[meteorite-list] Another meteorite millionaire wannabe

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 16:54:45 -0400
Message-ID: <AANLkTinUwFr8mEvQaCFWnUqc6ohJZPAak9pADMOgoGiK_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Adam, Greg C, Anne, and Intrepid Listees....

Interesting discussion here.

Greg C said -
>From my experience, it does not take much to weed out wrongs. Recently I got a bag of "Meteorites" that ended up being mostly basalt, Earth rocks and an angrite. Yes, NWA 6291 came from a bag of "This may be a meteorite" material. There were about 20 stones, all but 3 were wrongs, and it only took about an hour to weed out the good from the bad. It really does not take long to tell if something is a meteorite or not.

This is one of those rare cases where the buyer (you Greg) have to
take the good with the bad and it really worked out for you this time.
 You could have just as easily been burned and walked away with a
Charlie Brown deal. (bag of rocks) But, if a more savvy source had
sold you those specimens, you either would have paid more or the
angrite would have been culled out before it hit your hands. When
buying from overseas, all the buyer gets (at best) is photos and the
opinion/reputation of the seller. In this case the seller missed the
angrite. A keener eye would have noticed it was "off" and it would
have been pulled out and tested.


Adam said - >> I was told that the IMCA is tying up a huge amount of
resources on
>> meteorite wrongs these days

Every meteorite person who has their email out here on the web (list
members) are getting lots of emails right now. This is especially
true for those of us who regularly trade, buy or sell material. If
you have a static presence on the web, like a website, then you are
going to get bombarded with contacts and emails. I don't put my phone
number out on my website because it would ring 24 hours a day and we
have a baby in the house. The IMCA's website has a Google Pagerank of
5, which is fairly high profile, so it's like a siren call to people
with strange rocks and stranger hopes. I'm not surprised the IMCA is
helping people with meteorwrongs, and I am glad they apparently do -
this keeps helps spread around the requests and emails. Greg or Adam,
just imagine how many emails you'd get if the IMCA wasn't taking so
many hits. I got so many that I finally posted a little rant about it
on the list a few months back called "For the record, I do not buy
unsolicited meteorites..."

I think helping people with meteorwrongs is an obligation to those of
us who are fervent collectors or dealers. It's part of the
game/hobby/field and we just have to expect it. It will ebb and flow
and evolve over time. We are seeing an increase now and it will
eventually subside again. Personally, I think in the majority of
cases a meteorite/meteorwrong can be ruled in/out with some very good
photographs and a good intelligent description from the owner. People
are capable of doing the streak test for irons, specific gravity and
magnetism (for stones) on their own once they are told how to do so.
And advanced/determined layman can also employ a nickel test,
microscopy, or a magnetic susceptibility meter. So there is no need
to bombard labs or universities with meteorwrongs when almost *any*
person can reasonably determine if something is a meteorite or not.
Once it is determined it is a candidate for classification, then it
should be sent in to the proper lab to begin the classification
process.

I've had thousands of unclassified specimens over the few years I have
been doings this. I've bought so many kilos of material that they all
blur together and they came from at least a half-dozen sources. Only
once did I politely bother one of the scientists we are all familiar
with, and had him classify my stone. It turned out to be an LL3.6.
So it wasn't scientifically significant in any way, and it wasn't an
Earth-shattering classification. But, it was a very pretty stone with
numerous armored chondrules and low weathering that was very
aesthetically pleasing. In my opinion, it was not a case of wasted
time or resources. In return for the classification, the institution
got the usual 20/20 type sample and an additional amount that I
voluntarily donated to help my classification "tow it's own weight"
and make it worth their time for doing this. Had it been some old
weathered H-chondrite dog, I would not have bothered. Now, by
contrast, anyone who has been around for a handful of years or longer
knows of at least prolific submitter of highly-weathered OC's that are
pointless to classify. We these people bother to submit this stuff is
beyond me, because there seems to be no financial motive. (I mean,
how much is yet another H5/W4 that is butt-ugly worth?)

Greg C said this - Perhaps that should be a
> requirement to test - a thin section from the material and the piece the
> material came from? Make it to where the "meteorite owner" has to do more
> then just send the stone off. It will cut the wrongs in half.

I agree 100% on this point. If someone has a stone that passes the
tests I mentioned above (visual, streak, magnet, nickel, experienced
assistance), then 99% of the time it's going to be a meteorite of some
kind. If most people would do this, the thin-section is just
logically the next step and it would really help if more submitters
did this. Any scientist will tell you, the most costly part of the
initial classification is making the thin-section. Publicly-funded or
non-profit entities just cannot be expected to do this on a charitable
basis with such ever-increasing submissions. At some point, they must
start turning people away or they will be buried under a literal
mountain of rocks.

What is the most frustrating, and Anne alluded to this, is those
people who are difficult when told their hopeful specimen is not a
meteorite. These people require more time and energy to deal with,
and this can be alleviated somewhat with quality public awareness of
meteorites. By helping to educate people (and kids) about meteorites,
we will increase the overall quality of the contacts we get and the
submissions the labs get.

Best regards,

MikeG

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites

Website - http://www.galactic-stone.com
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
News Feed - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516
Twitter - http://twitter.com/galacticstone
EOM - http://www.encyclopedia-of-meteorites.com/collection.aspx?id=1564
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Sun 12 Sep 2010 04:54:45 PM PDT