http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/july06/meteorite.html
  
      
  
      Life-long interest in meteorites pays off for B.C. woman
  
      University of Calgary
  
      July 31, 2006
  
  
      The first new meteorite identified in Canada this year is also one of
  
      the smallest ever found in the country and is the highlight of a British
  
      Columbia woman's life-long interest in space rocks, after she discovered
  
      the specimen in 1968.
  
  
      The University of Calgary-based Prairie Meteorite Search has confirmed
  
      that a weathered chunk of iron Renee Johnson picked up while hunting for
  
      Christmas trees with her husband near Prince Rupert, B.C. nearly 38
  
      years ago is of extra-terrestrial origin.
  
  
  "I first picked it up because I noticed the unusual shape like an 
      arrowhead, but when I held it I felt how dense it was," Johnson said. 
  "When I was a little girl of about eight in The Netherlands, I remember 
      my father telling me that you will always know a meteorite because it is
  
      heavy for its size. I always kept it and showed it to people, saying
  
      that I had found something unusual."
  
  
      The identification was made by Adrian Karolko, the Prairie Meteorite
  
      Searcher for 2006, when Johnson brought it to a show-and-tell in
  
      Kelowna, where she now lives, on July 19. "The shape of the rock was 
      very distinctive even though it was weathered," Karolko said. "It is 
      amazing that she kept it for so long. I really didn't expect that I
  
      would identify a meteorite this summer, but it turned out to be easy."
      
  
  
      The meteorite is five centimeters long and weighs only 40 grams.
  
  
      Johnson's meteorite is the fifth meteorite identified from British
  
      Columbia and the province's first meteorite "find." (Meteorites are 
      classified as "falls" when pieces are found after a fireball is 
      witnessed, or "finds" when it isn't seen.) It is the 69th meteorite 
      recovered in Canada, and marks the modest milestone of being the 10th
      
  
      new meteorite discovered by the Prairie Meteorite Search since it began
  
      in 2000. The Prairie Search has now identified approximately 15 per cent
  
      of all the meteorites ever found in Canada.
  
  
      Karolko took the rock back to the University of Calgary, where Dr. Alan
  
      Hildebrand, project leader and holder of a Canada Research Chair in
  
      Planetary Science, confirmed its origin by finding abundant nickel in
  
      the meteorite's interior.
  
  
  "It's remarkable the way that Renee's find stretched across her life 
      from being told about them by her father when a young child, to finding
  
      it when she was 31, to now having it identified in 2006 six decades
  
      after first learning about them," Hildebrand said. 
  
      Dr. Stephen Kissin at Lakehead University will now study the meteorite
      
  
      further to determine its exact composition and classification.
  
  
      The Prairie Meteorite Search consists of local publicity and visits by
  
      the Prairie Meteorite Searcher to towns to show meteorite specimens and
  
      to identify possible meteorites brought in by interested rock owners.
  
      Adrian Karolko is currently organizing more shows across southern
  
      British Columbia before returning to his studies at the University of
  
      Calgary in September.
  
  
  "I've had a great turnout so far, and encourage everyone with a rock 
      that they are wondering about to bring it in," Karolko said. "We are 
      sure that many more people have found meteorites that haven't yet been
  
      identified and studied."
      
  
  
      The Prairie Meteorite Search is funded by The Canadian Space Agency,
  
      Conoco Phillips Canada and an Undergraduate Research Award from NSERC
  
      held by Adrian Karolko. 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.
  
  
      For more information:
  
  
      Renee Johnson may be contacted at (250) 869-0218.
  
  
      Prairie Meteorite Searcher Adrian Karolko can be reached at (403) 852-5613.
  
      Dr. Alan Hildebrand can be reached at (403) 220-2291.
  
      
  
      Additional information about the Prairie Meteorite Search is available
  
      on the project's website: www.geo.ucalgary.ca/PMSearch/
  
  
      Media contact:
  
      Grady Semmens
  
      Media Relations Advisor - Research
  
      University of Calgary
  
      Phone: (403) 220-7722
  
      Cell: (403) 651-2515
  
      Email: gsemmens at ucalgary.ca