[meteorite-list] International Researchers Visit Crater in Canada

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.whitecourtstar.com/2013/08/12/international-researchers-visit-crater

International researchers visit crater
By Johnna Ruocco
Whitecourt Star (Canada)
August 12, 2013

A group of meteorite and impact crater researchers from around the world 
gathered in Whitecourt last week to study the crater and search for fragments.

The 76th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society was held in Edmonton 
and immediately after the conference, the group loaded up a bus and came 
to check out Whitecourt's Impact Crater site on Saturday, Aug. 3.

Dr. Chris Herd, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric 
Sciences at the University of Alberta, gave a presentation at the Forest 
Interpretive Centre prior to the tour of the site.

He said it was a routine inquiry from local Sonny Stevens that eventually 
brought him out to look at the site.

Stevens stumbled along the site, which for years had been a meeting ground 
for hunter, when he was out hunting on July 3, 2007. He called Herd, describing 
an asymmetrical bowl shaped hole about 100 yards across and that the area 
was surrounded by magnetic shrapnel. Herd was extremely sceptical as he 
said he receives dozens of similar calls. He told Stevens to get his hands 
on a metal detector and send in a sample.

Once the fragment sample was tested under a microscope, it was found to 
have iron-nickel phosphate, which is not a mineral made on Earth.

Herd visited the site in Whitecourt, where he confirmed the site was a 
crater.

At no more than 1,100 years old, the Whitecourt Impact Crater is the youngest 
and best-preserved crater in Canada, said Herd. It's the 30th known site 
in the country and the only site exposed at the surface in Alberta. There 
are less than 12 sites in the world that have meteor fragments and less 
than 15 that are younger than 10,000 years old. The meteor was travelling 
between 14,000 to 22,000 kilometres an hour when it hit the Earth, where 
it exploded and formed the crater.

On September 15, 2008, Alberta named the site protected under the Historic 
Resource Designation Act. All fragments that are found are considered 
cultural property and are a protected export. Pieces must be registered 
if they are to leave the country and this prevents foreigners from coming 
to the crater and leaving the country with fragments of meteorite.

The protected site is 200 metres by 200 metres, includes the crater and 
outer rim, and excavation of meteorites is strictly prohibited, and could 
result in a $50,000 fine or a year in prison.

The group from the Meteoritcal Society along with a handful of local residents 
drove the dusty roads until the point the rest of the trek could only 
be accessed by ATVs. For many it was their first time in the vehicles 
and they seemed to be having a blast, the air full of nervous, excited 
laughter.

Once there, a demonstration on how to use a metal detector to hunt for 
meteorites was shown, the visitors explored the crater and the crater 
walls and spent more than an hour hunting down fragments.