Summer 2006: Week 4, Round 3
Science: All Meteorites, All the Time.
1. Distinguish between a meteor and a meteorite.
A: Meteors [or 'shooting stars'] are the fiery, incandescent paths produced by objects entering the
earth's atmosphere from outer space. Meteorites, on the other hand, are objects from outer space that
have survived the fiery entrance and actually fallen on earth. [Most meteors burn up and fall to the
earth as dust.]
2. In what part of the Solar System do most earth's meteorites originate?
A: Meteorites are believed to originate from the asteroid belt midway between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter around the sun. This belt contains pieces of varying size up to more than a km in diameter and
may actually be one large planet that broke apart.
3. Canada's largest meteorite is not Canada's heaviest. Why is this so?
A: Canada's largest meteorite is a stoney meteorite, whereas Canada's heaviest is an iron meteorite. The
heaviest, incidentally, is the Madoc meteorite, about 350 pounds.
4. Name the large meteorite crater found in the 1950s in the Ungava Peninsula.
A: New Quebec Crater [formerly the Chubb Crater], 3.2 km across and formed about one million years ago.)
Acccept either.
5. A scientific theory proposes that an asteroid that fell 65 million years ago caused the
extinction of the dinosaurs. This was at the end of what geological period?
A: Cretaceous Period.
6. The Hoba meteorite, believed to be the heaviest known in the world at 132,000 pounds, was
discovered in what country
A: Namibia
7. Surprisingly, what part of the world has now become a major source of meteorites?
A: Antarctica, where meteorites have fallen on ice, to be preserved and concentrated in number over
thousands of years. [In certain places, scientists have actually walked around picking up meteorites
'here and there'.]
8. Some rock specimens are often mistaken for meteorites. How may a distinction be made?
A: They all contain visible metallic grains of native iron: these grains may be seen on broken or
polished surfaces of the specimen.
9. In what month does the Perseid meteor shower occur?
A: August
10. What are tektites?
A: Tektites are little pieces of colored, transparent glass found throughout the world, which are
believed to originate from the impact of meteorites on the rocks on earth. Meteorites melt rock at the
point of impact, which is splashed out in a spray.