When a meteorite falls in Antarctica it becomes buried under snow and will eventually become incorporated into the deep ice cap.

The ice cap in Antarctica is continually flowing to the edge of the continent, carrying the meteorites with it. When the ice hits a barrier, such as a mountain range, it is forced upwards.

The strong 'katabatic' (downward) winds erode the surface ice, revealing high pressure 'blue ice' and the meteorites it has brought up from great depths. The meteorites accumulate, as they are too heavy to be carried far by the wind.

The blue areas in the lower illustration show blue ice accumulates against the mountains.

The inset shows a 3km by 7km square blue ice patch where more than 1,500 meteorites were found thus far.

Very cool perspective views and images of Antarctic ice shelves

where ANSMET teams search for meteorites at the base of the mountain ranges on snowmobiles. Click on thumbnail images for larger view.