[meteorite-list] 5 reasons to record meteorite coordinates

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:29:48 +0100
Message-ID: <004701cac04d$606a8990$07b22959_at_name86d88d87e2>

Hi Carl2,

Not that different from Antarctic meteorites, which have lost their original
context by the transportation by the ice.

Nevertheless they aren't considered useless and good sums of public money
are spent to recover them.

I am glad, that we have NWAs - where would be in meteoritics, if we wouldn't
have had them?

In my opinion in that find context question
one can't compare meteorites with vertebrate fossils or archaeological
things.

Because other than these object, a meteorite always offers information
beyond and independently from its terrestrial history:

It tells us stories from other celestial bodies and the solar system.


And it does that even if it's only a fragment of a stone. If not too small,
each meteoritic fragment is a pars pro toto of the whole fall.

Different it is, if you have a fragment of a dino-bone or an artefact,
With them the essential piece of information has to be gained from the find
context.

And also the circumstances are somewhat different.
If you find a fossil, you can ram your flag into the site, because you know,
where one fossil was found, there are more. And as they were preserved in
the soil for dozens of million years, you have all the time of the
worrrrrrld to excavate the site.
Note also, what for efforts are undertaken, to excavate archaeological
sites. There are some, where a professor's lifetime wasn't enough to do all
the documentation.

Such efforts do not exist in the World of meteorites.

Other than Jason, I don't think, that the very surfaces of the US-deserts
and the dry lake beds remain absolutely unchanged for thousands and
thousands of years. And if once a stone disappeared in the ground, it's
quite impossible to find it. See also Oman, where after each rain, new
meteorites appear on the surface. And Sahara was once a green place - not so
long ago, at least most of the NWAs, if I think about their average
terrestrial ages, still had witnessed that period.
In non-desert regions, a meteorite will be covered by vegetation often in
less than a year, after a couple of years it will be fully disappear in the
humus layer.

With fresh falls, it is in meteorite science consensus and state of art,
that the specimens shall be recovered rather in hours than in days.
Task forces to recover new falls (compare it btw. to the emergency
excavation teams, if on a construction site an archaeological object is
found) timely seem not to exist in most of the prohibitive countries.
And in almost all cases, where a fireball promises to be a dropper, the
essential field work to make it possible at all, that a stone might be
recovered, is done by the private collectors.

That laws would help or would be necessary to preserve coordinates is in my
opinion a spurious discussion.
First of all, most desert meteorites and the most significant desert finds
in USA, I guess, are found by experienced meteorite hunters, well knowing
about the importance of find documentation.
(In fact, as

Secondly. (The DaG-meteorites were documented too)
The Oman finds were perfectly documented by the private hunters from the
beginning on. With in situ photos, GPS coordinates, description of the
surrounding soil, day of find, number of pieces, exact weights and later
complete classification, even some strewnfields were mapped and published
and also many more scientists around the world were able to do research on
the finds, as it is today the case with the "official" finds, as well as by
far more of these specimens enrich the institutional collections around the
world and are partially on public display, than the "official" ones
 - and many teams of these private hunters were led by professional and
examined geologists.

Nevertheless the laws came and additionally with almost every opportunity it
was agitated that existing laws should be better enforced to eliminate the
successful finders and pioneers out.

To break laws may be a peccadillo for Jason as an occasional spare time
hunter,
professional hunters and those, who generate the lion share of the annual
World meteorite output can't work like that.

For them we urgently need legal certainty.

Best,
Martin



  
PS.
And in general, we should abstain from iterate from these myths about
profit. Can me anyone show a hunter, who became rich and wealthy in selling
his US-desert finds?
I don't know any, you?

PSS: No laws at all have proved to be the most efficient and cost-effective
way for any country to produce the most finds, the largest tkws and that
these end in the institutes.

So I suggest: No laws at all, at best, a right for preemption.

That meteorite finders are rewarded for their work, performance, service -
is not only a matter of course it is an imperative of ethical behaviour.
Full stop.

Confiscation with financial compensation I think wouldn't work, as the
official side would be overextended to determine a market value.
In fact already today only a few very scientists and clerks seems to have an
idea of meteorite pricings - else we wouldn't have all these new laws and
else the institutes would buy like fools, to take advantage from the now
still so unseen low price level.

Second possibility. 50-50 if state is land owner,
or in general 50% for the country, no matter where the meteorite was found.
The latter will be possible, because of the strong legal protection of
property in free governments under the law, maybe only in non-democratic or
communist countries or other dictatorships.
That of course would make meteorites more expensive for all others, private
collectors, scientists and curators.

Huhuhu.... if I take Wietrzno-Bobrka...then in Poland in every fifth
generation a meteorite is found.
It must be a very very happy country that it hasn't any other problems grave
enough, that they had the leisure to invent a law for meteorites....

Maybe a self-regulating system? If now less than a new meteorite per year is
found in Australia, maybe the laws there are recognized to be obsolete and
will be cancelled?

Panama, Israel, Liberia... they haven't any meteorite yet.
Perhaps they should pass a law of preventive character, for the case that
one day a meteorite will fall there?

Any innocent bystander of that global meteorite laws debate would come to
the conclusion, that this all is a very very silly thing, I suppose.



-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von Carl 's
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 10. M?rz 2010 00:17
An: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] 5 reasons to record meteorite coordinates



Hi Carl,

Another way to see how important co-ordinates are is just to look at what's
happened to the NWA meteorites. Nobody knows where they are found, so many
pairings and unclassified stones!

Good luck on the classification of your new find.

Carl2


>I don't yet understand why people put so much importance on find
co-ords and strewnfields... I
                                               
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Received on Wed 10 Mar 2010 07:29:48 AM PST