[meteorite-list] Favorite Ordinary Chondrites

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:48 2004
Message-ID: <3E71CFD2.17345C72_at_kconline.com>

Subject: A Nininger Moment 9
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 05:32:33 -0500
From: almitt <almitt_at_kconline.com>
To: "meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>

Nininger's Program Of Meteorites

Dr. Nininger was good at both presenting information on his numerous
talks throughout central and western United States and also at hunting
them. He would sometimes stop in at a local restaurant for a bite to eat
and would lay meteorite specimens on the counter so as to generate
interest that would sometimes uncover new finds. He would go back to
areas he had asked about specimens before and ask again, always
offering a reward for a new find. His program was initiated in 1923 and
by 1950 in the state of Kansas alone where only 15 new meteorites had
been located in seventy five years prior, he had located an additional 40
new falls! Perhaps more important was information he was collecting
with each new field investigation. He was trying to unravel some
of the assumptions of that time into more factual information produced
by the types and amount of new falls and finds he or those working with
him had found. Some of these were the ratios of the different types of
various falls, such as irons and stony type. Nininger showed that showers
of stony meteorites were the rule rather than the exception.

Ninginger brought to light over 222 previously unknown falls, that added
up to over 2,000 individual meteorites during this time frame of hunting.
Also no doubt that many new falls were also found as an indirect result
of his program to other institutions, collectors and scientists. A Dr. Flecter
Watson of Harvard once wrote in his book " Between The Planets"
Published in 1941 that Nininger was accounting for half of all the
discoveries in the world at that time. In 1937 thirty one new discoveries
were tabulated to have been found due to Nininger's efforts. More than
three times the amount found in any three years previous for the entire
world. For all of the finds there were also the pseudo-meteorite finds that
totaled some 35,000 specimens that yielded nothing. Nininger figured he
had published over 150 different papers, four books and two booklets and
passed out over 200,000 free leaflets in his effort to bring about new
meteorite finds and information.

Nininger also stated that mankind is not ready to write a chemical
formula for meteorites as some new varieties have only been encounter
only once and perhaps some will only fall to our planet once in a 10,000
year span of time. Of the 1,800 varieties that had been found and
cataloged at that time, some were only represented by one, two, or three
falls. He also reasoned that there are some that have never reached our
planet at all and that we don't have an adequate sample of the over-all
increment of the meteoritcal matter and I think that is even ringing as
true today as back then. Often Nininger was told that a fall was all
hunted out and that no more remained. In his program of finding more
specimens he would often hunt an area again and find many more new
specimens. Such was the case of the Plainview where 68.2 pounds had
been found at the time and was suggested that was all there was to be
found. Though an additional 1430 lbs were later recovered due to the
efforts of Nininger and some others.

Source: Find A Falling Star By H.H. Nininger

The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey
Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of
the items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
reader is advised to keep this in mind.

--AL
Received on Fri 14 Mar 2003 07:49:22 AM PST