Sept. 19, 2005

Alberta continues to be the top province in Canada for collecting meteorites, with the discovery this summer of the latest space rock by a teacher from St. Paul.

The 2005 Prairie Meteorite Search identified the stony meteorite found by Alan Zalaski in his fields near Lake Eliza, south of St. Paul. He made the find in the summer, some time between 2001 and 2003.

“A friend, Robert Tymofichuk, and I take our kids out walking and searching in the fields for anything interesting such as rocks, artifacts or antlers. We are specifically interested in meteorites so have been picking up rocks that are heavy and attract a magnet,” said Zalaski, a teacher at Glen Avon school in St. Paul.

The Lake Eliza meteorite is the 16th meteorite found in Alberta, the 66th meteorite recovered in Canada and the 8th meteorite identified by the Prairie Meteorite Search. Alberta is currently the leading province in Canada for meteorite recoveries, followed by Saskatchewan and Ontario with 14 each.

Tom Weedmark, a University of Calgary geology student who is the 2005 Prairie Searcher, identified the curious stone as a possible meteorite when Zalaski took the opportunity to have his rocks checked at a clinic held in St. Paul on August 9th.

“Mr. Zalaski had about a dozen rocks, but one in particular stood out,” Weedmark said. “It was the fusion crust on the meteorite that gave it away.”

Air friction is so intense when meteorites enter the Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds that the rock surfaces melt. A thin but distinctive “fusion crust” is formed when the remaining molten rock solidifies on their surfaces when they have decelerated.

Weedmark said the find was particularly satisfying since the St. Paul rock clinic was the last one he held in Alberta before heading to Manitoba.

“I was starting to doubt that I would find one, but then one turned up. I was pretty sure that it was a meteorite and I called Alan to let him know,” Weedmark said.

Alan Hildebrand, a Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science at the University of Calgary, said the weathered and irregular surface of the rock indicates it is likely a fragment of a larger meteorite that exploded while entering the atmosphere several hundred years ago. Hildebrand said other fragments of the same meteorite could still be on the ground around Lake Eliza.

“It is always delightful news when a new meteorite turns up. This one was pretty small for a stone at about 350 grams (about the size of a large egg), so Mr. Zalaski was certainly keeping a sharp eye out,” Hildebrand said.

Zalaski said he plans to continue hunting for more meteorites near his home.

“Two rocks that we most thought were meteorites turned out not to be, and we were a bit surprised that a less dense one actually was. Now that we know what they look like, we’ll be able to search for more pieces,” he said.

Weedmark said many more Alberta residents probably have unidentified meteorites.

“In Alberta I checked the rocks of only about 100 people before finding a meteorite, so many more people must have found and collected meteorites,” he said.

The Prairie Search is now completed for the summer, but anyone with a suspicious stone is encouraged to contact one of the persons listed below to have their rock identified.

The Prairie Meteorite Search field campaign locates meteorites by encouraging Prairie farmers to have rocks identified that they suspect may be meteorites. The project consists of local publicity and visits by the searcher to towns to show meteorite specimens and to identify possible meteorites. The project relies on people having seen meteorites and the possibility of immediate identification to make discoveries.

The Prairie Meteorite Search is led by Hildebrand, Dr. Peter Brown from the University of Western Ontario and Dr. Martin Beech from Campion College at the University of Regina. They are all members of the Meteorites and Impacts Advisory Committee (MIAC) to the Canadian Space Agency. MIAC is Canada's volunteer group charged with the investigation of fireballs and the recovery of meteorites. The Canadian Space Agency is funding the project’s field costs for the summer of 2005.

Potential meteorites may be identified by contacting:

• In Alberta – Alan Hildebrand at Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, (403) 220-2291.
  or Chris Herd at Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Alberta, (780) 492-5798.
• In Saskatchewan – Martin Beech at Campion College, University of Regina, (306) 359-1216.
• In Manitoba – Jeff Young at Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, (204) 474-9371.

Contact information:

Alan Zalaski can be contacted at (780) 645-4321. Tom Weedmark can be contacted at (403) 561-0443. Alan Hildebrand can be reached at (403) 220-2291.

Additional information about the Prairie Meteorite Search is available on the website: www.geo.ucalgary.ca/PMSearch/

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Grady Semmens
Media Relations Advisor – Research
University of Calgary
Phone: (403) 220-7722
Cell: (403) 651-2515
Fax: (403) 220-1312
Email: gsemmens@ucalgary.ca