Meteorite Men | Australia 2: Mundrabilla | Full HD Episodes

steve arnold and jeff knocking our modern day treasure hunters [Applause] they travel the world in search of meteorites easily my favorite that's what i like alien invaders that have been crashing into our planet for the last four and a half billion years yeah baby on this adventure the guys journey deep into the australian outback to one of the largest stream fields in the world i think it's a snake home i'm gonna go dig my little thing up over here meteorites have landed here literally for millions of years i got a target 800 miles from the nearest city one of the biggest meteorites in history was discovered armed with an arsenal of hunting gear jeff and steve hunt down under for big meteorites worth thousands of dollars oh my goodness check this one out [Music] this is western australia's vast nullarbor plane roughly 77 000 square miles of desert the nullarbor plane is a legendary site for meteorite enthusiasts more meteorites have been found here than almost anywhere else on the planet scientists believe that nearly 700 000 years ago a massive meteorite slammed into western australia the meteorite was discovered in 1911 but it was in 1966 that two of the largest pieces were found a 12-ton now on display at the western australia museum and a six ton that was cut into slices for research jeff and steve are anxious to start the hunt but first they meet up with dr andy thompkins who's going to help them navigate the potentially dangerous nullarbor plane dr andy tompkins i presume you guys could only be the many right man dr tompkins is a meteorite expert and a research geologist he's hunted this enormous desert many times and made numerous new meteorite discoveries they've officially found over 600 new original finds in manila we've certainly found quite a few as well so yeah they're everywhere you literally open your car door and get out and step on them you can see this is the bottom half of australia here the guys discuss hunt strategies at the eucla roadhouse the last stop before entering the nullarbor plane and what we're going to do from here is we're going to drive northwest up to the forest station which is on the trans australia railway drive along the railway to mondrabella and then we'll set up camp there and then the stream field is basically right around there okay sounds like the place to be what about all the highways and roads up here there are none that is some of the remotest part of the world up there the mondrabila stroom field is more than 30 miles long a monument stands where the two biggest meteorites hit the ground years later two more were found and the guys are convinced big space rocks are still here just waiting to be discovered i think that dr tomkin's unique knowledge of the area is going to be invaluable in our search any uh strange wildlife we should be aware of spiders yeah well actually because it's been raining a bit the temperature's starting to warm up with summer approaching um you might see a few snakes around the place okay so uh just waiting oh yeah we have uh something like eight of the top ten most venomous snakes in the world here so this is the high rail that hopefully will rescue us and get us down to the site yeah we'll get your gear down there the problem is we have a large truck that is transporting our motorcycle and the best it could do on the bumpy dirt track was about 15 kilometers an hour so we burned up a whole day getting out here one of the solutions we're looking at is taking our gear on a very unusual vehicle called the high rail and it's basically a pickup truck with railroad wheels on it and you can drive the pickup truck over the tracks drop down the wheels and off it goes and that might work because here in forest we're right next to the trans-australia railway line which is thousands of miles long and conveniently there is a little stop down at mondrabila right where we want to be [Music] dr tompkins convinces the guys to leave their bike behind where they're headed is very remote and they'll be safer if the three stay together steve jeff and dr tompkins head down australia's long desolate highway 1 before going off road in the outback [Music] i finally made it this is it guys the memorial to the king of all mondrabellas this is australia's largest meteorite the 12-ton and six-ton meteorites were found only 500 feet apart this monument marks the spot in between both fines december 66. anxious to get the hunt started the guys grab their gear and explore a two kilometer area around the northeast edge of the monument wow just all looks the same yeah scientists believe the meteorite was traveling from the southwest to the northeast when it slammed into the limestone of the desert floor creating the strewn field the area where pieces of the meteorites scatter as they break away from the main mass we are in the middle of where the two sets of big ones were right in between them yeah there's a camel oh wow i don't know i still think there's something weird about seeing camels in australia it doesn't seem right why don't we do our usual strategy and split up circle