METEORITE HUNTING IN ANTARCTICA (pg. 3)
Pictures from the 2000-2001 ANSMET expedition to Meteorite Hills, Antarctica
The people you will see in these images are Ben Bussey, Ralph Harvey, Larry Nittler, Sara Russell, Bill Oefelein, John Schutt, and Melissa Strait.
12-18-00: Derrick Peak, about 40 km from our camp. Sara, Jeff, and I visited there on Dec. 18 by helicopter to search for iron meteorites. Several irons had been found there (among jillions of terrestrial rocks) in the 1970s. We found one meteorite and Ralph and Ben found another a few days later.
12-18-00: A view from the base of Derrick Peak, across the Hatherton glacier.
12-18-00: A view of our camp from the helicopter.
12-18-00: Larry on the helicopter.
12-19-00: Snow-filled crevasses and an ice pinnacle.
12-20-00: When ANSMET collects a meteorite, we mark its position with a flag. One basin at Meteorite Hills had a LOT of meteorites. This is an unusally tight concentration of meteorites.
12-21-00: A cool ice formation behind a morraine.
12-21-00: Cool rocks. (2001 monolith?)
12-21-00: Sara Russell took this picture of a dolorite cliff.
12-21-00: Larry with Bill's penguin.
12-22-00: Pretty snow-covered hill by the edge of a blue ice field (north of camp).
12-22-00: Lots of blue ice in this area.
12-23-00: We cut this day short because we saw fog rolling into camp.
12-26-00: Dolorite hills east of camp.
12-26-00: A large wind scoop east of camp.
12-26-00: A cool cliff by an ice field.
12-28-00: A nice view of some pinnacles on a blue ice field.
01-01-01: The "party" tent 15 minutes before the new millenium.
01-01-01: the ANSMET New Year's Party (just after midnight). L-R: Jeff, Melissa, Bill, Sara, Larry.
1-01-01: We did not hunt for meteorites on January 1. Bill, Melissa and I went exploring east of camp and ended up climbing one of these hills (the right, snow-covered one).
1-01-01: Bill partway up the hill with spectacular views.
01-01-01: Larry with same view.
01-01-01: Melissa close to the top.
1-01-01: Bill, Melissa and Larry in a wind scoop.
1-01-01: A wind scoop by a dolorite hill.
01-05-01: The pond at the base of the nearest hill to camp (see pics from Dec 16)
01-05-01: Part of an ice formation in the "pond."
01-05-01: We regularly watched DVD movies on laptop computers. Here's Bill running the night's entertainment in the party tent.
01-09-01: A view down a large crevasse from which we have knocked some snow.
1-09-01: An amazing structure of crystalline ice pulled out of the crevasse.
01-09-01: Another cool ice crystal masquerading as a beard on John Schutt.
01-09-01: Driving through some very tall ice pinnacles (John and Jeff, L-R).