An Overview on Antarctic Meteorite Colletion and Studies in China

Following the discovery of 32 meteorites in Grove Mountains, Antarctica, by the 15~(th) and 16~(th) Chinese Antarctic Research Expeditions (CHINARE) during 1998-2000, the 19~(th) CHINARE has successfully collected 4448 meteorites in the same region during 2002-2003. This updates the Antarctic meteorite collection of China to the 3~(rd) in the world in regard to number after Japan and USA. The first 32 meteorites and 38 out of 51 representatives selected from the new 4448 meteorites have been classified. Except for equilibrated ordinary chondrites, there are 2 martian meteorites, 2 ureilites, 6 unequilibrated L3 chondrites, 4 carbonaceous chondrites, and 1 unequilibrated enstatite chondrite. In this paper, we summarize recent progresses in searching for and studying Antarctic meteorites, including those found in Grove Mountains by CHINARE, in order to direct both future meteorite searching in Grove Mountains and Antarctic meteorite study in China.