around scout 10 15 minutes see if we find anything if we don't we move on yep the first person to find one buys drinks for the other two and we get back to civilization how does that sound sounds good all right i'm going this way because space rocks are mostly iron the guys use metal detectors and powerful rare earth magnets to hunt i definitely got a target there is that really my first mundra billa it's only a baby but it's a start [Music] hell yeah hey steve i went buying the drinks woohoo numero uno it's always a great moment when you find your first meteorite and mundraville is a famous famous meteorite i have several pieces in my personal collection but i didn't find them this is my first time here and uh there's a kind of unmatched thrill when i go wow that's my first ever mundra villa there you go i didn't think there'd be any lefts here at this site it being so well known looks like somebody almost drove over it yeah all right i'm gonna go dig my little thing up over here here's your normal kind of buzz yeah just ground buzz that's what you want the real clean sound yes hey jeff what yeah i got one strong signal and i'm trying to dig to it and i can't i think my digger's stuck on the motorcycle oh yeah yeah you want me to dig it for you or you want to borrow my hammer either way you got to get out of this thing where you don't bring your gear and you just think you can automatically use mine because i have my stuff because you're reliable yeah i just can't rely on you you can rely on cause i need my gear that's why i bring it stand okay just this one time all right don't get used to it i don't think so there's so much iron in these in these clay bowls it just everyone goes off like that here let me dig just a little bit apply my curiosity i'm not getting anything [Music] there's nothing there all right let's get out of here i want to go find somewhere good there i want to try the one little target i got back in the hole and i said you can only use my hammer once i know to be expected i didn't think that we'd find anything at all here because this is where everybody would make a beeline for these little cracked indentations they're called clay bowls and it's where water's collected and you can see from the big cracks in the clay when the temperature warmed up the water evaporated the clay cracked and these little clay bowls right here near the fine site very rich in iron now that's that's not actually a target it's a wide area that's telling me that there's a lot of iron in here and it's probably full of little tiny iron fragments from the giant meteorites over there all metal detectors basically work on the same principle they send a signal from the control box down through a cable to a coil and the coil then transmits that signal into the ground if that signal encounters a buried metallic object it'll send a return signal an echo back up into the machine that's broadcast through a speaker so it really is a way of looking for invisible buried treasure what have we got here about maybe 20 grams oh 28.5 grams so mundra bills typically sell for a dollar fifty two dollars a gram on the collectors market so uh we're looking about 45 50 little media right there well this is it and i'll found the hole there's plenty bits of shale around here too lots look at this no shortage of shale shale is a nickname some scientists give to weathered pieces of iron meteorites because the fragments resemble the common terrestrial rock the 12-ton one landed here although it looks like a crater it's not really a crater it's what we call an impact pit the rock didn't come in and explode it just hit and punched a little bit indentation in the ground they dug it out and left a lot of the shale behind well that's reading iron see if there's anything down there [Music] it's my first meteor wrong an old battery leader wrong is something we affectionately call anything that's not a meteorite we like to leave the place a bit cleaner than we found it so we always pack this stuff out [Music] i don't suck excellent well done oh jeff this one's kind of big i think stuck in the ground a little it's kind of big no no it's kind of big it's actually not kind of big well at least you found something at least i found something yay and it's got this brown patina to it steve's fine weighs in at about 20 grams which would put its value at roughly 30 so my goal is to fill my pouch up and uh i've got a long ways to go i just found an amazing lizard i'm taking photographs of this lizard he's amazing [Music] meanwhile dr tompkins is off having a little luck of his own oh hang on what's this oh wow look at that awesome that's really cool look at the pattern on that we're in the heart of it i know they're here i can taste them i can smell them maybe it's just the flies i'm tasting and smelling i don't know ah they're here [Music] steve's detector sniffs out another possible space rock i don't see anything on top of the ground oh yeah all right getting bigger this was maybe 30 grams 30 somewhere like that yay oh that sounds promising it's buried oh it wasn't buried he was on the surface the detector got him i would have walked