[meteorite-list] International Researchers Visit Crater in Canada

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 16:55:10 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201308122355.r7CNtAU4020123_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.whitecourtstar.com/2013/08/12/international-researchers-visit-crater

International researchers visit crater
By Johnna Ruocco
Whitecourt Star (Canada)
August 12, 2013

A group of meteorite and impact crater researchers from around the world
gathered in Whitecourt last week to study the crater and search for fragments.

The 76th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society was held in Edmonton
and immediately after the conference, the group loaded up a bus and came
to check out Whitecourt's Impact Crater site on Saturday, Aug. 3.

Dr. Chris Herd, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences at the University of Alberta, gave a presentation at the Forest
Interpretive Centre prior to the tour of the site.

He said it was a routine inquiry from local Sonny Stevens that eventually
brought him out to look at the site.

Stevens stumbled along the site, which for years had been a meeting ground
for hunter, when he was out hunting on July 3, 2007. He called Herd, describing
an asymmetrical bowl shaped hole about 100 yards across and that the area
was surrounded by magnetic shrapnel. Herd was extremely sceptical as he
said he receives dozens of similar calls. He told Stevens to get his hands
on a metal detector and send in a sample.

Once the fragment sample was tested under a microscope, it was found to
have iron-nickel phosphate, which is not a mineral made on Earth.

Herd visited the site in Whitecourt, where he confirmed the site was a
crater.

At no more than 1,100 years old, the Whitecourt Impact Crater is the youngest
and best-preserved crater in Canada, said Herd. It's the 30th known site
in the country and the only site exposed at the surface in Alberta. There
are less than 12 sites in the world that have meteor fragments and less
than 15 that are younger than 10,000 years old. The meteor was travelling
between 14,000 to 22,000 kilometres an hour when it hit the Earth, where
it exploded and formed the crater.

On September 15, 2008, Alberta named the site protected under the Historic
Resource Designation Act. All fragments that are found are considered
cultural property and are a protected export. Pieces must be registered
if they are to leave the country and this prevents foreigners from coming
to the crater and leaving the country with fragments of meteorite.

The protected site is 200 metres by 200 metres, includes the crater and
outer rim, and excavation of meteorites is strictly prohibited, and could
result in a $50,000 fine or a year in prison.

The group from the Meteoritcal Society along with a handful of local residents
drove the dusty roads until the point the rest of the trek could only
be accessed by ATVs. For many it was their first time in the vehicles
and they seemed to be having a blast, the air full of nervous, excited
laughter.

Once there, a demonstration on how to use a metal detector to hunt for
meteorites was shown, the visitors explored the crater and the crater
walls and spent more than an hour hunting down fragments.
Received on Mon 12 Aug 2013 07:55:10 PM PDT