A New Source of Micrometeorites: The South Pole Water Well

Details A New Source of Micrometeorites: The South Pole Water Well A New Source of Micrometeorites: The South Pole Water Well

Mar 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996lpi....27.1319t&link_type=abstract

Lunar and Planetary Science, volume 27, page 1319

Physics

4

Antarctica, Flux Rate, Ice: Dated, Micrometeorites, Rodrigues Water Well

Scientific paper

In 1995 we built, tested and deployed a collector to suction particulates from the bottom of the South Pole drinking water well (SPWW) in the hope of finding large numbers of micrometeorites. The SPWW, because it melts huge amounts of firn and ice, provides an efficient way of concentrating micrometeorites, which occur ubiquitously but in low concentrations in terrestrial environments. We made 5 separate collections, traversing an area of about 30 m^2 and collecting approximately 200 g of material. Microscopic examination of the 250-425 micrometer size fraction from 2 of the 5 collections suggests that 1 of every 1000 particles in this size fraction is a melted micrometeorite. There are also translucent and transparent spherules, similar to those described by Maurette et al., which are thought to be extraterrestrial and particles which appear to be unmelted micrometeorites. Dating of the ice brackets the depositional age of any micrometeorites collected between 1000-1500 AD.

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