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:: 10.16.2006 ::
:: News from Smallville? ::
Rare meteorite found in Kansas field Seattle Post Intelligencer
GREENSBURG, Kan. -- Scientists located a rare meteorite in a Kansas wheat field thanks to new ground-penetrating radar technology that someday might be used on Mars.
The dig Monday was likely the most documented excavation yet of a meteorite find, with researchers painstakingly using brushes and hand tools to preserve evidence of the impact trail and to date the event of the meteorite strike. Soil samples also were bagged and tagged and organic material preserved for dating purposes.
Even before they had the meteorite out of the ground, the scientific experts at the site were able to debunk prevailing wisdom that the spectacular Brenham meteorite fall occurred 20,000 years ago. Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts that date closer to 10,000 years ago.
"We know it is recent," said Carolyn Sumners, director of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as she surveyed progress on the dig. "Native Americans could have seen it."
Read more here.
ALSO
Does world-record meteorite await unearthing in Kansas? Kansas City Star
AND
Doubts cast on meteorite The Kansas City Star
posted by me
:: 11:23:00 PM [+] ::
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