Meteorite Men | S03 E01 | Morasko Craters Poland

[Music] meteorites alien invaders that crash through our atmosphere and fall to earth without warning steve arnold and jeff notkin live to exhume these scientific [Applause] on this expedition the guys have a three-day permit to hunt in one of europe's most famed crater sites morasco poland let's do it it's a rare opportunity and the guys face numerous hurdles ah what do you think's causing all that interference rifle cartridge we have to be conscious of the danger of it collapsing it's almost dark will they have enough time to discover space gold this isn't coming out today parts of asteroids that broke up 4 billion years ago traveling at 17 000 miles per hour they careen to earth and remain buried until now meteorite men steve arnold and jeff notkin are in poznan poland to investigate the marasco crater field approximately 200 miles from the nation's capital warsaw only a few miles from this spot is the miraculous marasco craterfield and sternfield yeah one of the most interesting crater fields in the world there are multiple craters some are filled with water and there have been some very significant finds there [Music] steve and jeff's goal is to recover iron meteorites that have been buried for over 5 000 years in the town of poznan the guys find the perfect location to grab a bird's eye view of their target i actually really wanted to see it from this vantage point as well because the fireball would have gone something like over this way out that direction you can imagine what a spectacle it must have been scientists believe that the meteorite hit the land mass that is today contemporary poland 5 000 years ago luckily back then the area was uninhabited this volley of meteorites would have generated widespread devastation sparking wildfires and clouds of dust that could have blocked out the sun for several days if a similar event happened today the result would be devastating large meteorite falls to earth are rare but they have happened and will happen again dr james ashley is an expert on such enormous meteorite collision events the chances for a future impact are 100 percent it's a question of when where and what object the bigger the meteorite the greater the chance of devastation but big is a relative term in fact scientists estimate that it would only take a meteorite half the size of the golden gate bridge to end life on earth we're now realizing that the risk changes with the size and energy of the impacting object in the kilometer size range well now you're talking about the potential for a mass extinction event whether it hits on land or in the ocean steve and jeff hope that morasco's once devastated terrain will prove to be fertile ground for their hunt for months the meteorite men petitioned the polish authorities for a permit to hunt here where they're the first foreign citizens to be given access steve and jeff's efforts will complement previous work undertaken by a local hunter who began mapping the crater in 2006 but the license gives them three days 72 hours and no more from the outset they'll be up against the clock [Music] you don't look very enthusiastic um well [Music] i trust you no you don't of course i don't and and this is like worth uh missing stuff like uh hunt rock stuff well i think you will feel that it was worth it seriously everybody's taking pictures of this [Music] really it gets better i thought you'd find this a very inspirational moment [Music] oh wow i like goats i prefer them to sheep [Music] now what oh that was it [Music] they go back in now now can we look for meteorites yes now we can go let's go [Music] that clock's fast i thought i might show you a bit of the history of the place first you know napoleon used poznan as a headquarters for for two whole weeks really during the campaign in the 1800s let me look in here for a second no nothing niantic nobody let's look over here look at this statue here in the middle of the square isn't that fantastic you're in one of the most historic towns in eastern europe it's been inhabited since the dark ages and serious construction of buildings started here as early as the 10th century the very first cathedral in all of poland was built here in the 900s and by the 14th century was a major center for trade in europe let's have a look in this one oh there's no one there at all i guess that can't be it it's been a kind of hotbed of uh the fight for polish independence and national identity one of the notable events was in 1956 when the so-called auslan riots took place here thousands of protesters actually waged a battle against the occupying soviet army and it was a civil insurrection a lot of people died actually in street fights and riots like the citizens oh yeah oh yeah it was it was a civil insurrection against the soviet occupation of poland and a lot of people died actually in in street street fights and riots so we've got one two three four five six seven just the eight cafes only in this corner another really interesting part of the history of this city i think concerns the citadel which is on the north and it's been a fortified area for centuries in 1945 it was the one of the last nazi strongholds in world war ii [Music] well that one's closed so that's easy there's nobody in that one i don't mind you know looking for meteorites