Buzzard Coulee is the collective name of the

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

s fallen on November 20, 2008, over

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

The fireball was first spotted at around 17:30 MST (00:30

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

) (

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format: 2008-11-21T00:30Z) and was reported by people living in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, and even

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. It was five times as bright as a full moon. Over 400 people reported seeing it. There are several videos of the meteoroid on

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. The object split into multiple pieces before widespread impact. The meteoroid entered the atmosphere at approximately 14

kilometres per second The metre per second is the unit of both speed (a scalar quantity) and velocity (a vector quantity, which has direction and magnitude) in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the speed of a body covering a distance of one metre in ...

and is estimated to have been about the size of a

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and have had a mass of approximately 10 tonnes. The village of

Marsden, Saskatchewan Marsden ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Manitou Lake No. 442 and Census Division No. 13. It gained notoriety shortly after the impact of the Buzzard Coulee meteori ...

became a hub of activity for meteorite hunters, being just south of the estimated 20 square kilometre debris field. Locals dubbed the object the "Marsden Meteor"; many of the residents reported seeing, hearing and even smelling the burning fragments as they fell. The meteor was also referred to as the "Buzzard Coulee fireball", named after the area where searchers found the first fragments. Buzzard Coulee is located approximately from the

Battle River Battle River is a river in central Alberta and western Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River. The Battle River flows for and drains a total area of . Its mean discharge at the mouth is 10 m³/s. ...

valley. The first pieces of the rock were found by Ellen Milley, a University of Calgary Master's student on November 27, 2008. Milley was a part of a team working with Dr. Alan Hildebrand, University of Calgary professor and Canadian Research Chair in Planetary Science in the ice of a

fish pond A fish pond or fishpond is a controlled pond, small artificial lake or retention basin that is stocked with fish and is used in aquaculture for fish farming, for recreational fishing, or for ornamental purposes. Fish ponds are a classical g ...

about south east of

Lloydminster Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administra ...

, Saskatchewan, near the hamlet of Lone Rock. Lone Rock, Battle River, Marsden and other names were possible candidates for the meteorite name, but the University of Calgary researchers followed the local residents' lead in officially calling the fall Buzzard Coulee, after the oldest-named geographic feature in the fall area. Ten pieces were initially found; the largest fragment weighed and smallest was . In total, more than one thousand meteorite fragments have been collected from the 10-tonne fireball, among them are two fragments. This event has set a new Canadian record for the most number of pieces recovered from a single meteorite fall. Robert A. Haag, a famous American meteorite hunter, offered $10,000 to anyone who gave him the first one-kilogram chunk of the meteorite. "We can see on the videos that there were three big pieces that continue here. And those aren't found yet," said Alan Hildebrand on May 4, 2009. The meteorite hunters have, however, broken a world's record for collecting over 1,000 fragments, the most ever collected from a single meteor fall. The largest found to date was .

Classification

Buzzard Coulee was classified as ordinary chondrite H4 with a shock stage S2 and a weathering grade W0.

References

External links

Buzzard Coulee meteorite
(

Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of th ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Buzzard Coulee Meteorite 2008 in Saskatchewan Natural history of Saskatchewan Meteorites found in Canada Wilton No. 472, Saskatchewan

History

Classification

See also

References

External links