
>Radebaugh said. "We can learn a lot more about these bodies as we increase
>the collection of the samples that land on Earth. I think these expeditions
>are a really important service to planetary science."
>
>Radebaugh, who earned her UA doctorate last May, will join the Brigham
>Young University geology faculty this fall. "I think this experience would
>be fun for students to hear about," she added.
>
>Postodoctoral researcher Julia Goreva was on the successful 2004-2005
>meteorite collecting expedition. She and 11 others collected 1,230
>meteorites. Among these were more than 300 pounds of "pallasite" meteorites
>-- rare rocks originally from the core-mantle boundary of a small destroyed
>planet or a large asteroid. One pallasite, the largest yet found, weighed 70
>pounds.
>
>"For the past 10 years I've been studying meteorites -- destroying them,
>dissolving them, melting, burning, getting every bit of information they can
>give me about the processes that took place at times when the Earth was just
>an embryo," Goreva said. "ANSMET is a program that builds a collection
>available to any scientist around the globe, so it was very important for me
>to become one of the people who can personally contribute to the pool of
>rocks that continue to puzzle me in the lab."
>
>Radebaugh leaves for New Zealand on Nov. 17. Expedition members get
>completely outfitted at Christchurch, N.Z., then board an LC 130 cargo
>airplane for an 8-hour flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Bad weather
>can mean turning around mid-flight and returning to Christchurch. It took
>one expedition four tries to reach McMurdo.
>
>After survival and other training at McMurdo, Radebaugh, Osinski and their
>colleagues will head for the Antarctic plateau inland of the Miller Range in
>the Transantarctic Mountains and set up base camp. They'll live in 2-person
>tents for five weeks during the South Polar summer, when temperatures hover
>around minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
>
>Goreva said, "I never thought that two girls could eat a pound of butter
>per week and a pound of bacon for breakfast. That does keep you warm!"
>
>Antarctica is by far the best place on Earth to search for meteorites,
>mainly for two reasons, Ralph Harvey explains on the ANSMET Website,
>http://geology.cwru.edu/~ansmet/. One is that although meteorites fall
>randomly all over the globe, they are more easily found against Antarctica's
>plain, bright ice than on other Earth surfaces. The other has to do with the
>fact that as snow accumulates on the continental ice sheet, the weight
>pushes the ice sheet toward the edges of the continent.
>
>"As this big, very thick ice sheet slowly spreads out, it moves like a
>conveyor belt and delivers meteorites to the bases of mountains," Radebaugh
>said.
>
>Over tens of thousands of years, phenomenal concentrations of meteorites
>can develop, as high as one meteorite per square meter in some places,
>Harvey says on the ANSMET Website. The ANSMET program archives all its
>meteorites at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
>
>That many LPL researchers have been on the Antarctica meteorite-collecting
>teams shows "just how involved the LPL is in the planetary science
>community," Radebaugh said. "The lab has a big group of people doing
>different kinds of research. The UA is a strong institution in planetary
>science. And, I also think many of us became involved because we have so
>many friends who have gone, and they know how exciting it is, how much fun."
>
>"Antarctica is the most amazing place I've seen in my life," Goreva said.
>"At times it was breathtakingly beautiful, at times harsh and angry, but
>always pure, and it made me feel, well, very small. It was an overwhelming
>feeling to realize that you are the first person to be in that particular
>place in the world. (Goreva was on the 4-person reconnaissance team, the
>advance group for the 8-person collecting team, last season.) Except for the
>four of us, there was not a single living being hundreds of miles around."
>
>Goreva added, "One of the first questions people ask is if spending two
>months on the ice was worth it. The short answer is -- every second of it.
>Would I do it again? In a heartbeat."
>
>Lunar and Planetary Lab scientists who have been on ANSMET expeditions
>include:
> o Julia Goreva, postdoctoral researcher (2004-2005)
> o Nancy Chabot, graduate student (1998-1999), then as an alumna and
>ANSMET program assistant (2001-2002 through 2004-2005)
> o Timothy Swindle, professor (1997-1998 and 2003-2004)
> o Gordon Osinski, postdoctoral researcher and alumnus (2003-2004 and
>2005-2006)
> o Barbara Cohen, alumna (2003-2004)
> o Dante Lauretta, assistant professor (2002-2003)
> o Carl Allen, alumnus (2002-2003)
> o Guy Consolmagno, S.J., alumnus (1996-1997)
> o Faith Vilas, alumna (1987-1988) and director of the
>UA/Smithsonian MMT Observatory
>
>
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Received on Thu 10 Nov 2005 05:39:35 PM PST