but when you look for meteoritis yeah because you can't even use the detector to find them because that one's completely empty there's some people in that one down there should probably check that out well i think this is the only place we haven't been to now we've come full circle haven't we before they head out to the crater steve and jeff meet an important contact that's in there the scientists responsible for facilitating their access good morning professor andres muzinski is a geologist at poznan's adam mikovich university here are the craters okay and this is the town so it's quite a springfield but look at the abundance of fines these are all the large ones strewn fields are created when meteorites break into pieces as they punch through our atmosphere as they fall small pieces lose their energy faster than large pieces so large pieces travel farther than the small ones the fragments that land on the ground are spread over an area called a stream field and at morasco it's almost two miles long the really large one how was it found he has a detector and it just made a noise and he dug it yes okay and not and 80 centimeters is not all that not not deep but there is always a chance that there are more deeply buried theoretically it's a possibility but we don't know no one checked with the better equipment will we have the better equipment the guys and the professor hit the road and make the 10-mile drive to the impact site this is fantastic and we're right here all the blue areas are are craters and this is one one kilometer wide and so most stream fields are too wide so that's very easy what about this area where nothing's been found that looks good no it doesn't look good because this is a cover a marsh area not recommended at all okay thank you well that's why we have you here i really like this piece right here look at all these fines and all these fines and nothing nothing in that small zone there because this is uh untouched area this is the promising area for you yeah one of our tactics needs to be to take the deep max around the rim of those craters we go in with with the deep max and we get a target there's a good chance it's going to be something big i love this tactics 12 noon and the clock begins ticking on the guy's permit steve and jeff will need to manage their time wisely before they bring out the deep seeing detectors they'll use smaller hand-held units to hunt along the crater's rim in the hope that shrapnel from the initial impact was flung outward and buried in what is today lush woodland is that rain i think it's just wind in the church just wind okay why don't we just meet up here um in an hour unless one of us finds something okay big scream holler all right i'm gonna go find a meteorite okay [Music] just jumping all over the scale jeff has only been hunting for 30 minutes on a valued three-day pass when his detector gives off a signal yeah it was something that's something good though i don't even know what that is big piece of iron the space rocks buried here are mostly iron so hunting with metal detectors is essential oh much too straight nature does not make surfaces like that jeff is using a high-end detector able to locate metal deep underground and identify what type of metal it is it's got a digital readout it's got a scale from 1 to 100 and it gives me an indication of what the target is probably made of i want numbers at the low end of the scale around 10 to 15 is good that means iron we're looking for iron meteorites there are three types of meteorites iron stoney and stony iron the guys do have exclusive access to hunt at the preserve but that doesn't mean it'll be a slam dunk [Music] rifle cartridge now i lost it i don't know stuck between enemy forces in two world wars poland was left battle scarred as combat raged on her soil not only do we get to hunt for meteorites here but i get to experience some real military history i'm standing in a world war one trench in fact it was a soldier digging one of these trenches in 1914 who found the very first marasco meteorite by accident and in 1939 hitler unleashed his blitzkrieg as german forces rolled across the polish border so the entire site has the potential to be littered with the relics of war it's an old bit of wire i think with all the old world war one fortifications around here we can expect to find a lot of barbed wire wow some type of wire that sounds nice wow that's not fair bit of an old nail it's big it's thick it's not immediately the good part is this area has definitely not been hunted because there's just targets all over the place and the bad part lots of targets means lots of digging digging takes time and with only a three-day permit time is a luxury they simply do not have yep there's another one look at that but i mean it could be anything no way all that for a little one you know this is frustrating it's not sticking to the magnet it's probably a lead bullet that's very decayed yeah it's very small it's not a meteorite i don't care the one thing i know for sure it's not a meteorite that sounds like something very close to the surface probably man-made okay this is fine there's a lot of trash out here this looks like some decomposed man-made stuff it's not a meteorite unfortunately none of them have been meteorites yet yet let's see a nail a nail a screw