The Elm Creek meteorite, weighing 8.2 kilograms, is the second-largest stony meteorite ever found in Canada and is Manitoba's largest. It is the fifth meteorite to be recovered in Manitoba (Manitoba is now tied with Quebec for recoveries), and is the 61st Canadian discovery. It is also the first time that a meteorite has been found in Canada with a road grader.

Tom Wood (right) unearthed the big rock while grading a dirt road to the southeast of Elm Creek, Manitoba during late August 1997. "It seemed to be too heavy to be a normal stone," Wood recalls. "I thought then that it might be a meteorite, but I was half kidding when I told my wife so later that day."

The recovered stone is a broken piece with scrape marks on it, presumably from road grading. The other half of the meteorite, estimated to weigh about five kilograms, is thought to be still embedded in the dirt road. Mr. Wood is not sure exactly where he recovered the first piece, so the recovery of the remainder is in doubt.

Dan Lockwood, a U of C student, was the Prairie Meteorite Searcher for the summer of 2001. The Elm Creek meteorite was his second discovery among about 600 samples of possible meteorites that he looked at. He was holding a rock identification clinic in the Co-op store in Carman, Manitoba, when Mr. Wood brought the rock in.

"The rock was covered in dirt, but its density made it deserving of a wash and a closer look," Lockwood (left) says. "After washing I had suspicions that the rock was indeed a meteorite, but I flip-flopped back and forth for more than three weeks over whether or not it was genuine."

The meteorite was eventually confirmed when Lockwood returned to the University of Calgary at the end of his field season. It is a well- weathered rock and probably fell to Earth thousands of years ago.

Most of its fusion crust is weathered off revealing an interior that shows cracks from the shattering of its parent asteroid.

Dr. Alan Hildebrand, holder of a Canada Research Chair in Planetary Sciences at the U of C and one of the project leaders, praises Mr. Wood for his efforts in bringing the specimen to the attention of scientists. "I am frankly amazed at Mr. Wood's perceptiveness in noting that this dirt-covered rock was unusual. It goes to show what a lifetime of experience and healthy curiosity can do to one's perceptions," Hildebrand says. Research will help classify the stone and determine if it was part of a larger fall.

The Prairie Meteorite Search field campaign locates meteorites by encouraging Prairie farmers to have rocks identified that they suspect may be meteorites. The project consists of local publicity and visits by the searcher to towns to show meteorite specimens and to identify possible meteorites. The project relies on people having seen meteorites and the possibility of immediate identification to make discoveries.

"More than a dozen unconfirmed new meteorites are thought to be in the hands of farming families across the prairies," says Lockwood, who is now back studying at the University of Calgary. "The Prairie Meteorite Search found two new meteorites during each of the summers of 2000 and 2001, but a better means of reaching farmers who have rocks to be identified should be able to increase the recovery rate."

The Prairie Meteorite Search project leaders are Dr. Alan Hildebrand, University of Calgary; Dr. Peter Brown, The University of Western Ontario, and Dr. Martin Beech, University of Regina. They are all members of the Meteorites and Impacts Advisory Committee to the Canadian Space Agency. This is Canada's volunteer group charged with the investigation of fireballs and the recovery of meteorites.

Project funding for the summer project of 2001 came from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's Undergraduate Student Research Award Program, the international Meteoritical Society, and other grants held by the project leaders.

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