[meteorite-list] Meteorite testing locations -Was meteorite millionaire

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:01:47 +0200
Message-ID: <000f01cb52c6$18b26da0$4a1748e0$_at_de>

Hi there,

what means "testing"?
To stare at it, to cut a piece off?

I don't know, since I opened my webpage, I was bombarded with tons of
emails, pictures... several thousands.
If the photos are half-decent, sharp and not made during a solar eclipse,
one can exclude in 90% of the cases immediately, that it's a meteorite. 5%
are meteorites, which people got as a gift. Usually Sikhote and such stuff.
4.5% do at least resemble to a certain degree a meteorite, there you can ask
the people to do home some simple tests (magnet, streak test, density or to
break off a corner).
For that you don't need a lab. Every experienced collector or dealer can
handle that.
0.4 are worth to cut off a corner to look inside or in case, that it's sheer
iron to make a nickel test and/or to etch a surface.
And 0.1% or less are then still so interesting, that they should be tested
in a lab. And I say tested, not classified. Classification is a step
further.

O.k. that ratios are from my experiences here in Europe, where we have no
deserts, they might be different in USA.
 
I confess, with that procedure we indeed most probably won't find the first
sedimentary Martian, Venusian or a meteorite from Uranus,
but we all would be content, if the people would find at least once a true
meteorite :-)

So I think it was anyway a mistake from NAU and ASU to make it public, that
they would take a look on finds from everybody. That they would be buried
under an avalanche of terrestrial rocks was predictable.
(And has certainly nothing to do with the TV show. Here in central Europe it
isn't broadcasted, but the number of requests are steadily growing).

I think it's the job of the collectors and dealers, of the forums etc. to
make that pre-selection, which stones are candidates for going to a lab. An
important job, preventing the researchers to be clogged with earthly crap.

...but I have to confess, the majority of requests I don't answer anymore.
Cause it's always the same: I've found a meteorite/meteorites. What is it
worth? Where can I sell? Do you buy them? - that's lost time. Such people
don't say even "thanks", if you take the time to explain them, why their
rocks are no meteorites. Others will get rude. Again others will tell you
that you have absolutely no ideas about meteorites and finally a remarkable
part of them will go hawking with their find to each and every
meteorite-address they find in web, as long as finally one of those won't
say "No." - but "I don't know".
And that is for them already enough confirmation, that they have a true
meteorite.

Colleges... Meteorites are a tiny niche in mineralogy. I'd have my doubts,
whether most colleges would be able to identify a meteorite (rare types
certainly not). Sometimes the finders address me even with an expertise from
university labs, with stones, where from the outer appearance everybody of
the list here would rule out within a second, that it could be a meteorite -
and where the chemical data measured clearly confirm, that it is no
meteorite. Nevertheless sometimes the expert wrote under the tables, that it
is a meteorite.

Hehe, my all-time favorite:

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/meteoriten-falsche-findlinge-1.739307

It's the boss of the geology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich,
with the find, which he had identified as a 4.6 billion years old primitive
carbonaceous chondrite
and as the first sample of the observed Neuschwanstein fall...
It's a piece of asphalt.

Or a better example, everyone can comprehend.
Remember last year that pupil Gerrit, who claimed to have been hit by a
meteorite?
That news, which made it around the world.
Really everybody here on the list said, that it's definitely no meteorite,
Neither would anybody here have sent Gerrit to a meteoritic lab, for the
stone to be examined.
Meanwhile the pebble was tested in Berlin - and of course it's no meteorite.

I think classifying institutes aren't clogged with meteorwrongs, I guess
they are clogged with meteorites.

Best!
Martin

PS: The score - in soon 10 years among these several thousands of
pics/samples/mail/calls I received,
only three true and new meteorites were among them. (and they were from
Sahara).

 
-----Urspr?ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von Greg
Catterton
Gesendet: Sonntag, 12. September 2010 21:42
An: Adam; Adam Hupe
Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite testing locations -Was meteorite
millionaire

With some of the larger or more well known places stopping public testing, I
would like to offer up a suggestion for those that want to have meteorites
tested.

Try to contact your local state colleges for those in the USA. Even smaller
colleges may have a geology lab that can work on meteorites, but often do
not have the funding to do so.

Be kind, give them a little more then required and you may end up with a
great resource for having meteorites tested. Thats how I did it when I could
not find anyone who wanted to test my material.
Received on Sun 12 Sep 2010 06:01:47 PM PDT