[meteorite-list] Dean's new NWA group

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:19 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4E2F2_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Dean, Frank, Bob and List,

I agree with Bob that the best short-term solution is a Bessey-
assigned field ID for each of these new stones -- the NWA numbers
from Jutta can come later, and then the numbers cross-referenced.
Dean has already done the work of imaging all these stones and
assigning short codes (BL1 - BL37). If these IDs are sufficiently
unique for Dean to keep track of them, then he's already achieved
what Bob has suggested.

Notice that I said NWA numbers - plural. This distinction is
meant to address Frank's message:

"I understand the trouble and effort it is to get NWAs classified,
but I'd recommend that you go at least to the trouble to get a
provisional NUMBER [Matson emphasis] from the nom. committee for
these stones and pass that number along to everyone who buys one.
Then the TKW and number of stones, at least from this batch, isn't
lost. And when one of your buyers does get their stone classified,
everyone who bought one, benefits (and this group of rocks doesn't
get classified a half dozen times)."

While these stones may look quite similar on the outside, what you're
asking is for dealers to make pairing decisions without actual
analysis. As Dean will probably agree, while these meteorites
were all mailed in one batch, it doesn't mean they were necessarily
found near each other. And even if they ~were~ found near each other,
it may have been in a stranding zone of intermixed falls. The
environment in which meteorites are found plays a big part in their
exterior appearance, and since we don't appear to be dealing with
a rarer meteorite type (in which pairing assumptions are much
more reliable), one L5 or L6 can look much like another.

It comes back to the same old dilemma: there are currently far
more meteorites than there are resources to analyze them, but the
only way to be reasonable sure of pairing common meteorites
(absent physical pairing) is to thin section and probe every one.
A problem with no imminent solution... --Rob
Received on Wed 21 Aug 2002 02:38:19 PM PDT