Jim Karner — January 15

Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program

(Please read the following paragraph in David Attenborough's voice):
Antarctica. Twenty degrees below zero in a hostile desert. The biting wind is inescapable, a constant howl that smothers everything in its path. But even in this harsh climate, we find life. An intrepid collection of researchers huddle together on a vast stretch of blue ice, their iconic red jackets offering a stark contrast against the infinite expanse of spotless white—and, more importantly, against the dark meteorites for which they search.

Dr. Jim Karner hosted the January 15th seminar to share his experiences in planetary geology. Dr. Karner is a research associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, as well as a member of the United States Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, also known as US-SCAR. He highlighted his work finding and collecting extraterrestrial rocks both in Antarctica and in his very own backyard here in Utah.

Dr. Karner began with a story in the Salt Lake Valley. He and hundreds of others witnessed a meteorite fall from the sky, announcing itself with an earth-shattering sonic boom. Despite his expertise, it would prove to be quite difficult to locate any remnants of the extraterrestrial rock—but he was determined to find it. Using Doppler radar, he and his team were able to approximate the meteorite's descent, narrowing its trajectory to the dry lake bed south of the Great Salt Lake. He and Dr. Jani Raudebaugh scoured the flat salt plains, searching for any remnant of the celestial fireball. (Did they find the meteorite?) (no lol someone else did)

The pale playas of Utah were strikingly reminiscent of the work Dr. Karner conducts in Antarctica. There, he spends his time navigating the empty azure ice sheets under the direction of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program (ANSMET), colloquially referred to as the "poor man's space program." He and his team collect and study hundreds of meteorites for a fraction of the cost of actually going to space, making them the world's foremost supplier of meteorite samples. Their objective is to make these samples accessible to as many scientists as possible around the world and further our combined understanding of the universe.

Meteorites that land in Antarctica are often picked up by glaciers. As these glaciers run into mountains, they shift, revealing a layer of deep blue ice and extraterrestrial fragments that have been buried for hundreds and thousands. Once Karner and his team find these rocks, they carefully package them in Teflon to avoid contamination and send them back to a lab in the United States to be processed and examined. The rocks are kept frozen until they are studied in order to preserve their condition.

During the seminar, Dr. Karner challenged students to a game of "spot the meteorite," giving them three tips to assist them. First, when a meteorite enters the atmosphere, its outer layer melts, causing it to have a darkened, melted outer crust. The distinct colorization typically separates the rock from its surroundings, making it easy to spot. Second, the shape of the meteorite becomes rounded through the same process that gave it its color, namely the heat and friction of atmospheric entry. Third and lastly, meteorites have a completely different geological history from their terrestrial counterparts; thus, their composition will be markedly different from anything found on Earth.

Thanks in large part to Dr. Karner and his team, our knowledge of the solar system has expanded. We now have lunar and Martian samples to study and learn from, giving us insight into how our own planet formed in the beginning. If anyone is interested in participating in the AMSNET program, they should apply early and consistently. However, Dr. Karner concludes that you needn't go all the way to Antarctica to see some incredible geology. Our very own Utah is home to some of the most amazing opportunities to study geology in the world.