College of Arts and Sciences

ANSMET has been collecting meteorites from the Antarctic blue ice fields for nearly 40 years, and this year's team is really excited to contribute to ANSMET's long and successful record with both lots of meteorites and a wide variety of meteorite types. Over the years, more than 20,000 meteorites...

Read more

Dear readers, you're in for a treat, because I managed to corner our own senior mountaineer Johnny Schutt for an interview. Over tea and freshly baked cheddar garlic biscuits, we got the scoop on the most legendary and mysterious member of our party. Name: John "Johnny Alpine" Schutt,  Doctor of...

Read more

A correction to yesterday's post: I erroneously said that we had recovered a total of 361 samples, but in fact my enthusiasm got the better of me--it was actually 351. However, since we recovered 41 samples today, that means our season total is now 392. That's starting to be...

Read more

Today the weather was overcast, which gave a strange flat light to the ground. These aren't great conditions in which to search for meteorites because 1) they're harder to spot, and 2) it's harder for us to see changes in topography while we're driving on our skidoos, which might cause...

Read more

We had a full and fruitful day of searching today, with 68 samples recovered--and one appears to be a pallasite! If you're not familiar with these lovely meteorites, they are a beautiful mixture of iron-nickel metal and a green-gold mineral named olivine (also called peridot if you're into gemstones)....

Read more

Many of our readers know one or several members of this year's ANSMET team, but there are team members that some of our readers don't know. You may be asking yourself: who are these weirdos with whom my loved one is spending two months? Well you're in luck, because...

Read more

Sorry for the silence from over here, ANSMET fans--we had a long and successful day of searching yesterday and I was too sleepy to post last night. This morning we awoke to a strange fog and diffuse light, which is delaying our start. The effect is very otherworldly--if a...

Read more

Before: Despite being the last day of 2015 (at least it is in this NZ timezone), we went out for our first major hunt in the South Miller Range.  After a half day yesterday resting our sore bodies and minds, we were eager to finally get some meteorites from the...

Read more

Overnight the howling winds completely disappeared, and we awoke to a beautiful, warm day. Antarctica sure doesn't like it when we move camp--we're 0 for 2 on move days thus far. That which does not kill you makes you stronger, right? Or maybe just less inclined to move your...

Read more