Meteorite GalleryThis video was produced by the Smithsonian Institution, adapted from content by The Committee on Meteorites of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It features original footage of the USSR's expeditions to Tunguska and Sikhote Alin. Most of the footage is from ca. 1927 to 1960.
Translated by Eugene Jarosewich & Roy S. Clarke Jr.
Narrated by Bud Rice
Edited by Albert J. Robinson
Digitized from 16 mm by David Kring, reformatted by Jason Utas
The Search for the Tunguska Meteorite: The Tunguska Airburst of 1908Meteorite Gallery2022-09-28 | This video was produced by the Smithsonian Institution, adapted from content by The Committee on Meteorites of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It features original footage of the USSR's expeditions to Tunguska and Sikhote Alin. Most of the footage is from ca. 1927 to 1960.
Translated by Eugene Jarosewich & Roy S. Clarke Jr.
Narrated by Bud Rice
Edited by Albert J. Robinson
Digitized from 16 mm by David Kring, reformatted by Jason Utas
Licensing is creative commons.The Harsh Reality of Chasing Meteorite Falls, Part 1Meteorite Gallery2024-10-19 | This was the first day of a three-day trip, chasing a small fireball in Arizona, in April 2024.
Three days was too little time to reasonably expect to find anything, but we had good data, needed to check it out.From Dawn til Dusk: Finding Midsummer MeteoritesMeteorite Gallery2024-09-23 | Join us in while we look for meteorites in Northern Nevada in late June.Finding the Historic Holbrook, Arizona Meteorite Fall of 1912Meteorite Gallery2024-08-28 | Join us as we hunt for meteorites that fell on July 19, 1912. Around 14,000 stones were found shortly after the fall, most weighing just ~a gram or less. Today, they are affectionately called "Holbrook peas."
We're not sure of the extent of the strewn field. Reports from the time of the fall are conflicting, with some saying that small and large stones were found mixed together, and others saying that the field was more typical, with larger stones traveling further than small stones. They say that larger stones may have fallen as far NE as the ghost town / rail stop of Aztec. Old maps like the one featured in the video suggest that all stones fell North of the railroad tracks, but most modern maps show the field on both sides of the tracks, centered roughly on the rail stop of Arntz. It would probably take many days of hunting to get a good idea of the size of the field, today.
If you visit the area, please respect private property / no trespassing signs and take enough water. The roads in the field can be pretty rough and sandy in places, and it's a long walk back to the highway if you get stuck.
We also didn't show most of the 'meteor-wrongs' we found. Some ant hills were covered with small pieces of iron shale and small spherical droplets of welding debris. It's not a bad idea to collect everything magnetic and go through it later, but know that there is a lot of magnetic trash in the area.
Filmed July 2023Hunting for Meteorites on the Winter SolsticeMeteorite Gallery2024-08-06 | Join us on day two of our midwinter hunt.Finding Meteorites on a Not-So-Dry LakeMeteorite Gallery2024-07-05 | Join us for a meteorite hunting trip in midwinter!Finding more meteorites - solo Nevada hunting trip part 2Meteorite Gallery2024-04-10 | Join me on this meteorite hunt, alone in the remote Nevada desert. This was day 14 from a longer trip, but we focused on hunting and didn't film most days.
All music used here is copyright free and credited at the end of the video.One find after another - Meteorites EVERYWHEREMeteorite Gallery2024-03-03 | Join me on this meteorite hunt, alone in the remote Nevada desert. This was day 13 from a longer trip, but we focused on hunting and didn't film most days.
All music used here is copyright free and credited at the end of the video.Finding the Last Meteorites of 2023!Meteorite Gallery2024-02-10 | It's New Year's Eve and we're on the hunt for the last meteorites of 2023.Finding more meteorites in the Nevada desertMeteorite Gallery2023-11-12 | Join us while we look for meteorites!A quiet day hunting for meteoritesMeteorite Gallery2023-09-20 | Join us while we look for meteorites!Hunting for Meteorites in Northern Nevada Part 3Meteorite Gallery2023-07-03 | Join us for the third and final part of our trip looking for meteorites!
Part one was made as part of a UCLA EPSS booth for Exploring Your Universe, an outreach event that went online for two years due to Covid 19. EYU is back to being in-person again so this is just for fun.
All of the meteorites found on this day appear to be ordinary chondrites. Krista's first find appears to be a type 3 or 4 H-chondrite with very clear chondrules. See 05:03 - 05:07.
We have more videos in the works, so please stay tuned!Moving ice transporting rocks onto the shore of a dry lake bed in CaliforniaMeteorite Gallery2023-04-18 | This video shows a few processes:
1) Rain fell on a seasonally wet/dry lakebed.