this is a really bizarre forest i've been getting all kinds of strange signals i dug two holes i had a really good target and i dug down and there was nothing there it was kind of what is that i don't know well that looks quite interesting it's got that concave side but i guess it there's some of this is shrapnel right oh yeah i suppose that could be a weather piece what's uh what does it really do 8 11 11. there's tons of iron in it how would a man-made thing whether into that shape and be out here on its own it's the guy's first potential find of the day but without chemical analysis it remains something of an enigma well we know one thing um somebody didn't dig this up so this problem this area hasn't been hunted very well well let's search around here a bit more sorry to bother you but i got another hunk of metal oh yeah okay i just found this one like 10 feet away very similar aren't they now how do they compare with something that we know is man-made very similar hmm hunks of iron rusting away in the same environment rust is the familiar term for iron oxide and rusting is the process in nature that's leaving jeff and steve frustrated iron oxide spreads across meteorites like a fungus when the molecules in water and oxygen react to the elements that form most metal surfaces the acidic reaction forms a crust that corrodes everything from bomb shrapnel to space rocks making it difficult to distinguish between them i mean i suppose they could be that stuff's definitely not right i'll put that in the definitely not pocket and we'll put these in the definitely maybe pocket well that's something well i said it before this area hasn't been hunted very well with time evaporating jeff and steve must figure out if their fines are actually space rocks so they can choose their next move let's collect a few more pieces see if we can find a bigger one okay and well we got about an hour or so yeah all right yeah let's do that and we'll see what we can find and okay whoa oh you should do that further away from this is my area oh right because i saw your name on the sign over there i just forgot see what it is get out of there get on the magnet let's go oh right here a ring worth a worth about that much zero oh well i have you're wrong some bullet casing did you find any more of those mystery irons that's probably not so three promising ones that really could be a meteorite i don't know about these things with only two days until their permit expires the guys need to determine if these are in fact meteorites let's go back to the hotel give the professor a call see if perhaps we can meet up with him tomorrow for a few minutes have a look at these yeah because if if these are real we then we want to blanket that area okay let's go we found some metal that that we really don't think are meteorites then we found three pieces that are maybe shaped a little better but about the same color yeah i like this one either verdict on these meteorites is a good one for us if they are meteorites i know where i'm wanting to spend as much time as possible to keep on hunting and finding more if they're not i don't want to waste my time there anymore there's other places we need to get to this looks very promising as a meteorite but this should be tested okay professor muzinski will take the mystery rocks to his lab for chemical and structural analysis the guys are going to have to wait for an answer good luck thank you for you while the professor goes to figure it out steve and jeff reboot their strategy the smaller handheld detectors are only finding man-made objects close to the surface the guys need to probe deeper so we might be able to go four meters deep instead of 3.8 meters deep steve and jeff will deploy new detectors that reach deeper than any model used at morasco before the large coil metal detector the deepmax is able to penetrate 10 feet into the earth they'll use it to discover targets and then pinpoint those targets with smaller handheld units wow that's reading it's over two meters uh-huh fantastic that's brilliant wait wait wait i'm sorry just shut off did you say i was broke i said that's brilliant that's brilliant with yesterday's mystery rocks being analyzed at the local university steve and jeff pick a new area along the southwest part of one of the craters iron meteorites are thought to originate from the cores of large asteroids that have shattered in deep scientists believe that they're similar in composition to earth's outer core and that they're probably the only meteorites with enough mass to make craters on impact in fact morasco is one of fewer than 200 officially recognized meteorite craters on earth well actually it's seven of them a potent reminder of the destructive force of a meteorite's collision with earth it's only luck that this huge space rock fell in an uninhabited area but if such an event were to take place today over a major city it would flatten it in thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of people would perish so what can be done about it how do we protect ourselves the first step is to try and make sure we know what's hurtling towards earth right now to determine exactly how bad the threat is that involves doing sky surveys to identify as many of these objects as we can prior to the impact and also doing terrestrial surveys of places