[meteorite-list] Crowdfunding meteorite searching in the Nullarbor Plain

[Paul H.]

In “[meteorite-list] Crowdfunding meteorite searching in 
the Nullarbor Plain” on March 3, 2015, Robin Whittle wrote:

“Here is an article about Australian researchers who 
no longer can get government funding, and so are 
turning to crowdfunding to support their expeditions. 
They claim to have found more than 20% of Australia's
recorded meteorites.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-03/meteorite-hunting-scientists-inundated-with-public-support/6269762 “

Another article is “Crowd-funding and meteorite 
hunting – a success story!” at
http://oncirculation.com/2015/03/03/crowd-funding-and-meteorite-hunting-a-success-story/

Robin continued;

“My wife Tina and I visited the coastal part of the 
Nullarbor Plain in the winter of 2010.  It is a limestone 
surface which was a sea bed roughly 12 million years 
old, according to the "middle Miocene" description at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_Plain “

A PDF file that summarizes the geology of the 
Nullarbor Plain is:

Webb, J., 2002, Nullarbor Field Trip Excursion 
Guide.10th Australia and New Zealand 
Geomorphology Group Conference September-
October 2002, Department of Earth Sciences,
La Trobe University, Victoria 3086
http://www.anzgg.org/scanned-publications
http://www.anzgg.org/ANZGG%2010%202002%20Nullarbor%20fieldtrip.pdf

The limestone deposits underlying the Nullarbor Plain
represent four periods of innudation. The first was in
middle-late Eocene. At this time, almost the entire
Nullarbor Plain was covered by relatively quiet, shallow, 
and cool marine waters in which up to 300 meters of 
limestone (Wilson Bluff Limestone) accumulated. In the 
early Oligocene, the marine waters completely retreated 
and later return during the late Oligocene. Between late 
Oligocene to early Miocene, about 100 meters of 
Abrakurrie Limestone accumulated. Then marine waters 
briefly retreated and exposed the Nullarbor Plain again 
at the end of the early Miocene. Later during both the
early Miocene and middle Miocene, the Nullarbor Plain 
was twice innudated and less than 20 meters of 
Nullarbor Limestone accumulated over much of the 
Nullarbor Plain. The marine waters finally retreated 
about 14 million years ago and the Nullarbor Plain has 
been high, dry, and accumulating meteorites for the 
past 14 million years.

Go see:

Drexel, J. F., and W. V. Preiss, eds., 1995, The 
geology of South Australia. Volume 2, The 
Phanerozoic: Geological Survey of South 
Australia Bulletin. vol. 54, 347 p.

Yours,

Paul H.