Terrestrial Ages Survey of Antarctic Meteorites

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a project to conduct a terrestrial age survey of Antarctic meteorites. More than two-thirds of the world's meteorites that are available for scientific investigation were recovered from Antarctica since 1969. The NSF Office of Polar Programs, in partnership with NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, have played a key role in facilitating the collection, curation, and study of these specimens, and scientific endeavors sponsored by these agencies have contributed significantly to our understanding of both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial phenomena. Although the scientific information garnered from these measurements is essential for determining accurate exposure histories and delineating pairing of meteorites, these measurements will also have a significant impact on studies of accumulation mechanisms, mean weathering lifetimes, and meteorite influx rates. Glaciologists and geophysicists also might find meteorite terrestrial ages useful in their studies of ice dynamics and glacial histories. A timely survey of Antarctic meteorites terrestrial ages from various ice fields may also provide guidance for the planning and the prioritization of field activities. The principal value of this work, however, is that it will provide better basic characterization of the Antarctic meteorite collection and provide a basis for estimating meteorite influx rates.