[meteorite-list] Mountain Rock Found In Norway Suspected To Be A Meteorite

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:12 2004
Message-ID: <200110171624.JAA18240_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=213507

Mountain rock probably meteorite
Liz McNamara
Aftenposten (Norway)
October 17, 2001

Geologists and astronomers are fairly certain that a rock found by a grouse
hunter near Sandane in Sogn og Fjordane is in fact a rare meteorite.

Samples from the 0.7 kg rock are being examined at the Geological Museum in
Oslo. If it is confirmed to be a meteorite, it will be the thirteenth found
in Norway.

"We are using special equipment to analyse its mineral content," said the
museum's Gunnar Raade. "Preliminary tests indicate the rock is a stony-iron
mesosiderite type meteorite. This particular type of meteorite has never
before been found in Norway," he said. The results of the analysis will be
ready in a week's time.

A meteorite is any interplanetary particle or chunk of stony or metallic
matter that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and strikes
the ground.

Jan Erik Mardal found the stone last weekend when he was in the mountains
hunting grouse in the western county of Sogn og Fjordane. He brought the
rock home with him and found its colour and appearance matched an
encyclopaedia's description of a meteorite.

Mardal took the stone to Oslo, where he works, and handed it over to the
Geological Museum. "Experts at the museum were surprised when they saw it
and seemed to think it was a very exciting discovery," he said.

It's finders, keepers in Norway, but Mardal says he'd like to see the
meteorite in a museum in his home county of Sogn og Fjordane.
Received on Wed 17 Oct 2001 12:24:03 PM PDT