[meteorite-list] Secret Find/Fall Coordinates and Legitimacy - Someone help me understand this.

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:45:22 -0400
Message-ID: <4AE78612.5000106_at_usgs.gov>

I can address the Meteoritical Society angle on this...

It mainly began with the Labenne meteorites, Sahara xxxxx. There were
hundreds of these things appearing around 1997, and scientists were
already working on them. We had no prospect of getting the coordinates
and faced a tough decision: approve meteorites with secret locations or
risk losing the cooperation of dealers and collectors. The nomenclature
committee decided that there was really no choice but to accept the
meteorites. There was hope at the time that the coordinates would be
disclosed in perhaps 5 years, but it never happened.

Meanwhile, scientists are now doing the same thing for the same reason.
In fact, US Antarctic meteorite locations are kept secret and no longer
published. At least we know with those that one day the coordinates
will be released.

Jeff

Galactic Stone & Ironworks wrote:
> Hi List,
>
> Recently I was doing some research on various meteorites for an
> article I am writing, and I noticed a few entries in the Met Bulletin
> database that give all of the details about a meteorite, but then says
> that the actual find coordinates are secret or being withheld.
>
> Ok, I understand the motivations behind keeping a location secret.
> These motives have been discussed on the List previously, as recently
> as the new fall in Arizona that Dr. Schrader found - which
> subsequently set off a flurry of espionage and intrigues to find the
> fall which Dr. Jack was keeping secret. Granted. I can understand
> the value of not having 200 amateurs running rough-shod over a new
> strewnfield before it is properly documented. But, once the
> strewnfield is mapped, and the team(s) working the field have packed
> up and left with their specimens, what is the motivation for keeping
> the exact location a secret? If the fall is known to science and
> available to science (meaning, it has been classified and samples are
> available for study), then why should the location be kept secret? Is
> it financial reasons, so the original finders can come back on
> subsequents trips and deplete the strewnfield for their own
> inventories? Or, is it because the location is on someone's private
> property and the owner has requested that the exact location be kept
> secret to prevent a flood of trespassers? If the latter, then how
> does this explain the secret coordinates of the NWA desert finds -
> some of which are ordinary chondrites out in the open desert that were
> catalogued over 10 years ago. Why are these still being withheld?
>
> It seems to me, that science (and institutions) should not recognize
> meteorites whose find/fall locations are being kept secret
> intentionally without good explanation - doing so would encourage
> profiteering and damage the availability of specimens for scientific
> study and private collectors. If finders wanted to have their falls
> officially classified (and reap the benefits of legitimacy that comes
> from recognition and inclusion in meteorite catalogues), then they
> should have to divulge the coordinates of their finds. Wouldn't that
> take away some of the incentive to keep these locations secret where
> the only motivation to do so is personal profit?
>
> I don't want to strike a nerve here or touch off a big debate, I just
> want someone to explain to me the reasoning behind anonymous find
> locations (not because the location is unknown, but because it is
> being withheld) being accepted into the Meteoritical Society database?
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
>
>

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

Received on Tue 27 Oct 2009 07:45:22 PM PDT