that we know to have been impact sites to understand more about what happens during the process of an impact and that is exactly what jeff and steve are doing with professor muzinski they hope to find space rocks that can help further the study of morasco and meteorite impacts in general but metal trash is still throwing up false positives and beginning to test jeff's patience well that's great i think that's the best bit of wire we found on the whole expedition and they found lots of meteorites over on this side huh so the story goes so it was written all right we can kind of work the way back over that way there's a lot of trash out here which is good and bad it means i'm digging every few meters imagine that some wire that's the bad part no meteorites the good part is this area has definitely not been hunted well let's zigzag in and out of this area and kind of go back onto the rim and okay we're a little bit southwest of the crater let's see what we can do so jeff's new system that we're supposedly following here is the big coil goes around finds something the little coil comes out pinpoints where the signal is whoa a railroad spike where'd the railroad come through at so far we haven't found anything we've we've hit several different points no matter what the guys find they bag it after all if they return in the future they don't want to waste time digging up previously discarded trash woohoo look at this fantastic wire catch up when you can jeff oh bird's nest i have a good strong target i just came upon i've got something that sounds pretty deep look at that jeff bring your detector you want to see this there's a little tiny bit of blue eggshell left in there jeff it's for our sci-fi project hello jeff hey what's going on i'm getting a signal here and let's see what you got i don't know i might want to test it with this something's in here somewhere because the rest this is real quiet it sure sounds like a target to me what else could that be right there just loosening up the soil because it's so hard do i dare let myself get excited don't think you're just gonna stand there and watch me dig you may have a one or two meter hole to go into i'll help you thanks a bundle [Music] ah the new target is buried deeper than any man-made object is likely to be buried so as the meteorite men continue to excavate it becomes more probable that their target is not of this world hey i wonder if they'll deliver pizza wow what this very clearly shows is that whatever is buried down here was beyond the reach of any detector that's ever been used in this strewn field before so whatever it is it's deep this ground is hard and if we get down there and it's not a meteorite i am done done i'm gonna take up banking banking yeah banking that's the life for me [Music] as the guys begin the back-breaking work of freeing their target from its earthy tune professor muzinski is occupied analyzing yesterday's mystery rocks in his lab the rocks are finely ground to reveal the inner structure that hasn't been tainted by rust dirt or erosion the goal is to have a surface on which we can then etch by needle this process of acid etching exposes the distinctive geometric lines known as the vidman statin pattern these markings are not seen in any metal originating on earth if the pattern is spotted under the microscope then the meteorite men's fines would almost certainly be extraterrestrial oh we are expanding our footprint i'm not sure this is the best use of our time and we can really i mean we need to use the pick and i don't want to use the pick with both of us in the hole it's too dangerous yeah so you want to just do shifts take for a bit one of us will scout come back sure you can just cool when you get tired it'll probably be as soon as i get to that tree that's the thing well hand me the pick yeah and i'll start picking okay good luck thanks go find something oh really a bit of an old bolt our crater is right there so this is right in the in the splash path of where that thing came in and there's all these old dig holes around here so others have been found here and maybe maybe they missed two the anticipation's the best part of meteor ending oh it's worth it it's worth it i keep telling myself trying to see which direction we need to put the bottom of this hole it's no fun digging too far in the wrong direction maybe we need to come this way little off here peek it starts to go off again getting closer three hours into the dig jeff circles back to steve for a progress report oh hello oh did you take that all by yourself aren't you a clever lad who else is out here dude got to get a wider yeah why don't you try that thing in here [Music] of course if it's really big it's not a matter of being able to pinpoint it yeah looks like it's right in the middle of the hole well do you want to go out and do some hunting oh i can live for a while i'm digging no not really but i'm willing to ah yeah yeah yeah yeah well holler if you need help lifting that out of the hole okay we'll do thanks [Music] gotta watch it when i bring my fist back up to my eye though [Music] [Music] steve strikes out so he decides to go back to help jeff with the dig with only an hour of daylight left steve and jeff are going to have to make a decision as the clash would say should i stay or should i go one of the toughest