[meteorite-list] New Meteorite Found in Canada

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 31 19:29:23 2006
Message-ID: <200607312326.QAA24852_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/july06/meteorite.html

Life-long interest in meteorites pays off for B.C. woman
University of Calgary
July 31, 2006

The first new meteorite identified in Canada this year is also one of
the smallest ever found in the country and is the highlight of a British
Columbia woman's life-long interest in space rocks, after she discovered
the specimen in 1968.

The University of Calgary-based Prairie Meteorite Search has confirmed
that a weathered chunk of iron Renee Johnson picked up while hunting for
Christmas trees with her husband near Prince Rupert, B.C. nearly 38
years ago is of extra-terrestrial origin.

"I first picked it up because I noticed the unusual shape like an
arrowhead, but when I held it I felt how dense it was," Johnson said.
"When I was a little girl of about eight in The Netherlands, I remember
my father telling me that you will always know a meteorite because it is
heavy for its size. I always kept it and showed it to people, saying
that I had found something unusual."

The identification was made by Adrian Karolko, the Prairie Meteorite
Searcher for 2006, when Johnson brought it to a show-and-tell in
Kelowna, where she now lives, on July 19. "The shape of the rock was
very distinctive even though it was weathered," Karolko said. "It is
amazing that she kept it for so long. I really didn't expect that I
would identify a meteorite this summer, but it turned out to be easy."

The meteorite is five centimeters long and weighs only 40 grams.

Johnson's meteorite is the fifth meteorite identified from British
Columbia and the province's first meteorite "find." (Meteorites are
classified as "falls" when pieces are found after a fireball is
witnessed, or "finds" when it isn't seen.) It is the 69th meteorite
recovered in Canada, and marks the modest milestone of being the 10th
new meteorite discovered by the Prairie Meteorite Search since it began
in 2000. The Prairie Search has now identified approximately 15 per cent
of all the meteorites ever found in Canada.

Karolko took the rock back to the University of Calgary, where Dr. Alan
Hildebrand, project leader and holder of a Canada Research Chair in
Planetary Science, confirmed its origin by finding abundant nickel in
the meteorite's interior.

"It's remarkable the way that Renee's find stretched across her life
from being told about them by her father when a young child, to finding
it when she was 31, to now having it identified in 2006 six decades
after first learning about them," Hildebrand said.

Dr. Stephen Kissin at Lakehead University will now study the meteorite
further to determine its exact composition and classification.

The Prairie Meteorite Search consists of local publicity and visits by
the Prairie Meteorite Searcher to towns to show meteorite specimens and
to identify possible meteorites brought in by interested rock owners.
Adrian Karolko is currently organizing more shows across southern
British Columbia before returning to his studies at the University of
Calgary in September.

"I've had a great turnout so far, and encourage everyone with a rock
that they are wondering about to bring it in," Karolko said. "We are
sure that many more people have found meteorites that haven't yet been
identified and studied."

The Prairie Meteorite Search is funded by The Canadian Space Agency,
Conoco Phillips Canada and an Undergraduate Research Award from NSERC
held by Adrian Karolko. The Prairie Meteorite Search is led by
Hildebrand, Dr. Peter Brown from the University of Western Ontario and
Dr. Martin Beech from Campion College at the University of Regina. They
are all members of the Meteorites and Impacts Advisory Committee (MIAC)
to the Canadian Space Agency. MIAC is Canada's volunteer group charged
with the investigation of fireballs and the recovery of meteorites.

For more information:

Renee Johnson may be contacted at (250) 869-0218.

Prairie Meteorite Searcher Adrian Karolko can be reached at (403) 852-5613.
Dr. Alan Hildebrand can be reached at (403) 220-2291.

Additional information about the Prairie Meteorite Search is available
on the project's website: www.geo.ucalgary.ca/PMSearch/

Media contact:
Grady Semmens
Media Relations Advisor - Research
University of Calgary
Phone: (403) 220-7722
Cell: (403) 651-2515
Email: gsemmens_at_ucalgary.ca
Received on Mon 31 Jul 2006 07:26:47 PM PDT