| Southern African Meteorite Recovery Program | ||
| P.O. Box 2552 Cramerview 2060 |
Amateurs in the Service of Science |
Phone +27 11 886 5602 Mobile +27 83 212 8945 South Africa |
Deo Gloria
| Trevor Gould |
| Peter Baxter |
| Eric Brindeau |
| Tim & Janet Cooper and Christopher |
Results
No meteorites were found on this expedition. Returns were all handed over to Prof W U Reimold of Wits Geosciences.
Acknowledgments and thanks
The team wish to thank the South African Heritage Resources Agency for kindly providing a permit to collect any meteorite finds in specific areas, and especially Ms Mary Leslie.
Thanks also go to the Department of Geology, University of the Witwatersrand, for general and specific assistance with the expedition and its objective.
Expedition Area
The previous expedition looked at the feasibility of finding meteorites on the permanent dunes, as well as inter-dune erg surfaces. However, it was discovered that the red Kalahari sand dunes were covered completely in a variety of grasses, effectively hiding any rocks that may have been on the surface.
It was further discovered that the interdune areas were not erg surfaces, but were covered with Kalahari red sand, which, itself was vegetated with grasses and small trees. [See previous report].
The search area was therefore defined as dry pan surfaces North of Upington and South of the Kalahari Gemsbok Park.
The specific defined pans were Kaksteenpan and an adjacent large pan known as Koppieskraal pan.
However, local knowledge suggested that we avoid that area as:
[1] there was a busy guest farm on the pan;
[2] which included camel rides across it;
[3] the pans include a 4X4 trail;
[4] a film crew was working one of the pans.
On local suggestion we opted for Grootaarpan, to the South of the two pans mentioned above.
Site Description
The area searched included sections of Grootaarpan, Kleinaarpan and Vrysoutpan.
Grootaarpan and Kleinaarpan are separated by a narrow strip of Kalahari dune and are surrounded by permanent dunes. This gives rise to fascinating ‘bays’ and ‘promontories’ on the ‘shoreline’.
Grootaarpan was covered with rocks of varying sizes, but interestingly, of local provenance only. The underlying rock was volcanic ash, with surface rocks including some lavas and other volcanics. The Southern end had a protrusion slightly above the mean pan surface with felsic ash containing some xenoliths, as well as secondary pyrite, calcite and quartz crystals.
Kleinaarpan demonstrated fewer rocks on the surface, but of similar type.
Both pans had small areas bulldozed out, which were filled with water, presumably to see if salt would accumulate in commercial quantities.
Vrysoutpan was completely different. It was covered with a white sand, with very few rocks. In one area it had been excavated and several thousand tons of salt was regularly recovered from each excavation at six week intervals for several months of the year.
Vrysoutpan also had thin underlying limonite / goethite deposits, bits of which accumulated around circular features associated with rising water.
A number of highly magnetic dark rocks were recovered from Grootaarpan, which proved on analysis by Wits to be volcanics.
Interestingly, one of the finds handed in by Peter Baxter was very highly magnetic and showed metal. On analysis, it showed a high iron and calcium content, indicative of slag from iron smelting!
Expedition Diary
| Good Friday March 29 2002 | After leaving Johannesburg at 02:00, we met up
in Upington. Eric, Peter and the writer headed North from Upington on the Kalahari Gemsbok
road to a small B ‘n B. The owners provided good local insight, and also showed us
the pan the writer had camped in on the previous expedition, now under water. It boasted
150 bird species! Lacking time, we pushed on and called on the owner of Grootaarpan, and advised our mission of finding South Africa’s 50th meteorite. He allowed us to camp on the pan, and promptly departed to Hentjies Bay for a month of fishing! |
| Saturday 30 March | For the first time, a GPS was used to track search patterns and record locations of finds. The weather was extremely hot, 42 degrees in the shade [digital thermometer]. The prevented conducting traverses in the heat of the day. On return from traverses, the water in 5l bottles was 37 degrees, and did not provide a cool drink, but an acceptable hot bath. |
| Easter Sunday 31 March | A similar pattern was adopted for the
remainder of the week, with morning traverses starting at 09:00 until lunch, then a
‘siesta’ until the temperature dropped, and then a late afternoon traverse. The Moon was rising around 21:00, which made for early evening viewing using the writer’s 8" Dobsonian. Some fine objects were observed, but the comets proved elusive. |
| Monday 1 April | Tim, Janet and their son Christopher arrived and set up camp. We visited the farmer on Kleinaarpan, who claimed to have heard a meteor pass overhead and land in the dunes behind the farmhouse. Despite searches, he found nothing. |
| Tuesday 2 April | Traversing. There were a number of trips by car to Askham for ice and cold water. We traversed Vrysoutpan. |
| Wednesday 3 April | Peter and Eric broke camp and left. We continued traversing Grootaarpan. Owing to its size, perhaps only 10% was searched. |
| Thursday 4 April | We broke camp and traveled to Upington. The
writer had a puncture in the Hyundai and needed to get it fixed. We left Upington and
traveled to Keimoes and searched for chiastolite crystals unsuccessfully, but did recover
some interesting epidote crystals. We then drove to Kenhardt and turned off to the rose
quartz mine at Steyns Puts, which always provided interesting minerals. We were not
disappointed. We drove from Steyns Puts to Putsonderwater, having to stop and move
tortoises out of the road before proceeding. We then journeyed via Groblershoop and Griekwastad to Kimberley, where we split up. |
| Friday 5 April | Back to Johannesburg |
Comment
Prof Reimold was asked to comment on whether our unsuccessful returns were close to what real meteorites might look like, or whether we were collecting completely wrong looking rocks.
He placed a sliver of a martian meteorite next to one of the returns and it looked practically identical.
We are looking for the "right stuff’", and in due course will find a real meteorite, but this is a function of the amount of time spent searching [less than 2 weeks per annum] and the number of volunteers [average 6] and the effectiveness of the terrain chosen [ideal search areas are yet to be found].
Spring 2002
The Spring Expedition 2002 will return to the same area, and details will be published once arrangements have been made.
Volunteers who are fit and prepared to ‘rough it’ are encouraged to camp with us, those who would like to stay in a comfortable B ‘n B can do so, and for the not-so-fit, we could certainly have some help guarding the camp, writing up the records etc.
South Africa’s 50 Meteorite is an L4 chondrite!
Prospecting in the data and talking to people may be more effective ways of finding meteorites. Bill Hollenbach advised that a meteorite broke through the roof of a warehouse in George in 1989. This was analysed and found to be an L4 chondrite.
The data is being followed up and if the information proves to be correct, it will be added to the database as Number 50!
If you hear of any meteorites that fell in your area, why not investigate and provide any information you discovered?
There may be others that somehow missed getting added to the database.
We could really be searching for South Africa’s one hundred and fiftieth meteorite!
Again, if you have a digital camera [or an ordinary camera and access to a scanner], we need images of meteorites in local museums and institutions, together with data about the museum and the meteorite. If you can help the project, we’d love to know about it.
Unfortunately, meteorites are being stolen from museums in South Africa. If you hear of anything, please let us know and we’ll inform the appropriate authorities.
Trevor Gould