ANSMET

ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for meteorites that have originally fallen on the extensive high-altitude ice fields throughout Antarctica. Such meteorites are quickly covered by subsequent snowfall and begin a centuries-long journey traveling "downhill" across the Antarctic continent while embedded in a vast sheet of flowing ice. Portions of such flowing ice can be halted by natural barriers such as the Transantarctic Mountains. Subsequent wind erosion of the motionless ice brings trapped meteorites back to the surface once more where they may be collected. This process concentrates meteorites in a few specific areas to much higher concentrations than they are normally found everywhere else. The contrast of the dark meteorites against the white snow, and lack of terrestrial rocks on the ice, makes such meteorites relatively easy to find. However, the vast majority of such ice-embedded meteorites eventually slide undiscovered into the ocean.

== History == thumb|Meteorite next to a 1 cm sided cube. Found by ANSMET in the 1981-82 season. A Lunar meteorite thumb|Searching for meteors, 2015 The first Antarctic meteorite was discovered during the 1911–1914 Douglas Mawson Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Subsequent discoveries of three more were made in 1961 and 1964 by Russian geologists near Novolazarevskaya Station, and USGS geologists in the Thiel and Neptune Mountains. In 1969, Japanese explorers discovered nine meteorites at the Yamato Mountains, and 12 more during the 1973–1974 season, 663 during the 1974–1975 season, and 307 during the 1975–1976 season. Based on that success, William A. Cassidy received funding for ANSMET to commence in the 1976–1977 season. Cassidy was the Principal Investigator for the 1976–1977 season, and subsequent seasons up to and including the 1993–1994 season.