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Fragments of a 10-tonne asteroid found along the Alberta/Saskatchewan border have already been dubbed the Marsden Meteorite by excited locals.

University of Calgary researchers Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Millet discovered several pieces of the space rock late Thursday near Marsden, a farming village of 275 people about 270 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

The search for the space rock began on Nov. 20 after the asteroid was spotted hurtling toward Earth by thousands of people in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. People in the Marsden area not only saw the fireball, which was as bright as a billion-watt light bulb, but they also heard and smelled it.

“It made a rumbling sound and it left a weird smell. This will sound funny, but it smelled like burning rock,” said Glenda Hankins, who owns the Marsden Hotel.

Besides sonic booms, witnesses also reported hearing hissing or crackling noises like frying bacon.

Dr. Hildebrand, a co-ordinator of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre with the Canadian Space Agency, said fireballs can act as radio transmitters, causing odd sounds.

He expects that thousands of meteorite fragments were strewn over an estimated 20-square-kilometres near the Battle River.

Grant Jones, a farmer who owns land in the area where many more of the fragments are expected to be found, is already warning interested space rock collectors to ask for permission from property owners before setting out on their hunt.

“It's deer-hunting season. People better watch out or at least wear an orange hat, or it could get messy out there,” the 58-year-old said.

While the harvest is over for the season, he has no immediate plans to conduct a search of his own despite a $12,000 reward being offered by U.S. meteorite collector Robert Haag for the first one-kilogram chunk of space rock that is found.

“I figure I'll find some next spring when I get back out in the fields,” he said.

The largest meteorite shower in Canada occurred northeast of Edmonton near the town of Bruderheim in 1960. More than 700 fragments were recovered that together weighed a total of 300 kilograms.

With a report from Canadian Press