right by that's a nice one nice beautiful patina happy with their first day fines the guys decide to call it a day guys i hate to break up the party but the sun's going down and we've still got to build camp yeah so far the guy's fines are worth an estimated 175 to 210 who dollars in the flies the sun and the temperature are both about to drop the guys quickly set up camp meteorites often fall in the most inconvenient places and if we're going to be efficient in our work in remote locations like this we have to camp the best part about this is we're literally camped in the strewn field so there's something almost magical about actually sleeping overnight where the meteorites fell [Music] day two the guys are up early and eager to start hunting the next spot an area they think could hold large meteorites it's an eight kilometer section in the heart of the strewn field between two of the largest finds ever made it's a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time i think it's pretty smart if we do some strategic sampling rather than spend all our time at one spot like we did yesterday we're going to do what we call sampling which is to get in the truck drive a half kilometer or a kilometer get out and do a half an hour scout split up different directions and we're trying to find an area that has a rich concentration of pieces and if we do we're going to concentrate our time there the guys arrive at location number one and will work their way to the northeast they're certain they'll find bigger and more valuable space rocks here in the large end of the stroom field run 15 minutes out 15 minutes back yep okay let's be strict on our timing because we tend to get bogged down in a spot even if we're not finding anything all right sounds like a play 15 out hey let me ask you i've seen a couple of these uh it looks a bit like impact day yeah but see the little bit of shell fossil in there uh huh this i think there's a bit of fossil coral or some sort of a bunch of fossily stuff scientists believe that nearly 30 000 years ago the nullarbor plain was underwater and home to a massive coral reef similar to the great barrier reef which stretches more than 1200 miles we hiked pretty far out on this one there's absolutely nothing here it's uh surprising hey guys how are you doing time wise it's time to head back all right time to head back that other direction nothing this far out the guys strike out at the first of their eight locations they hope the second area is more productive [Music] very nice right on the surface maybe [Music] nice patina beautiful reddish black there you go all right who gets it i heard it one but a nice one probably about 15 grams i guess wow okay which half of it do you want exactly i found the show you found the thing and then yeah well that sounds pretty good is there something else here oh dude look oh there he is just below the surface look how close this fine was to the other one just behind that bush we've got 20 25 feet between two pieces that's what i like that's a nice one is that the shell again or no no that's another piece it's another piece well we do get half each all right hey jeff we only have about five minutes okay i'm ready to head back how'd you do i just found one and a half what's a half well my detector detected it and andy's magnet grabbed it co-own it okay crazy kids well good job guys the guys are energized by their smaller fines in location number two which have an estimated value of about 800 to 950 but they want bigger and more valuable rocks which they're sure are here next stop location number three jeff steve and dr tompkins are counting on bigger space rocks as they make their way farther into the large end of the stream field your strategy of um stopping and going out for a search a quick search and then getting back in and going a little bit further having a quick search i think that's a really good idea nine six eight seven nine eight okay we're at one kilometer stop here okay all right good job oh there's one no that doesn't count it's no fair getting them from the car arthur oh look at that dude's cheating on us there it is seriously cheating on us that doesn't count because our 30 minutes didn't start it just started bite oh man oh look at that pretty nice isn't it that's a beauty gorgeous casino wow and we're talking two two meters from the road yeah somebody hasn't been paying attention when they've been driving out here yeah all right all right well let's start nine minutes to go [Music] we know that hundreds are possibly thousands of monderbill irons have been found and there is also the chance of finding tectites out here tektites are a form of impact glass that are caused by an enormous meteorite impact sufficient to melt the target rock or sand into a natural glass we're keeping our eyes open for mandrebilla irons for other meteorites that may have fallen here that are not associated with mondravilla and tektites and snakes i saw something scaly and lizardy and i've been thinking about snakes and we got ourselves a little stubby critter here oh i thought that was his head that's his tail there he goes take me to