[meteorite-list] Is Amgala Official? / New Bulletin

From: Frank Prochaska <fprochaska_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue May 10 17:22:00 2005
Message-ID: <0IGA000Q9M0HJF35_at_vms040.mailsrvcs.net>

        I'm trying to figure out what the big deal is here. Synonyms and
meteorites "named" one thing only to be referred to something else later, or
found to be paired with or transported specimens of another name, are very
common. It certainly isn't limited to meteorites traded or sold "too soon."
The North Chile hexahedrites were then so named after various specimens of
different names (I'm counting 16 now, about 8 of them rather large pieces)
had been in museum collections and studied for decades (maybe even 100
years). I'm finding 35 synonyms for Canyon Diablo without looking very
hard. Despite the discussion in this case, collectors seem to vote
regularly with their wallets to get new falls and finds in their collections
before the NomCom gives them the official blessing. Certainly the
scientific community doesn't seem harmed, and if anything continues to
benefit (as do collectors) from the fervor of new finds and falls that
drives hunters and dealers to recover more material and trade it to the
scientific collections (not to mention the many outright donations).
        Now, if there were no such body like the NomCom to make officially
recognized names and classifications that help the rest of us keep all this
straight, THAT would be a problem to complain about. Thank you Jeff and
colleagues!

Frank Prochaska

 

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Jeff
Grossman
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 12:49 PM
To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Is Amgala Official? / New Bulletin

This happens all the time with meteorites that get on the market before
they come to the NomCom. It's just a fact of life. If a meteorite is
found halfway between towns, then usually the person who submits it to us
chooses. Hyphenated names are only used in special circumstances (there
will be one announced this week where pieces fell on both sides of an
international border). We give a lot of deference in choosing names to the
person or team that first classifies it as long as the name is reasonable
and appropriate.

There are thousands of synonyms for meteorite out there. Amgala will be
another. It won't be used in the scientific literature, but it will get in
all the databases.

Jeff

At 03:54 PM 5/10/2005, Meteoryt.net wrote:

> > Amgala was the provisional working name for Oum Dreyga. The meteorite
>fell
> > between Amgala and Oum Dreyga in the country of Western Sahara. It was
> > determined later on to have fallen closer to Oum Dreyga than Amgala thus
>the
> > new name. The coordinates were provided by us from the beginning and do
> > plot closer to Oum Dreyga. If you dig through the archives you will see
>we
> > even provided a map. NAU was working on this material from the beginning
>and
> > would have also called it Oum Dreyga. It doesn't matter either way
>because
> > it is now formerly classified.
>
>OK.
>Unfortunatelly we have here two worlds.
>World of science and comercial world. Unfortunatelly science world make
>rules here :)
>
>So what will happend if strewfield will be in half way beetween 2 towns ?
It
>will have name of town closer to bigger specimens or not ? :)) Or we will
be
>have X-Y like Gao-Guenie ? :))
>
>Its for me little funny now. One meteorite will be have now 2 names.
>Official and unofficial.
>I only hope that noone will return Amgala purchased from me becouse its not
>Oum Dreyga :))
>
>-----[ MARCIN CIMALA ]-----[ I.M.C.A.#3667 ]-----
>http://www.Meteoryt.net marcin_at_meteoryt.net
>http://www.PolandMET.com marcin_at_polandmet.com
>http://www.Gao-Guenie.com GSM +48(607)535 195
>--------[ Member of Polish Meteoritical Society ]--------
>
>______________________________________________
>Meteorite-list mailing list
>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list

Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA


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Received on Tue 10 May 2005 05:21:48 PM PDT