[meteorite-list] "Find", "Fall" Terminology

From: Thomas Webb <webbth1_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 14:51:42 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <1357599102.10161.YahooMailClassic_at_web164502.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

All,
The terms "find" and "fall" are concise and understood by everyone in the meteorite community. I don't see the need to introduce terms that may lead to more ambiguity. For example: if "find" is changed to "unobserved fall" in describing a meteorite it could possibly be an outright false statement since it could have been observed by many people but never reported or recorded. Also, do we include other animals when we refer to "observed"? Who knows who or what observed one of those that we call "find", so let's just leave it at that and continue to call it a "find". The term "fall" as it is now used means that we have a pretty good record that someone actually saw it streak through the atmosphere and recoveries were soon made in the projected fall area. In some cases people have witnessed the actual impact or impacts as they happened but this is not required to call it a fall. Occasionally it may be years before a witnessed event produces
 recovered meteorites but if we know the fall area we can tie it to the event and still call it a probable fall and end up using just "fall" with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
For practicality and to tie in with what has been used and understood for years, I think we should continue to use the terms "find" and "fall".
My best,
Thomas
Received on Mon 07 Jan 2013 05:51:42 PM PST