the big rock [Music] this section here it sort of appears to be a bit of an old lake bed and andy spotted one from the car while we were driving and it's so wide open here i thought i'd just do a bit of scanning by eye cover some more ground before i pull out the detector [Music] right on the surface look at that that's a beauty we've got four different types of the rocks they're the most common things that are around on the surface at the moment one's limestone one's a piece of lichen one's a piece of sandstone they're relatively uncommon they're that they look dark from a distance and this one's a meteorite oh beautiful piece lovely shape that's my nicest one so far outstanding i can see that that meteorite quite easily it's just a matter of coming in and going there's amnesia right so i think this would be a den for some snakes and if i was a snake that's where i would want to live i think right down in there well this is uh probably the largest piece i found so far it's certainly the nicest and we're seeing a real difference between the pieces that are on the surface and the ones that are buried that we dig up the surface pieces have a really beautiful natural patina of course by oxidizing out here in the desert sort of a i don't know they look like old bronze [Music] i think we've yet to find the perfect place but we're working on it yeah i'm headed back i just i just found a big flat that looked really promising i wanted to check out i'm on the way back okay [Music] oh here we go no no it's just a tech type man ah a tag tight yeah you're walking back to lunch let me see oh wow yeah just a small one not like a flying saucer now this interesting little sample is a tech type now we think those formed when a very large meteorite hit the ground somewhere near burma and the energy of the impact was enough to melt the rock and blast it up into space really really high and it's flowing through space and landed around three or four thousand kilometers away here in australia they're pretty cool little samples of a massive impact over in asia hey steve yeah i think you should try a new strategy and that's walking directly in front of andy it can be really embarrassing if i walk over something and then he finds it behind me though [Music] whoa yeah oh yeah easily my favorite i don't think i'd sell this one for less than a hundred it's just too awesome hey jeff i got a really really really cool one can't hear you he can't hear me you don't want to hear me he's always yelling at me about something the shape on this is so adorable there's just so many little regular glips little pittings this one has such a unique structure to it that these individual fragments that get broken off are just so um telltale of uh of mondevilles when iron meteorites travel through our atmosphere they're often moving at a tremendous velocity generating heat and pressure and the surface begins to melt sometimes intriguing surface features are created by this process and they're known as regulate or thumb print because they look like little indentations that a sculptor might make in wet clay these unique shapes are caused by a unique event the initial mass the original mass of the monderbila meteorite was comprised of thousands or tens of thousands of these little zoomorphic shapes made out of iron and nickel held together by iron sulfides now as the masses burned in the atmosphere on their way to the surface of our planet the iron sulfides melted much more quickly than the zoomorphic iron elements in simple terms the glue that held all these little zoomorphic shapes together melted out scattering thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of pieces over this landscape all right this is our fourth stop we're at uh three k's from uh the markers i'll go that way i'll go this way okay sweet yeah i'm gonna go that way too i just got a feeling oh no steve's got a feeling i got a target ah there is it's one of the fun things about these mundobill irons is they have sort of zoomorphic shapes a lot of them like a dog or a cow at least i think so steve thinks i'm mad but that's okay this one's a dark piece of limestone whereas this one's a nice meaty right check this out it's a bit of a rusty one this one's got flakes peeling off that one yeah i think so it's very hey i think you made it into 30 minutes [Music] there he is nice very nice sort of teardrop shape though probably about 15 grams all right gentlemen off stop number five location number four produced a few unique finds but didn't yield the coveted large space rocks jeff and steve are searching for they head to location number five optimistic oh jeez check this one out oh beautiful they've made the magnet for that oh wow that's the nicest one so far what a gorgeous shape it looks like the head of a bird of prey well i guess nobody's been right here yeah where is that one look how close the road is it's only uh 20 meters away again we're doing very well with coast of the road i don't understand that i got one hey must be a few around here area 5 is looking fairly good so far so far so good what what did you get over there look it is this big sucker whoa