[meteorite-list] NWA 773 lunar pairings

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 31 16:09:59 2006
Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20060731152651.037c0f88_at_usgs.gov>

NomCom rules have absolutely no bearing on pairings like this. After
all, such publications do nothing to change the names of the
specimens. What this allows you to do is talk about the "NWA 773
pairing group" to mean the whole collection, preferably after citing
the source for doing so. However it does NOT allow you to call NWA
2700 by the name NWA 773. All the specimens retain their original
names and numbers.

There is also no such thing as a list of "official"
pairings. MetBase tabulates them from the literature, but this does
not put any kind of stamp-of-approval on the pairings or cause them
to become official. "Officialness," if there is such a thing, comes
from publication, reproducibility, and, perhaps ultimately,
widespread acceptance by the scientific community.

This said, there are actually two "official" actions that are
possible with some pairings:

1) If the meteorites came from a non-dense collection area (without
numbers in their names), it would also be possible to ask the NomCom
to abolish one of the names as an official action. But this is
specifically prohibited for NWA or other numbered meteorites. If two
meteorites are found close together, compared in detail to each
other, and shown to be part of the same fall beyond any reasonable
doubt, the NomCom could agree to abolish one names. This would be
announced in the Meteoritical Bulletin. It is a rare event. The
Gao-Guenie consolidation under this single name was such a case.

2) One other technicality that could apply to this situation concerns
type specimens for future finds belonging to the pairing group,
although this only applies for meteorites with well-documented
locations, never NWAs. If they were Dhofars, for example, it might
be possible to lower the type specimen requirement for a new find if
there was very strong evidence that it was paired with others. But
even in this case, the new meteorite would get its own number. Such
pairings are announced in the Bulletin as well. Only one pairing
group has ever been published (see the Dho 026 entry
http://tin.er.usgs.gov/meteor/index.php?code=6725), although another
will soon be announced.

Jeff


At 03:23 PM 7/31/2006, David Weir wrote:
>List,
>
>Well, the results are in - in the MetSoc 69th Annual Meeting
>abstract #5235 that is... and just as I had suspected, NWA 773 has
>many brothers and sisters: NWA 2700 (previously with Boswell), 2727
>(Oakes et al.), 2977 (Farmer), 3160 (Hupe), and 3333 (Kuntz) are all
>considered to be paired by the eminent scientists Zeigler, Korotev,
>Jolliff, Bunch, and Irving. Of course, I'm not sure the NomCom rules
>allow such an official pairing with NWA 773 after the fact,
>especially with no reliable geographic coordinates. But then a
>future peer-reviewed journal publication could make it officially
>"official" I believe. No matter, the abstract is more than
>convincing if your own eyes have ever cast doubt on their pairing. I
>have some revisions to make on my site.
>
>David
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Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
Received on Mon 31 Jul 2006 04:09:42 PM PDT