More than 45,000 meteorites have been collected from Antarctica, not because more fall there, but because flowing ice carries dark rocks into blue-ice stranding zones while the wind strips away snow, concentrating pieces of the Moon, Mars and asteroids on one enormous white surface

More than 45,000 meteorite specimens have been recovered from Antarctic ice since the first documented find there in 1912, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory. Recent scientific literature puts the worldwide Antarctic collection closer to 50,000. Meteorites begin by disappearing into the iceWhen a meteorite lands on an Antarctic ice sheet, fresh snow may bury it. Blue ice turns the continent into a search fieldThese accumulation areas are usually blue-ice fields, hard expanses where surface snow is absent and ancient compressed ice is exposed. The United States launched the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program, known as ANSMET, in 1976.