The 1994 EUROMET collection of micrometeorites at Cap-Prudhomme, Antarctica

Details The 1994 EUROMET collection of micrometeorites at Cap-Prudhomme, Antarctica The 1994 EUROMET collection of micrometeorites at Cap-Prudhomme, Antarctica

Jul 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994metic..29q.499m&link_type=abstract

Meteoritics (ISSN 0026-1114), vol. 29, no. 4, p. 499

Computer Science

1

Antarctic Regions, Collection, Contamination, Micrometeoroids, Ice, Melting, Pipes (Tubes)

Scientific paper

Advance funding from IFRTP (Institut Francais pour la Recherche et pour la Technique Polaire) for micrometeorite collection at Cap-Prudhomme has allowed construction of a new micrometeorite 'factory,' conceived to greatly reduce contamination of the ultraclean ice by our activities. The potential problems include fly ash, rust grains, fuel spills 'sticking to the shoes,' and trace elements from the plasticizers used in plastic tubing. In the new factory, intended to produce and then cycle 10-15 tons of melt ice water per day, all parts exposed to water were replaced by either stainless steel or teflon. After examination with a microscope and their transfer into teflon and or glass vials, all samples were frozen the day of their collection. The factory operated from December 15, 1993, through February 6, 1994. Problems included injuries as well as very bad weather conditions, characterized by both the heaviest snow falls observed and unexpected gusts from a blizzard. Also, several new components of the factory did not function properly under the extreme conditions of Antarctica. Our major objective was to obtain the 'cleanest' and 'purest' 25-50 microns micrometeorites ever collected in Antarctica, for comparison with stratospheric Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs). We could not fulfill this premise, but we recovered the best 100-400-micron-size fraction of 'giant' micrometeorites ever collected on Earth. Our 26 daily collections are listed,refering to an 'index of quality.' Aliquots of these daily collections will be distributed to major institutions in Austria, England, the U.S.A., and Japan, to be preserved for future generations. The Antarctica ice sheet is truly a gigantic, ultraclean, and inexhaustible micrometeorite collector, but it is very tricky to recover 'ultraclean' micrometeorites from it.

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