Submit a Picture

Where is My Picture?!

The Queue

Met Name

Met Type

Thin Sections

  L5

TKW 1 kg. Fall not observed. Found 1912, Antarctica, during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914.


Graham writes:

I hope to be doing a series on Australian meteorites for the MPOD. Most will be from my own collection.

The Adelie Land

I became interested in this meteorite when I saw a small piece of it in a replica of Mawson's Hut in the South Australian Museum. I was quite taken back when I learned of what these Men went through!

The first Antarctic meteorite ever found was a 1 Kg L5 chondrite discovered during Douglas Mawson's Antarctic Expedition on December 5, 1912. The distinction of finding this specimen belongs to an unnamed member of an exploration party led by Mr. F.H. Bickerton, whose mission was to explore and map westward from Mawson's Base at Cape Dennison in Commonwealth Bay on the Adelie land coast. On their fourth day out, and only 43 Km into the traverse the three man party found a meteorite, which they assumed was a fresh fall.

The Adelie Land meteorite can be seen at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide.

Picture 1: newer photo
Picture 2: original black and white photo.
Picture 3: the small piece at Adelaide Museum