threw my arm out wow andy's getting very close to the he has to sit in the truck part not gonna happen all right let's get on with it wow those guys banged out two in about 30 seconds i'm feeling a bit left out right now [Music] it's sort of slightly magnetic we're gonna have to change that hey steve check this out i think i might have a stoney meaty right fresh pony fresh fine stony meteorites they have still have iron in them so they're usually a little bit magnetic yep usually more magnetic than this though so right um it could be maybe an electron or something like that right an ordinary chondrite is the most common meteorite they're mostly stone and usually contain up to twenty percent iron and nickel and ll chondrite contains only three to five percent metal find number 53 is unique and a nice addition to dr tompkins collection after finishing at location number five steve stops to record the weight and value of his fines yeah all right so i'm way off this little guy i i thought was like 30 grams and he's 68. these irons are so deceptive compared to the stones so 68 at a buck and a half makes it 100. i don't think i'd let go of this one for 150 now in two days the guys have found more than 50 meteorites worth an estimated value of more than twenty seven hundred dollars all right let's area seven awaits but they are here for the big rocks worth thousands time is running out and the trio skip location number six for location number seven oh yeah it's in there somewhere [Music] there oh yeah so this is uh about 60 grams it's not the big space rock steve is searching for but a nice size nevertheless just a short distance from steve search area number seven seems to be bringing jeff some good luck notice how it really squeaks the detector instead of instead of that nice clean sound hear how it squeaks that usually means it's right on the surface and this one is so there he is oh it looks like there's a crack in it it might have broke it might have fractured into two pieces i'm gonna have to document that one that's a very attractive piece five minutes later and just a few meters away steve makes another mondrabila find that's what i yeah to hear it's the sound of money the sound of space oh snuck away yeah cute little guy yeah maybe 15 grams another small find but even the small ones add up it gets a bit harder to uh tell the difference in texture from a distance when the light isn't quite as bright as well this one when you get close is pretty obviously not a meteorite and i thought it was from back there so the light's starting to make it a little bit harder as the shadows get long it becomes harder to find meteorites without the help of a metal detector go ahead steve hey jeff how are you doing i found two pieces it's kind of smallish but both nice ones all right well um we're way over our 30 minutes here okay i'm just a few minutes out i'll be right back but jeff's not finished in location number seven just yet thanks to the metal detector he makes a third find a 15 gram stone with a value of about thirty dollars all right number eight location number eight is their farthest search area from the mondrabila monument they're hunting for iron space rocks but in this area there's an abundance of iron in the soil rendering jeff's metal detector useless these areas really have to be searched visually and this could be exactly what i'm looking for that looks like the real thing to me now for the moment of recovery lepton to the magnet wow that's a nice one it's probably about a 50 or 60 grand piece on the collector's market 75 to 100 maybe the area where steve is hunting within location number eight is not as iron rich metal detectors are still effective and steve puts his to work there it is yay wow this is a chunk about 40 grams you know even at a buckagram it's a steak dinner 40 bucks probably day three ends on a high note the guys head back to camp to rest up for tomorrow's treasure hunt after eight locations within the heart of the strewn field the guys have found 65 meteorites worth approximately 3 300 dollars if you like stargazing this is a place to do it oh yeah it's just no light pollution out here [Music] beautiful sunset tonight beautiful starry sky it's so wonderful to be in the southern hemisphere and see a different night sky the the southern night sky is more abundant with stars than the sky in the northern hemisphere that we're used to and the milky way just arcs overhead the southern cross is there you can see the magellanic clouds with the naked eye it's extraordinary had a little campfire had a few beers really enjoying our time with dr andy tompkins it's it's not every day we meet an academic who is as brilliant and accomplished as andy is and who is also dedicated or should i say driven meteorite hunter he's every bit as keen as we are and we've been out in the field with people before and after a few days or sometimes just a few hours or in one case even a few minutes they go oh no this is too hard i don't i don't want to do this i'll meet you guys later but andy's just out there rocking it every minute he's he's really enthusiastic and he's a really good hunter