things in the world is to leave a hole overnight this is when the adrenaline starts to kick in i would never ever in my whole life say let's leave the meteorite and come back tomorrow there comes a point where you just go okay it actually really cannot be a meteor wrong at this stage but there is this specter looming over our shoulders and that is how do we get it out of the bottom of the hole let's let's be logical about it even if we go another three inches or three feet or three meters this isn't coming out today their permit does not permit hunting in the preserve after dark i hate leaving a target in the ground overnight you never know what can happen but i think we're going to have to we got to pack it in for the night the guys are stuck between a rock and a hard place literally fortunately it's inside the preserve so the odds of someone sneaking in and grabbing our rock before we get out there in the morning pretty slim see in the morning but will leaving the target in the ground backfire and robbed the guys of space treasure before they get back to their big dig professor muzinski returns with a verdict on the earlier mystery rocks no of them is a yeah okay thank you again for doing that work so rapidly at least now we know well we we have the one mystery solved we've got the other mystery in the bottom of a hole we gotta go solve it thanks again professor thanks steve and jeff make their way back to the target they hope is alien i'm not leaving until this target's out of the ground do you hear me loud and clear well i i didn't make you go yesterday ah just where we left it oh it's all nice and muddy yes it is i'm already tired just looking at it that doesn't sound good we're gonna have to widen this aren't we yeah i think so go on then go on then oh yeah back to our friendly rocky ground i hope it's not a underground world war one bunker how many other meteorites are we not getting to because we have to that's the the irony of it the nickel irony oh the nickel irony i'll see how long my sense of humor lasts i'll give it about half an hour what do you think when's it starting [Music] after three hours shoveling dirt the guys arrive at a personal milestone this is easily the deepest hole we've ever dug by hand anything yeah this is true yeah go down a little deeper yeah it's going rather slowly isn't it it is it'll be worth it if it's a meteorite if it's a world war one artillery shell that's buried down there we're gonna be disappointed and possibly blown up as well what is that so you hear what i hear i heard something it sounded solid if that sound really is metal on metal the guys may have zeroed in on a space rock because at this depth it's very unlikely to be something man-made let me get a magneto i got one right here if the magnet sticks the guys have almost certainly found something extraterrestrial is that magnet sticking yes [Music] finally we have just uncovered something that attracts a magnet there is a dense object at the bottom it's rusty it's a dently iron because the magnet is sticking okay got a tape measure you hold the shovel let me hold this straight i got this 156 centimeters if this is in fact a meteorite it will be a record-setting discovery here at marasco it will be the most deeply buried meteorite ever recovered in the stream field and in fact almost twice as deep as the next contender so now we found it how are we gonna get it out i radioed for help we got reinforcements coming in [Music] hey hi guys the reinforcements are locals pressed into service by professor muzinski there's a meteorite right under jeff's right big toe well there's an iron object down here it could be a meteorite and we just need to get this probably as wide as this is all the way down and maybe even some steps kind of going in as you get there this hole's gonna have to be at least twice as big as it is now at least maybe more all right i'm gonna get out of your way this reminds me of road works in the uk you've got one guy digging in seven guys standing around watching okay is it okay with you if we go off and do a little more scouting and for sure leave you in command of this outfit sure we won't be long let's walk and roll the guys are running out of time if they don't search for more targets they might leave with nothing [Music] if that's a meteorite and it's that deep i don't think it's trapped we're extremely close to the most westerly crater it's just there on my left we are actually on the rim the rim goes around here maybe just the far side of the rim what do you think's causing all that interference i'm not sure if that's a meteorite and it's that deep i don't think it's trapped i think it's going to be an individual good point let me grab the handled one again and go back over this that's a good sign i'll use the big shovel for a minute if you want to rest if that's a meteorite that could be a piece of shrapnel that was blasted out of the crater boom blasted way up in the air and then crashed into the ground lay there for 5 000 years waiting for steve arnold to walk over it no yeah i kind of like that have you got a metal plate in your head well there's metal on my hat that's not enough now do it it still works here you dig and i'll play with your head the new target turns out to be a meteor wrong more wartime scrub that's a hell of a good detector