2) Water pooled in a topographically low part of the lakebed.
3) The surface of the water froze overnight.
4) In the morning, the ice began to melt and a slight breeze kicked up.
5) The wind pushed the ice. A few rocks moved along with it.
With a harder freeze, the ice would have been thicker, and could have moved more / larger rocks. More or less water in the lake would affect the relative level of the ice, and thus the size and location of the rocks moved by it.
Filmed December 27, 2014Hunting for Meteorites in Northern Nevada Part 2Meteorite Gallery2023-04-16 | Join us for part two of our trip looking for meteorites!
Part one was made as part of a UCLA EPSS booth for Exploring Your Universe, an outreach event that went online for two years due to Covid 19. EYU is back to being in-person again so this is just for fun.
All of the meteorites found on this day appear to be equilibrated (type 4-6) ordinary chondrites. In the photo at 07:16 (find #4), you can see a broken barred olivine (BO) chondrule on the left hand side of the stone.
Part 3 needs a few final edits and will be up in a few weeks. We have more videos in the works, so please stay tuned!Hunting for Meteorites in Northern Nevada Part 1Meteorite Gallery2021-11-07 | Join us for part one of our trip looking for meteorites!
This video was made as part of a UCLA EPSS booth for Exploring Your Universe, an outreach event that went online for two years due to Covid 19.A Meteorite Hunt in the MojaveMeteorite Gallery2020-10-31 | Join us while we look for meteorites on a few dry lake beds in the Mojave Desert!
Video by Jason Utas and Krista Sawchuk.
Music used: - Peach Cobbler, iMovie creative commons - Look Busy, Kevin MacLeod / incompetech.com, creative commons - Creek Whistle, Steve Adams, public domain - The Twister, Dan Lebowitz, public domain - Palmtrees, The Brothers Records, public domain
Spoilers: Day 1: No finds. Day 2: The first find was an ~LL5, second find is an oriented ~L or LL3. The rest of the meteorites appear to be paired, ~H4-6.
All of the meteorites are chondrites, which formed ~4.54 billion years ago in our solar nebula.
This video was made as part of a UCLA EPSS booth for Exploring Your Universe, an outreach event that went online for two years due to Covid 19.Large stone vs. moving ice on Nevada dry lake, January 2020, Video 3Meteorite Gallery2020-10-25 | This is a video of a larger stone breaking an ice sheet on the surface of a dry lake bed near Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 5, 2020.
An ephemeral 1-2" deep lake had formed due to recent rains. The surface of the water froze each night. By 9-10 AM, the edges of the ice sheet had melted enough to allow a light breeze to move the entire sheet. Most rocks were dragged along with it, leaving trails in the mud. The ice wasn't thick enough to move the largest rocks, but sheets of ice already accumulated at the edges of the lake were much thicker, and larger stones had moved in days prior.
The third video here shows footage captured after the first and second videos. This larger stone wasn't budging, and created a split in the moving ice sheet that eventually became 20+ meters wide.
Copyright Jason Utas www.meteoritegallery.comStone moving in ice on Nevada dry lake, January 2020, Video 2Meteorite Gallery2020-10-25 | This is a video of a larger stone being dragged along the surface of a dry lake bed near Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 5, 2020.
An ephemeral 1-2" deep lake had formed due to recent rains. The surface of the water froze each night. By 9-10 AM, the edges of the ice sheet had melted enough to allow a light breeze to move the entire sheet. Most rocks were dragged along with it, leaving trails in the mud. The ice wasn't thick enough to move the largest rocks, but sheets of ice already accumulated at the edges of the lake were much thicker, and larger stones had moved in days prior.
The second video here shows footage captured after the first video. This stone had already moved 10-15 meters before filming started, and was eventually carried out of sight.
Copyright Jason Utas www.meteoritegallery.comStone moving in ice on Nevada dry lake, January 2020, Video 1Meteorite Gallery2020-10-25 | This is a video of a small stone being dragged along the surface of a dry lake bed near Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 5, 2020.
An ephemeral 1-2" deep lake had formed due to recent rains. The surface of the water froze each night. By 9-10 AM, the edges of the ice sheet had melted enough to allow a light breeze to move the entire sheet. Most rocks were dragged along with it, leaving trails in the mud. The ice wasn't thick enough to move the largest rocks, but sheets of ice already accumulated at the edges of the lake were much thicker, and larger stones had moved in days prior.
The first video here shows a stone just after they started moving: you can see the beginning of its track in the lakebed.