and uh [Music] yeah he's he's finding as much material as we are and he doesn't have detectors he's hunting by eye he's got a really good eye at something so i'm tired it's been a long day but a good one it was misty this morning then it got very windy and then it got really hot and then there were flies then there was beautiful sunset and uh lots of meteorites and now it's off to bed and back to it tomorrow well rested jeff steve and dr tompkins begin day four with a promising new plan of attack they are convinced that the new strategy will lead to a large mondrabilla trophy you guys have this really interesting theory that these two masses at the far end of the strewn field were at one time a larger mass that went further burned up and split now if that's true when these two pieces split i think there's a good chance that a lot of other material broke off yeah i think so yep which means this triangle here could be a very rich hunting ground yeah i agree you've also got a wider zone up there these ones were only uh what were they 100 meters apart 200 meters apart down here real close whereas these ones are clubbing a kilometer and a half apart so you've probably got a wide zone to collect over over there if there's anywhere in this stream field that has abundant material that's been untouched that's my that's my guess yeah one ton or bigger shall we do it yeah i think so i'm excited about this let's think big before heading out steve assembles a new incarnation of his crude but effective magnet rake a one axle cart made with a series of two by fours each affixed with a high strength magnet with 80 pounds of pull the goal is to pick up more space rocks on the drive to location number nine in the large end of the strewn field i think this may be your greatest invention oh maybe we'll see keep a window down and uh you guys yell at me if we need i stop steve drives while jeff and dr tomkin search the horizon for massive space rocks i think the magnet rake is a pretty interesting idea you can cover a lot of ground without expending too much energy in it it's probably not a bad idea for using when you're traveling to and from places right seems to be doing fine steve good i'll let you know if anything flies off when they arrive at their final hunt location they check the magnet rake for meteorites let's check these magnets out yeah and everything else hey we got one yeah look at that yeah baby all right get on all right look at that okay oh amazing we got a magnet and it was on the back yeah we got two magnets a couple of them came off oh so they're getting some of the magnets are getting pulled off the bottom in there yeah they're jumping onto the back we lost one off here too completely off there the rake picks up one meteorite although several magnets have fallen off and i used to think these were only worth about a buck and a half they're pretty rare i'm kind of thinking they're worth about two bucks now um 150 dollars it's really cute well we lost the magnet one's missing here one's missing here and some of our outside magnets caught them one two three four five five of the ten we're taking heavy damage captain we are when you invent something new you have to be prepared for it not to work and to fix it and repair it and try it and break it and fix it and and it's kind of a never-ending process not really sure if it's worth it i've learned some things what works i've got some ideas on how to improve it maybe for the next expedition [Music] with only a few hours left in their final day they retire the magnet rake and begin to hunt the triangular area they think holds the largest remaining pieces of the mondrabilla iron hey i got one i've really got one oh andy check this one out hello oh wow thanks man after all these little ones finally i mean it's not you know 12 tons but this is wow we've got the five giant ones in the museums and then all the thousands of tiny ones and almost nothing in between that is awesome wow it looks like a dinosaur skull it looks like an asteroid actually it really does it's been pummeled by impacts a few times give me a thousand bucks for it i don't think so you don't think so in any marketplace the larger the volume the lower the price the meteorite market is typically no different but occasionally there are a few exceptions i think this is one of those rare meteorites where it actually becomes more valuable when it's larger because we never see pieces of this size so i would say at least 2 000 maybe hundred okay give me eighteen i don't think so i never expected to find a monderville this size ever well your theory to go off uh farther downstream seems to pay off yeah well that was a joint effort lads the whole the whole thing's been a joint effort great job congratulations yeah all right well good job mate night falls on their final day with ultimate success a rare mid-sized piece of the famous australian meteorite the mundra villa iron this new find brings the total value of their bounty to an estimated seven thousand dollars it's been a fantastic expedition finally making it out here to the nullarbor it's so really a dream come true you read in the