[meteorite-list] On Considering the next Mars Meteorite Acronym

From: Kevin Kichinka <marsrox_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:00:05 -0600
Message-ID: <CANDn_7EHDUPk4oXTrcZBQ1E9-2q=GHSCD7V4cTbT0LeOPmDgFw_at_mail.gmail.com>

Team Meteorite:

I note the thread on changing SNC's to some other name/acronym
representing each class of Mars meteorites.

Can we just collectively call them 'MARSROX' ?

OK, OK.... seriously :>)

While I dislike stepping on/into any one's private strewnfield, these
(unnecessary) acronyms for the types of Mars meteorites- ahem, *Mars
meteorites* - are likely doomed to continue up a failed trend line, so
why keep crawling up the walls of that crater?

We HAD SNC's.

But ALH84001 has forever been conveniently excluded from inclusion
into a new second contrived acronym. I don't recall any groundswell of
urgency to create one, either. Upon reflection, most folks would have
considered 84001 worthy of this chore.

Even while SNC was popular (first used because they weren't yet proven
to be Martian), Hap McSween, Jr., who is a tad more qualified than
most of us to opine here, wrote DURING THE LAST CENTURY after their
Mars origin became widely accepted, that they ought to simply be
called *Mars meteorites".

Now we have a fifth type of *Mars meteorite* fallen to be represented
with a capital letter. There are proposals, I'm not sure if they are
appropriate.

CANNS (sounds like French movies to me).

SNCPB (snick pee bee - could easily be mistaken as scientific
shorthand to describe a theoretical sub-atomic particle originating in
an alternate Universe).

SCANS (sounds like what the machine does at airports to look at your
wee-wee in silhouette).

None of these 'words' meant to be clever or allude to Mars passes the
test of alerting a layman to the prestige of *Mars meteorites* or even
conveys the remotest sort of Martian link. That's a fatal flaw.

But if common usage eventually brings one of these words to life, this
'isotope of acronyms' will likely be barely more stable than 118
Ununoctium, and will decay to irrelevance when yet another class of
*Mars meteorites* is recovered.

Hap liked *Mars meteorites*.

Having written 'the first chapters of the good book' on *Mars
meteorites*, perhaps we ought to honor his wisdom before the sky falls
yet again bringing us another 'capital letter in waiting'.


Kevin Kichinka
Rio del Oro, Santa Ana, Costa Rica
MARSROX at gmail.com
www.theartofcollectingmeteorites
'The Global Meteorite Price Report - 2013'
Received on Fri 25 Jan 2013 05:00:05 PM PST