[meteorite-list] NWA naming issues

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 9 14:20:03 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86904EE601D_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

On the NWA naming business, I side with Adam, John Gwilliam and more
importantly the NomCom on this one. Years ago, the NomCom chose the
"least bad" solution to the NWA situation, and remained self-consistent
in doing so. Quite simply, NWA naming/numbering is handled just like
Antarctica: unique numbers for everything that can't be physically
paired. Thus, NWA 1110 is not a unique label for a particular fall --
it is a unique label for a particular lab-classified specimen.

While another specimen might classify exactly the same as NWA 1110,
it isn't NWA 1110. It may very well be from the same fall (and the
extreme rarity and general proximity would bolster the case that it
is), but NWA 1110 is a unique label identifying a particular specimen.

The casualty in this whole process is pairing and TKW -- which are of
minimal importance as far as science is concerned. Rarity is obviously
important to collectors, so it is up to them to estimate that rarity
from publicly available information and draw their own conclusions
about how that should affect value. --Rob
Received on Thu 09 Sep 2004 02:10:27 PM PDT