Geologists and astronomers are fairly certain that a rock found by a grouse hunter near Sandane in Sogn og Fjordane is in fact a rare meteorite.

Samples from the 0.7 kg rock are being examined at the Geological Museum in Oslo. If it is confirmed to be a meteorite, it will be the thirteenth found in Norway.

"We are using special equipment to analyse its mineral content," said the museum's Gunnar Raade. "Preliminary tests indicate the rock is a stony-iron mesosiderite type meteorite. This particular type of meteorite has never before been found in Norway," he said. The results of the analysis will be ready in a week's time.

A meteorite is any interplanetary particle or chunk of stony or metallic matter that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and strikes the ground.

Jan Erik Mardal found the stone last weekend when he was in the mountains hunting grouse in the western county of Sogn og Fjordane. He brought the rock home with him and found its colour and appearance matched an encyclopaedia's description of a meteorite.

Mardal took the stone to Oslo, where he works, and handed it over to the Geological Museum. "Experts at the museum were surprised when they saw it and seemed to think it was a very exciting discovery," he said.

It's finders, keepers in Norway, but Mardal says he'd like to see the meteorite in a museum in his home county of Sogn og Fjordane.

•Story originally published by:
Aftenpost, Oslo / Norway | Liz McNamara - Oct 17.01

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