[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:40:04 -0700
Message-ID: <4C72B274.2000009_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Hi List,

I know this has been talked about on-list but... I keep getting this
question, or people that say they have found a "Lunar" meteorite. I'm
wondering how many there actually are. I've heard numbers thrown about
haphazardly, but no one has been able to give me a clear and concise answer.

The Met-Bull has "...130 records found for meteorites with historical
types that contain "Lunar"...'

Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been recovered
and classified, Ever? Or is my search flawed? (as a side note, it also
says there are "...92 records found for meteorites with historical types
that contain "Martian"...")

Dr. Randy Korotev's "List of Lunar Meteorites" on the Washinton
University website has the number at 140.
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm

Just for giggles I wanted to know how many total classified meteorites
there actually were on the planet.

"...39146 valid meteorite names; 11959 provisional names; 4589 full-text
writeups..."

That's a whopping 51,105 classifications. Wow!

Doing some simple math, 130 Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total
classifications means that "Lunars" only makeup about 0.254% of the
total number of meteorite ever classified. (0.180% for Martian meteorites).

Are these number correct?

Regards,
Eric
Received on Mon 23 Aug 2010 01:40:04 PM PDT