[meteorite-list] Exploring the Solar System in Antarctica (NWA vs Antarctica)

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:22:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1381425760.64804.YahooMailNeo_at_web122005.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

Carl Stated " 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."

I agree that the Apollo returned Moon rocks are a national treasure.? One of the highlights of my life was seeing some of these specimens for myself up close and personal in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (Vault) at the NASA facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center where this precious material is stored.

Where lunar finds contribute to science is that many have come from unsampled parts of the Moon.? There are a few unique Lunaite examples that provide additional understanding of our nearest celestial neighbor.?? I was pleased to see a poster of NWA 5000 on the wall right across the hall from the NASA Moon rock vault.? This tells me that the researches are sample oriented and where a Moon rock comes from is secondary.


This enhances data acquisition instead of competing against it.?

Adam





----- Original Message -----
From: Carl Agee <agee at unm.edu>
To: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites at yahoo.com>
Cc: Adam <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Exploring the Solar System in Antarctica (NWA vs Antarctica)

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
>>
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Received on Thu 10 Oct 2013 01:22:40 PM PDT