[meteorite-list] Exploring the Solar System in Antarctica (NWA vs Antarctica)
From: Carl Agee <agee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:35:17 -0600 Message-ID: <CADYrzhqScs9G5O3ovJaJKkbTC7Va79DqKYXQRN3eUc2nQnGS+w_at_mail.gmail.com> I think where NWA and the hot desert finds have had the greatest benefit to science with a "capital S" are in achondrites and in particular martian meteorites. If you look at the abstracts at 2012-2013 LPSC and MetSoc (no, I didn't actually count them) the martian meteorite literature is now dominated by NWA finds and Tissint. Again, ANSMET just isn't nearly as productive, and you can have multi-year dry spells when no ANSMET martians were recovered. Recently it has been very sparse with 1 pairing in 2012, 1 pairing in 2009, 1 find in 2006. In fact, according to MetBull, in the last ten years there have been only 6 martians (12, not counting pairings) recovered. Another ANSMET martian drought was 1994-2000. Lunars in NWA are productive too, but interestingly dominated by feldspathic breccias. For lunars though, at least for the foreseeable future, there will never be a contest for dominance because of the 390 kg of Moon rocks from Apollo, which will be the gold standard until we return to the Moon. In contrast, a Mars sample return seems to always be 10 years away with a continually out-of-reach horizon. So martian meteorites, mostly from NWA, will be our Mars sample return until we get a President who tells NASA to go to Mars with MSR or humans (or until Chinese beat us to it). Carl ************************************* Carl B. Agee Director and Curator, Institute of Meteoritics Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences MSC03 2050 University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131-1126 Tel: (505) 750-7172 Fax: (505) 277-3577 Email: agee at unm.edu http://meteorite.unm.edu/people/carl_agee/ On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 7:54 AM, Adam Hupe <raremeteorites at yahoo.com> wrote: > Jeff Stated: " Papers on hot and cold desert meteorites are subequal, which is the trend we all see." > > I agree with this statement. They were not subequal just a few years ago meaning the trend is favoring hot desert finds long term. > > The number of rare and unusual meteorites coming out of the hot deserts far exceed those being recovered from Antarctica. > > Adam > > > > > --- Original Message ----- > > From: Jeff Grossman <jngrossman at gmail.com> > To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com > Cc: > Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 6:03 AM > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Exploring the Solar System in Antarctica (NWA vs Antarctica) > > 50% is not even close. I counted the peer-reviewed papers in the 2012 > volume of MAPS. In the 58 non-review papers that reported analyses of > physical samples of meteorites, 52% used falls, 12% used non-desert > finds, 24% used hot desert meteorites, and 28% used Antarctic > meteorites. (this sums to >100% because some papers reported data in > multiple categories). > > So, if 2012 in MAPS is representative (I'm done counting, so I can't > answer that), when it comes to the question of what are the most > important meteorites for Science these days, it isn't hot OR cold desert > meteorites... it's observed falls. Papers on hot and cold desert > meteorites are subequal, which is the trend we all see. > > Jeff > > > On 10/10/2013 12:27 AM, Adam Hupe wrote: >> I will not debate the legacy of Antarctic meteorites. They have had a wonderful history and their contribution to science has been invaluable. Most researchers are sample oriented and are not biased by find location but there are still a few that cling to legacy. Antarctica had a a two decade plus head start in the abstract/paper queue so naturally there are more documents. Ten years ago, maybe one in ten papers were on hot desert finds. Now, I estimate about 50%. At this rate, as very important samples from NWA and other deserts enter the queue, it will not be long before these finds handily overtake Antarctica by a wide margin in the business of science. >> >> In other words; There is not enough material coming out of Antarctica anymore to reverse the current trend which favors the hot desert meteorites for research material in the future. >> >> >> Adam >> >> ______________________________________________ >> >> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com >> Meteorite-list mailing list >> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com >> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > > ______________________________________________ > > Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > > ______________________________________________ > > Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Thu 10 Oct 2013 12:35:17 PM PDT |
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