[meteorite-list] 5 reasons to record meteorite coordinates

From: Greg Stanley <stanleygregr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:43:24 -0800
Message-ID: <SNT117-W50049186889B5CF5BE6DACD2310_at_phx.gbl>

> Who, Where, When, what and Why do you think Scientists want this information?????

Scientists who want to understand strewn fields
In publications
Books - "Field Guide to meteorites"


> Who holds this information?

Met list
Anyone who wants to compile the information and perhaps write an article or paper


> Where is this information to be found and or published?

Books and publications



> When do you put it there?

Anytime


> What are they going to do with this vital information?

Answered this


> Why would you put it there?

Answered this


> Name the Scientists that care about this? Names please?

Someone else can do this

> The point is that I am sure it does not hurt to gather this information but then what?
Make a map and keep records

> Nowadays, It seems to me the only people who give a rat's *ss about this is Jason and a few other hunters

Carl:

Here's why I do it (one reason)

I found a real nice meteorite on a dry lake - had a nice fusion crust (not common on dry lakes)? anyway, it was chipped and I looked and looked and looked for fragments.? Found a few more meteorites, but from different stones.? So I took the coordinates and a picture (as I always do).? Then two years later I went back to the same location (because I had the coordinates) and looked and I found two fragments, and get this, one fit onto the fusion crusted piece I found two years earlier. COOL !.? But I had checked the same area before a year earlier... so the point is new meteorites are exposed on dry lakes all the time in the same spots... so you have to look in these areas over and over.

It is very important to me to mark and take a picture of every meteorite I find.



Greg S.






.
> Obviously so, they can go back and find more material but please don't confuse this with what real Science has to do with it or even cares about.
> Jason says he keeps records of all of his finds. I too keep records and I think most people do as well. But until there is some data base or other official place for it, this information along with a couple of bucks won't buy much more than a cup of coffee. Sorry. True story.
> Thanks Carl
>
> --
> Carl or Debbie Esparza
> Meteoritemax
>
>
> ---- Mark Bowling wrote:
>> To get back to the subject of land in the American West, if we wait for centuries or even a few decades before scientifically hunting an area, we lose meteorites because of urban development. That isn't happening in NWA for the most part, but it is here. Look at Gold Basin. There is a lot of remaining material, but soon it will be a settlement which will obliterate and destroy much of the remaining stones. And that is happening all over the West. Not to mention surfaces that are being destroyed by natural processes (every year rivers and washes like the Santa Cruz in Southern Az change channels and wash away thousands if not millions of cubic yards of land). I agree 100% that hunters should collect data for each and every find made, but we shouldn't restrict meteorite hunting because of a few bad collectors. What will happen is that good hunters will stop hunting and unscrupulous hunters will continue. Since they aren't enforcing basic
>> laws on public lands, only those with a conscience and a good reputation will comply and stop.
>>
>> Why not create a system which encourages good hunting techniques? I think if we have such a system, a new person who stumbles into the hobby would pick up good habits from the start. If people realize that if they donate a certain percentage of a new find, that they could become published and acknowledged, they would choose to do that. If they know recording the data that scientist want, they would do it to help out. It is a source of pride to feel that you are helping in a greater cause. But if it's a choice of criminalizing meteorite hunting (for varied reasons - to stop data loss or "protect the land"), or leaving it the way it currently is, then I hope no changes are made. The past demonstrates (though Martin's good analysis) that the former will only harm the field of meteoritics.
>>
>> Regarding regulations, anything more complicated than selling a meteorite license (for a nominal fee, with the expectation that a certain percentage of finds will be donated to list of institutions) will be unenforceable and unmanageable (and too expensive). At some point you have to trust people to do the right thing and let their peers determine if they are worth doing business with. If an agent catches someone without a license (like the state and feds already catch poachers, dumpers, ATVers in Wilderness areas, etc.), then an appropriate fine is applied (with maybe a written warning for the first incident to allow folks to become educated with the system). Anything more complicated won't work and a good alternative is to leave it as it is as half a loaf is better than a hundred paved over loaves.
>>
>> Mark B.
>> Vail, AZ
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Jason Utas meteoritekid at gmail.com
>>
>> Most NWA's are very old; they would not suffer if they were left there
>> for even centuries.
>> If we left them until the time when we could go there and properly
>> document them, they would not suffer.
>> You say that it is worth it to pick them up *now* so that we get the
>> extraterrestrial data and lose the terrestrial data.
>> I think that it would be better to wait the extra few decades so that
>> we might get both sets of data.
>> You have yet to explain why you think that it is worth it to pick them
>> up now as opposed to later in exchange for the loss of all
>> terrestrial/entry data.
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Received on Fri 12 Mar 2010 04:43:24 PM PST