Saskatchewan Meteorite Hunt

Well, it happened yesterday - I got to hunt for meteorites. The meteor fell on November 20, 2008. We left at 6:00 a.m. and drove for three hours to a place called Buzzard Coulee, near Marsden, Saskatchewan. There was a group of nine of us walking the farmer's field. We walked in a straight line, about an arms length apart. We each had long dowels with strong magnets on the ends to pick up the pieces. The pieces contain a lot of magnetic iron. The "leader" of the group has a GPS unit plotting our course. Each time one of us would find a meteorite, he would put the coordinates in the GPS to keep track of the "hot spot". I believe the meteorites are called H4 iron chondrites.

I must say that it was completely exciting finding the first one. This is a "rock" that has travelled millions of miles to get here. It has not been touched by any other human in history. I was the first one to touch the first piece I found, as well as subsequent pieces. In total, I was fortunate to find 11 pieces. They are all numbered and will be weighed. Half of the pieces will go to the farmer as "payment" for access to his land. This is a strange concept because no one actually owns mineral rights like that. It's not technically the farmer's, but such is life I guess. Anyway, below are some pictures from the hunt.

This is a picture of the moose that ran by us in the field.