to find that it's probably a bullet having struck out the guys head to their a-list target on the rim of the crater they are more than six feet down into the tough morasco clay and have only 15 hours until their hunting permit expires coming up buddy oh yeah [Music] oh yeah that's it's stuck so it's stuck over here over here over here and over here it's not smooth if it was man-made we'd expect it to be smooth that is a very typical surface for a buried iron meteorite i will officially say it is a meteorite [Music] but they still have to get it out of the ground and their permit won't extend beyond noon tomorrow i think the only way that a meteorite could be this deep here would be if it was a substantial individual that hit the earth really hard and buried itself actually punched right through the clay layer we did not expect to find anything this deeply buried this is almost exactly twice the depth of the previous deepest meteorite fight here at marasco good job by our polish team fantastic yeah let's get a crowbar in here please it's buried hard in the clay almost six feet down and encased in thick clay the space rock is anchored to the soil can you sleep better tonight at least knowing it is no i can't sleep until it comes out of the ground well jeff i noticed the hardest thing in the world to do is to leave a rock in the hole i wouldn't know i've never done it the guys have staked a large part of their hunt time on this being a meteorite but despite hours of digging their target remains landlocked and with darkness upon them they know they won't be permitted to stay in the preserve you know jeff it is kind of hard to work with a pickaxe in the middle of the dark i would have to agree with you in this one instance [Music] all right then that hurts man can you give me a hand up please sir oh thanks wow you know what that is a heck of a dig [Music] we've gone so far as to drive trucks out to the middle of the field and turn the headlights on to get a meteorite out of the ground but we had to leave it here overnight which was very taxing on the small remaining bit of my patients just outside poznan poland in the marasco crater preserve the guys head back to their target after a night of teeming rain jeff and steve arrive at the site with less than three hours remaining on their permit and a problem oh wow it's full of water last night an unprecedented rainstorm hit western poland and dumped inches of rain on moreso most of it into jeff and steve's diggle okay bucking on a string does it seem like we're making any progress oh rain let's empty the hole out and then it starts raining that's good oh i guess it's a little deeper than i thought it was we're out of water ah mud right now it's pretty slow going i think we should probably call in international rescue again i think you're right it's gonna take finally after digging through wet clay the moment steve and jeff have been waiting for arrives [Music] [Laughter] thank you ladies and gentlemen look it it's fantastic that's a little bigger than i was expecting you think you can lift that i'm not sure normally i could but it is a bit of a tight squeeze actually there's a handle or two on it okay here she comes okay wow it's officially a monster look at this look at the knobs on this thing that was a battle and a half to get that one out way to go congratulations good job guys yeah pictures to our polish team you guys are the business this thing's gorgeous i mean this is what we go through all this for is to pull these puppies out it's a beautiful solid piece and it's got a fantastic sculptural character and buried at just under six feet the depth confirms that marasco may yield more secrets jeff and steve's recovery at this level has rewritten the size and dimensions of the impact site we have shown that it's possible for meteorites to be found at a greater depth yes it's it's worth doing another search here with better equipment it's a new direction yes thank you for everything right it was the hardest of battles but so worth it ah it just felt perfect fit isn't it when this is cleaned off and displayed it's gonna be a killer [Music] hey i'll go get a hose i'll get the scale set up that yellow color is typical of other specimens that we've seen when they come out of the ground well you want to wear it yeah oh i was very close that's 34.2 just bouncing around a little bit 34.2 that's where it settled that was pretty good my estimate was 37. just under 75 pounds cut and etched an iron meteorite similar to this one could fetch up to 50 000 on the collector's market jeff and steve have paved the way for additional study of the marasco crater site with a new understanding of the depth at which these meteorites are buried scientists can begin to explore the location for even more deeply buried samples in doing so new craters may be unearthed and a larger mass of the original meteorite could yet be discovered that's pretty good yeah it's perfect fit we're done [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Geoff Notkin

Views: 8,474

Keywords: Meteorites, Meteorite Men, NASA, Tucson, Aerolite, Arizona, Geoff Notkin, Desert Owl Productions, asteroids, 4k, Lumix, GH4, ultra high definition, STEM Journals, Geoffrey Notkin

Id: -i10oYQIkeI

Length: 48min 35sec (2915 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2021