[meteorite-list] Pairing discussion/questions

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:46:00 -0500
Message-ID: <4B55A988.1000802_at_usgs.gov>

> Make your homework. How many different meteorites do we have from
> Antarctica after a third of a century hunting and spending billions of
> USD? 7000.
This statement, appearing in some of the recent emails, is wrong. There
are over 16,000 classified meteorites from the ANSMET expeditions, plus
a few thousand unclassified. Counting the Japanese, Chinese,European,
Korean, and minor collections, There ~27,000 classified Antarctic
meteorites, and probably close to 20,000 not yet classified (mostly in
the Japanese and Chinese collections). And where in the world did this
figure of billions of dollars being spent by the US to collect its
20,000 meteorites come from?

Also, don't overlook the fact that Antarctic meteorite have proven to be
vastly more valuable scientifically than NWA meteorites. They probably
occur as subjects of scientific publications at >10x the frequency as
NWA meteorites (I posted statistics on this some years ago, but can't
locate it at the moment). This is because the main masses are well curated.

Jeff

-- 
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 19 Jan 2010 07:46:00 AM PST