papers about wide-open expanses in the limestone plateau and but you can read those articles all day long and when you see it in person for the first time it's mind-bending it just goes on forever i'm going to drive northwest up to the forest station hunting with stephen jeff has been really interesting for just as clean as i am and they're really really enthusiastic just makes a really enjoyable environment working you've been great company and it's really been very informative for us to have someone with your expertise here so you're welcome to join us in the field anytime any place [Music] wow this is a chunk yes found one it's been a great trip for me too it's really good to be out here with guys that are so enthusiastic and really know what they're doing as well it's just just makes it such a good time well thank you and there's so many meteorites out there not just not just mondrabella but all the other string fields all the cold finds waiting to be made that's right whoa yeah oh yeah wow look at that wow that's a nice one yeah hey steve australian law dictates jeff and steve will only be allowed to bring these valuable fines out of the country if they're granted an export visa a process that could take several months if at all oh look at that after all these little ones finally well andy we salute you we don't often meet people that can keep up with us in the field and sure and uh you actually put in even a couple more hours than we did now and then [Music] the big fine today was just a huge surprise and a great surprise i'll never forget how bright and out of character the color was because we're so used to walking around going oh there's one and you pick up a little piece and then to just see a really large piece sitting on the surface red color yeah stands out when you it really does i mean the little ones stand out but the big one yeah i almost fell over jeff andy check this one out wow oh wow western australia is meteorite central the biggest strewn field on the australian continent mundra billa is here and that strewn field is so enormous that it encompasses several other smaller strewn fields including forest and also the amazing tectite stream field that is full of these intriguing black glassy fragments that have been blasted all the way here from asia australia is a big target and a lot of meteorites have landed here the reason that so many meteorites have been recovered is that the nullarbor is an ideal search location it's huge it's flat there are no trees here and the surface is really really old the limestone chunks that we see on the ground here are millions of years old and that means that meteorites have been accumulating on this ancient surface for millions of years in addition the dryness of the environment helps preserve meteorites if the nullarbor plane was in northwest europe it would be covered in trees and there would be heavy rainfall here meaning that the meteorites would already have decayed but it's possible to find meteorites here that have been on the ground for thousands or possibly tens of thousands of years maybe even longer so it's a combination of factors that makes the nullarbor plane meteorite central for hunters like us it's a vast open expanse it's an ancient surface and the dryness of the environment preserves meteorites for extremely long periods of time there is almost no better spot on earth than right here to find space rocks i was so amazed when i woke up the other morning and the light's just starting to form and it's all misty and andy's tense open like looking around where's andy i thought maybe you're going to start a fire or something and he's way the heck up on the bridge before the sun yeah yeah that's the point you made when we were driving the other day that you'd never seen the grass even remotely like this out on the nullarbor and we just happened to plan our expedition to follow immediately after heavy rains we're expecting to be walking out just on orange dirt flats picking up meteorites we didn't realize it was going to be covered in growth yeah i've never seen it like this either it's incredible actually to look out across the malabar and just see big flat open expanse that's normally red instead it's just a sea of this really is the wild frontier the combination of the beautiful landscape the amazing wildlife that we've seen and the abundance of meteorites makes it one of the most exciting places that i could possibly be i think australia has adopted a little part of my heart and i plan to return it's been a real joy being out here hunting with andy he's an accomplished meteorite hunter he's found meteorites on his own and i'm really glad he had a chance to get out here with us so we can find some meteorites together

Channel: Meteorite Men

Views: 35,707

Keywords: meteorites, meteorite men, factual tv, meteorites documentary, meteorite men tv show, space rocks, scientific tv series, meteorite men season 2, meteorite men full episode, science channel tv shows, meteorite men series, science tv shows, science channel

Id: OoPVoJAqSVU

Length: 47min 30sec (2850 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020