[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

From: Meteorites USA <eric_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:24:14 -0700
Message-ID: <4C72CADE.3070804_at_meteoritesusa.com>

Thank you Dr. Korotev! (Randy)

I appreciate your response, and I know you can understand the confusion.
Comparing the list of pairings of the 130 total "stones" Your list
combined with Norbert's gives a better understanding of just how few
Lunar meteorites there actually are. Re-figuring the percentages of 68
"paired" Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total classified meteorites
that's 0.133% of all meteorites.

Wow! That's an "astronomically" small percentage.

Thanks!

Regards,
Eric



On 8/23/2010 11:53 AM, Randy Korotev wrote:
> Dear Eric:
>
> My alphanumeric list contains 140 named stones,
>
> http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
>
> with the caveat that some do not actually have official names yet
> (e.g., "Unnamed 12"). They're on the list because I've analyzed them
> and know them to be lunar. That's the main reason that my number,
> 140, is larger than the MetBull number, 130. It's my hope that all
> the unnamed get official names someday.
>
> "Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been
> recovered and classified, Ever?" Stones, yes; meteorites, no.
>
> My composition-ordered list has only 68 meteorites because of known or
> strongly-suspected pairings.
>
> http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alumina.htm
>
> Norbert Classen keeps close tabs on this and has 67 on his list (he
> and I both know about one that is on my list but may not be on his
> list yet):
>
> http://www.meteoris.de/luna/list.html
>
> So, ~68 is the total number of known lunar meteorites. That
> information is not easily available from the MetBull database. It
> sometimes takes years to establish that different named stones are or
> are not paired.
>
> A confusion for your calculations is that practically every individual
> lunar and martian meteorite stone gets it's own name and line-item in
> the MetBull database whereas all Allende stones have one name.
>
> Randy
>
>
>
>
> At 12:40 PM 8/23/2010 Monday, you wrote:
>> 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
>>
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Received on Mon 23 Aug 2010 03:24:14 PM PDT