Antarctic scientists discover 18kg meteorite

A Belgo-Japanese team of scientists working at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station have discovered a meteorite with a mass of 18kg embedded in the East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest such meteorite found in the region since 1988, reports Science Daily. The eight members of the Samba project, from Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Japan’s National Institute of Polar Research and Tokyo University were searching for meteorites scattered across the Nansen Ice Field on January 28, when they found the 18kg ordinary chondrite. The team discovered a total of 425 meteorites with a total weight of 75kg during the 40-day expedition, at an altitude of 2,900m, 140km south of Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research base. “This meteorite was a very unexpected find for us, not only due to its weight, but because we don’t normally find such large meteorites in Antarctica,” said Vinciane Debaille, a geologist from ULB who led the Belgian part of the team during the expedition. “This is the biggest meteorite found in East Antarctica for twenty-five years, so it’s a very special discovery for us, made possible by the existence and location of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.” The Samba project contributes to the US- and Japan-led global collection of Antarctic meteorites and is an initiative of the two Belgian universities, with the Japanese Institute of Polar Research. It is supported by the Belgian Science Policy and the International Polar Foundation.