Buzzard Coulee, Saskatchewan

"Where Buzzards Flew"

 

Social media went crazy Nov 20, 2008 when a very bright fireball was caught travelling downward north to south near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. A police dash-cam caught it exploding. It was seen to fragment and even left a visible dust trail. Sonic booms and explosion sounds and whirring noises of falling rocks were reported.

 

Sky video cameras in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba allowed a landing position to be calculated.

 

The original meteoroid was estimated to be 10 tons, prior to losing mass from heat ablation and vaporization.

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The first pieces were recovered off ice on a pond Nov 27 near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. By Dec 6, snow fall made searching difficult until the spring of 2009.

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Several hundred "Buzzards" were found in 2008 and 2009, many with a rich fresh black fusion crust and surface flow lines. Some exhibited freshly broken surfaces from the in-air fragmentation.

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The total recovered mass is over 41 kg. The largest piece weighed about 13 kg.

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Several searches were organized by University of Calgary.