[meteorite-list] NPA 03-03-1977 Meteorites tell tales of history - Innisfree Meteorite

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Walla Walla Union Bulletin
City: Walla Walla, Washington
Date: Thursday, March 3, 1977
Page: 9


Meteorites tell tales of history

     RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - Scientists at Battelle's Pacific Northwest 
Laboratories don't make wishes on falling stars - they just wish they had 
more of them.
     Battelle has the only laboratory in the United States capable of 
analyzing the "stars," which are actually meteorites, said Lewis Rancitelli, 
manager of the planetary chemistry section.
     About 100 tons of the flying rocks fall to earth each day, but "only a 
few tens of pounds are collected in a year, typically one or two meteorites 
a year," said Rancitelli.
     The latest extraterrestrial visitor is a meteorite that was tracked to 
the earth's surface by Canadian astronomers and recovered Feb. 5 from near 
Innisfree, Alta.
     The meteorite had been traveling from inside earth's orbit to the 
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and back again every 1.3 years, said 
Dr. Ian Halliday, an Ottawa, Canada, astronomer.
     The more than 4 1/2-pound meteorite is being analyzed at Battelle for 
radioactivity and chemical composition.
     The Albertan meteorite was a rare find, Rancitelli said.
     The meteorites are examined in a machine called a multi-dimensional 
gamma ray spectrometer, developed by Battelle for non-destructive testing of 
low-level radioactivity.  There are 12 of the sensitive machines at Battelle 
and six in the rest of the world.

(end)

Mark Note: Named the Innisfree Meteorite, this stone was classified as a L5 
Stone Chondrite. The meteorite fell February 5, 1977 at 7:17am local time. 9 
pieces in total were recovered totaling 4.58kg.




Please visit, www.MeteoriteArticles.com, a free on-line archive of meteor 
and meteorite articles.