Traverse to the Meteorite Hills Meteorite Listing (324 KB with meteorite
photos - Last updated 4/23/2005)Meteorite Hills
A significant number of meteorites have been recovered from large bare ice areas in the vicinity of, aptly enough, Meteorite Hills (79º40'S 155º36'E) at the western end of the Darwin Mountains (Darwin-Byrd-Figure 1 (92 KB JPEG) . MET43-Figure 1 (64 KB JPEG) is an enlarged portion of the U.S.G.S. 1:250000 Turnstile Ridge quadrangle. Extensive bare ice areas and superglacial moraines are present in an area between the Darwin Glacier on the north and the Hatherton Glacier on the south. Icefields also extend northward out onto the Darwin Glacier. MET43-Figure 2 (60 KB JPEG) is an enlarged portion of a satellite image of the Meteorite Hills area. An aerial view of the Meteorite Hills looking northeastward from over Turnstile Ridge is shown in MET43-Figure 3 (49 KB JPEG).
During the 1978-1979 field season an ANSMET field party conducted reconnaissance searches at a unnamed site that would become known as the Meteorite Hills because of their success at finding meteorites on top of some of the bare ice hills (Marvin 1982, Shiraishi 1979). Other meteorites were found on ice adjacent to moraines. A total of 28 specimens were recovered from the Meteorite Hills. MET43-Figure 4 (54 KB JPEG) (adapted from Shiraishi 1979) shows the general location of these meteorite specimens from the Meteorite Hills. During the 1996-1997 field season a two person field party made a week-long visit the area to expand the reconnaissance effort. An additional 38 meteorite specimens were found over a much wider area than what was originally searched. Systematic searching of the Meteorite Hills icefields began in the 2000-2001 season. The systematic search of significant portion of the icefield was completed resulting in the recovery of 738 meteorite specimens. Continued detailed searching during the 2001-2002 season resulted in an additional 324 specimens being recovered.
MET43-Figure 5 (86 KB JPEG) shows the locations of most of the meteorites from Meteorite Hills overlaid on a Landsat image.
MET43-Table 1 gives a tabulation of meteorite types from the Meteorite Hills Icefields.
Acknowledgments; The 1978-1979 ANSMET field party members were Dean Clauter, Ursula Marvin, and Kazuyuki Shiraishi. Sara Russell and John Schutt conducted the reconnaissance during the 1996-1997 field season. The 2000-2001 team consisted of Ben Bussey, Jeff Byrnes, Ralph Harvey, Bill Oefelein, Larry Nittler, Sara Russell, John Schutt, and Melissa Strait. The 2001-2002 field party included Nancy Chabot, Carrie Corrigan, Matt Genge, Ralph Harvey, Linda Martel, Doug Mittlefehldt, Jaime Pierce, Juanita Ryan, John Schutt, and Maggie Taylor.
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