[meteorite-list] Chemical and Petrological Characterization of meteorites and other rocks

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Nov 21 19:03:59 2004
Message-ID: <20041122000321.28321.qmail_at_web53210.mail.yahoo.com>

Dear List,
   As someone who has done chemical and petrological
research, there are several problems involved. My
research has only dealt with cherts and glasses. Both
cherts and glasses are generally considered to be
homogeneous in geology. In fact, they are and they
are not.
  In chemically characterizing a meteorite (which are
typically considered hetrogeneous), chert, glass and
other rocks there are inherent problems presented to
the researcher. The results of his/her research may
be influenced by the sample size, sampling method and
the method of analyis.
  I have done both bulk chemical analysis (ICP) and
spot sampling (ASEM and KEVEX). Both can and often do
produce slightly different results. Sometimes the
results can be very different due to the researcher,
techniques, standards and sample population. Also
once the data is obtained, the data has to be
interpreted. Often a data set contains equipment
error and is skewed or contains noise from a high peak
response. Many times the scientist must be an artist
rather than a strict scientist.
   Most in science understand the inherent problems
and in the real world have to accept them. Science is
a search for fact, not truth.
   So the next time you read a description keep in
mind that all analysis is done by humans and machines
with several types of error.
   Some researchers state only the minimum of their
intrepretations and others use terms such as
remarkable, unique, common, etc. These qualatative
subjective terms are subject to each individual
researcher and another researcher may not choose to
use such terminology or in fact it may or not be a
personal bias that the specific researcher has
introduced.
  That is all I have to say. Any comments? Cheers,
Dirk Ross..Tokyo


                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today!
http://my.yahoo.com
 
Received on Sun 21 Nov 2004 07:03:21 PM PST