[meteorite-list] Questions regarding Unclassified meteorite sales

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Nov 6 11:05:00 2005
Message-ID: <rd9sm1d32rbgiuopl3ogvsgudalfs3boig_at_4ax.com>

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 02:35:16 +1100, "Kevin Forbes" <vk3ukf_at_hotmail.com> wrote:

>You wouldn't know if it was part of a large or small fall, since no details
>on it's find location are noted.
>You wouldn't know if you had a highly altered chondrite or an achondrite.

<snip>

>Should a NWA be studied and found to be an insight to something, can we go
>and get more of it. NO, we have no idea of where it came from or how much of
>it made land fall.
>For example.,
>What is the Lat. and Lon. the specimen was found at? Unknown.
>What is the country of origin? Unknown.
>Who found it? Unknown.
>When was it found? Unknown.
>What was the total mass of the fall? Unkown.
>What is the area of material distribution? (Fall ellipse). Unknown.
>

<snip>

>It is akin to an archealogical site being robbed of its items with no regard
>to the location, depth, age, pieces that go with this or that, and just sold
>to the first bod that comes along, Here ya are mate, some ancient treasure.


I tend to disagree with most of your points here. With fossils and human artifacts, the context and
stratigraphy and associated artifacts are highly important to understanding the fossil or artifact.
But with a meteorite, where it landed and when it was found and who found it and the size of the
original chunk are very superficial matters. It would be interesting to be able to determine the
orbit of the original fragment, but (and correct me if I'm wrong) to deduct orbits from the
shape/directon of strewn feilds, don't you need to know WHEN it hit? Wouldn't you need to know what
time of day, and what day of the year before you could use that strewn feild data to get the orbit?

The one main use I would see out of mapping out the strewn feild would be to have kept all of the
NWA numbers straight instead of giving several different numbers to pieces from the same fall, but
that situation isn't in any way different than the situation with each individual meteorite
collected from the stranded surfaces in Antarctica having to be given an individual number because
all of the possible pairing/strewn feild data has also been lost on those.

As for needing to go back and get more of the material, it is amazing what amount of study can be
done with current insturments with TINY amounts of material. I'm sure more can be learned from one
gram now than could be learned from 100 grams a generation ago.

And just because a NWA hasn't been classified, doesn't mean that it never will. When it comes down
to it, I'd think that a meteorite is like a fossil or human artifact in that while it is better that
it be collected and documented by a professional in the subject than an amature, it is better that
it be collected by an amature than be left to be destroyed by the elements, never to be collected at
all. Because I don't think that there would ever have been the type of large scale, expensive
formal scientific team scouring of the deserts that would have recovered anything close to the
number of meteorites that have been recovered by natives and collectors.
Received on Sun 06 Nov 2005 11:10:58 AM PST