[meteorite-list] 5 reasons to record meteorite coordinates

From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 13:19:40 -0800
Message-ID: <7C640E28081AEE4B952F008D1E913F1702E83F95_at_0461-its-exmb04.us.saic.com>

Carl asks:

> I don't yet understand why people put so much importance on find
> co-ords and strewnfields. It has not only been pointed out by another
> important list member that "A meteorite does not care where it lands".
> (Ted Bunch).

You may be quoting Ted out of context. Yes, a meteorite doesn't care.
But people do, including many researchers. Recording find coordinates
serves at least five purposes that I can think of, right off the bat:

1. In situ photographic provenance. If a meteorite becomes separated
from
its identifying documentation, a photograph in the field with a GPS unit
is an excellent way to reestablish its identity. This can be very
helpful
when a meteorite has been sent to a lab for analysis, and its label gets
lost or the sample confused with another meteorite at that lab.

2. For recent falls, it can help tell you something about the dynamics
of the fall, such as the entry azimuth (being careful to account for
wind drift), and terminal burst vs. multiple fragmentation.

3. For finds, it is a necessary (but not by itself sufficient) metric
for establishing likely pairings.

4. With find coordinates and care with pairing, it becomes possible to
estimate minimum annual meteorite fall rate based on the number of
unpaired finds over a carefully surveyed area.

And most valuable to the finders working an area:

5. The distribution of find coordinates may provide evidence of fluvial
and aeolian transport. This can greatly enhance meteorite recovery rate
by transforming a two-dimensional search problem into a 1-dimensional
boundary search.

I'm sure others can add more to this list. The point is, just because
one person doesn't believe recording find coordinates is important
doesn't mean it isn't valuable to someone else. So by failing to do
so, either through ignorance or apathy, a hunter is destroying
scientific data.

--Rob
Received on Tue 09 Mar 2010 04:19:40 PM PST