2023/2024 ANSMET Field Season ended with more than 200 meteorite finds

13/01/2024 14:58 · by karmaka · in ANSMET, meteorite, meteorite search & recovery

Last update: 30 January (16:06 CET)

After three cancelled field seasons (2020-2023) the 2024/2025 ANSMET field season on the Davis-Ward Icefields has begun. This year’s team members have arrived in the field. Team members are Jon Friedrich, Jim Karner, Erin Gibbons, Daniela Hernandez, Robert Citron, Minako Righter, Lauren Edgar, and Brian Rougeux. On 12 January twelve meteorites could be found during the first systematic meteorite search on foot and with skidoos. On 8 January Daniela Hernandez, Minako Righter, and Brian Rougeux already found 13 meteorites while searching on foot. The first small Davis-Ward meteorite of the season was found by Brian Rougeux on or before 1 January 2024 while walking near the field camp. He and Amelia (BFC) had been in the field since 28 December to prepare the field camp site. On 13 January the team the team found 17 meteorite, including two potential carbonaceous chondrites. On 14 January another 25 specimens were found. On 16 January another 32 meteorites could be found, including a potential carbonaceous chondrite, a possible achondrite, one oriented specimen and a larger softball-sized specimen. On 17 January six meteorites were found on a moraine. On 18 January 23 new meteorites were discovered and collected on a wind row where meteorites accumulate which were wind blown across the ice. All together about 145 meteorite specimens have been found. This year’s field campaign didn’t last until the end of January as originally planned. 181 found meteorites have been transported from the field to McMurdo with a resupply flight to the Davis-Ward camp during the weekend (20-21 January). On 19 January another 30 meteorites, including larger ones, were found in the sweeps of the Far North Ice Fields. The team returned to McMurdo on 25 January 2024. The remaining specimens were transported when the team left the field.