Boy am I good at finding “meteorWRONGS”. These are boring old Earth rocks (sorry geologists…) that look like meteorites. We identify meteorites based on their black color, glassy shiny surface (fusion crust that formed when they entered Earth’s atmosphere), and rounded shape. Common meteorwrongs we find around Davis Ward are basalt, coal, chert, and weathered igneous rocks because they are generally dark-colored and shiny. When I find a potential candidate I call over Johnny or Brian to look at a rock I think is a meteorite, they dive to their stomachs with eyes a few inches from the rock. We’ve all been improving, but at first we heard a lot of “nope, not a meteorite.” To give you all a perspective on the challenges of identifying a meteorite interspersed within a bunch of terrestrial rocks, I’ve provided two pictures. One includes a meteorwrong I identified and the other includes a meteorite – try to find the meteorite! I will give you the answer in the next blog (or Ralph can too!) One picture includes my glove for scale but both images are similar scale. I’m sorry about the poor resolution, sending these pictures will likely take 15 minutes! Side note- we found 39 meteorites today, most during the last hour or so of the day.

-Emilie from sunny, hot (3°!! ) Davis Ward, Antarctica