28 November 2008

Followup on the Saskatchewan meteor


The dashcam video of the falling meteor was very impressive. Now, thanks to triangulation from hundreds of observers/cameras, the location of the impact of fragments from the 20-ton meteor has been reasonably narrowed down to an area in western Saskatchewan inside the Edmonton/Saskatoon/Calgary triangle.

TYWKIWDBI gets visitors every week from that area. If you live in that area, get out your metal detectors and note the following:
... many rocks the size of a football or bigger are expected in addition to the more numerous small ones. Larger meteorites will have plunged into the ground if at all soft, making small pits with the meteorites at the bottom. Meteorites of common asteroids will have a dark gray or black coating covering their dimpled surface, be denser than the average rock, and will weakly attract a magnet, but other types of meteorites are possible.

The meteorites are expected to be scattered across a strewnfield approximately eight km long and three km wide with the larger stones to the southeast. Noting that they have a substantial commercial value, Hildebrand also advises that meteorites are the property of the landowner where they fall. [Google map here]

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