Morasko

Due to common effort, long-standing cooperation with professor Andrzej Muszyński and kindness of Regional Director of the Environmental Protection of Poznań we were able to conduct our research in the Morasko Meteorite Nature Reserve. After approximately three weeks of questing, at the beginning of October 2012 we have discovered the biggest meteorite in the history of Poland!

During our research we were employing the LORENZ - professional metal detector which is using modern method making it possible to explore deep in the ground. Two meteorite hunters from Opole - Łukasz Smuła and Magdalena Skirzewska - were participating in the research under the auspices of professor Andrzej Muszyński, representing Institute of Geology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. What is more, professor Pierre Rochette from France, Andrzej Pilski, A. Krzesińska and M. Dworzyńska were taking part in the research.

The meteorite was discovered by Łukasz Smuła and Magdalena Skirzewska 217 cm (7,12 ft) under the ground (depth of top of the meteorite). It is orientated meteorite in shape of the cone. It is 55 cm (21,7”) high, 45 cm (17,7”) wide and 72 cm (28,3”) long.
Anyway, it would not be possible to pull it out without help from our friend Roman and Marian, father of Magdalena. If not their appropriate equipment, time and physical strength we would not be able to bring out the meteorite. What is more, Marek Muszyński and Jakbub Muszyński - sons of professor Andrzej Muszyński - were very helpful too. We would love to thank you all for your help and support!

We are delighted and grateful for being able to discover such a spectacular celestial body during research with all these amazing people. We will never forget this indescribable feeling when we have found the biggest Polish meteorite. It was at the end of our work-day. I remember the loud sound of the metal detector - it was so noticeable that I almost could not believe I have found something so big so close to me. I have stopped and said “There is something! This time it is very deep but it is huge”. I took headphones off to make it possible for everyone to hear the signal. We were walking around it for some time just to listen to it - it gave us so much joy that we have finally found something big. Unfortunately, it was getting late and we had to wait until morning to dig in. At the time, we did not know that we have just found something very unique and significant...

At first, we were truly surprised about the depth of the meteorite. Its top was almost 220 cm (7,2 ft) under the ground! Later on, we were shocked by its weight - the meteorite and the saprolite weighed almost 300 kg (661.38 lb)!
It is incredible that we have found this exceptional meteorite. Thanks to discovering it we know more about this kind of meteorites - for example about their falls. Currently, we may be sure that the fall of Morasko meteorite was caused by a slog. It was not transferred by a glacier, as the other theory says.
We are proud and happy to say that our discovery have inevitably opened a new chapter in a Polish history of the meteoritics.
The meteorite we have discovered is now being presented in the Museum in The Faculty Of Geographical And Geological Sciences of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.