The Saskatchewan (Buzzard Coulee) Meteorite Search and Recovery Part II

I was able to go out once again and look for the Buzzard Coulee Meteorite, was out a month ago with the University of Calgary research team and found 3 stones, this time I found 6 meteorites........the difference being, this go round I was able to keep them, Woo triple frigging Hoo!!

I went out with Astro-Nuts and his father, whom I have known for years through our local RASC club. We met up with a group of people who were given permission to search the landowners property. The above image is a pic of my favorite find, it has so much character. When meteors fall to the ground, this one in particular, (Buzzard Coulee) broke into thousands of tiny pieces, most of them tumble through the atmosphere before they hit the surface, the one above somehow got orientated and pointed one direction and developed flow-lines. It also has a couple cool looking thumbprints or regmaglypts, caused by vortices of hot gas burning thumbprint like impressions into the rock.(image above a domesticated meteorite, image below, what the same meteorite looks like in the wild.)




No matter how often you find these stones it's always a thrill, you are the first person on Earth to touch these rocks from space.

200x microscopic image of a flow line.

200x microscopic image of melt that occurred during entry into our atmosphere.


Search or Strewn Field.



Search Team.



Meteorite haul.

Hey there is nothing more satisfying then going to a meteorite strewn field, searching for and finding meteorites, bagging them, getting them GPSed, then taking them home to take and post pictures of for all of you, and even selling them, that's right as long as you are from Canada and you would like to purchase one I can sell them to you, but you have to be from Canada, seems the seller needs a permit if they want to sell outside Canada, odd, but once rocks from space fall in Canada they become part of our culture, go figure, another government money grab. I don't usually talk about selling stuff on this blog but if you are interested I have and have access to people with some rocks for sale at a decent price if you are so inclined.

A fun time was had by all. As I was taking microscopic images of one of my stones I also took some more polarized microscopic images of my angrite meteorite thin section and animated it for you, these extremely rare stones, some scientists believe their origin is Mercury are very cool and make as far as I'm concerned great art when crossed polarized.

The Saskatchewan(Buzzard Coulee) Meteorite Search and Recovery

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ellen and Lynne for organizing the Great Prairie Meteorite search for the University of Calgary, they both did an excellent job.

People from all walks of life across Canada were there hoping to find a piece of the Buzzard Coulee meteorite that fell just south east of Lloydminster Saskatchewan November 20 2008.

The image above is my first ever meteorite find, it was a thrill and an experience I will not soon forget, BTW it is the black stone just below the poop.

My first ever meteorite find documented and bagged.

We all lined up in teams and walked slowly across a field looking for a meteorite, noted astrophotographer and writer Alan Dyer was one of the people on my team.


The above image is my second find, to think it's been sitting there just like that since November 20 last year, you can see it starting to develop rust, the elements taking their toll.

The above image is my third and final meteorite find, again words can't described finding these rare rocks from space.


You are probably wondering why I have a picture of the hood of my car in this post, well it had just been hoofed by a Clydesdale Horse, that's right, try explaining that to your insurance company.

We were out searching for meteorites in a field when one of the team members noticed a gang of Clydesdale Horses, around 25-30 of them congregating around our cars, one of them started kicking the car hoods, who knew they do that sort of thing. So being real smart we started walking towards them, surely they'll disperse and run away, well... they ran alright, right towards us, before we knew it we were surrounded, these are huge animals close up let me tell you.

There were mixed emotions in the group, some were petrified like moi, others were trying to make friendly with the horsesees, hello...... we just saw one attack our cars, I attribute the wanting to make friends to the Stockholm syndrome. Finally we all started slowly walking away from them and they finally left.

I'll leave you with a few short clips I put together of my unforgettable meteorite/ horse encounter adventure.