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UCLA Meteorite Gallery Lecture Series

Title: Fossil Meteorites – A Record of the Asteroid Belt’s History on Earth
Lecturer: Dr. Philipp Heck, Field Museum

A wealth of information on the asteroid belt comes from the study of meteorites that were collected on Earth’s surface. Meteorites are rock fragments from asteroids and planets that were ejected during impacts. Since Earth’s formation meteorites have arrived on our planet and some of them remain preserved as fossils in sedimentary rocks. In this talk, I will explore with you what fossilized meteorites can tell us about the history of the Solar System, in particular the asteroid belt. Why should we bother searching for meteorites underground if we can find them conveniently on Earth’s surface? Meteorites today are rare but were they always as rare? How different are the meteorites that arrived on Earth in deep time compared to more recent falls? I will address these and other questions and present highlights from my collaborative research on fossil meteorites.