[meteorite-list] Why isn\'t Mreira classified as a Fall?

From: Shawn Alan <photophlow_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 16:11:25 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1394579485.61455.YahooMailNeo_at_web120004.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>

?

Carl and Listers

Carl I couldn't agree more with you and other people on here that
brought up a good point that NWS are still kept secret where they
have been found and documentation that backs up that its a fall.
I hope this is a lesson learned and in the future people in the region
start to be more transparent with documentation on the fall. But again,
there have been falls in the USA were its be years before info is published,
but I guess what they have for them is video cameras and a lot more eyewitness.
I wonder if they set up sky cams in the NWA region how many more falls would be
recovered :)

Shawn Alan
IMCA 1633??
ebay store
http://www.ebay.com/sch/imca1633nyc/m.html
http://meteoritefalls.com/




Re: [meteorite-list] Why isn't Mreira classified as a Fall?
Carl Agee Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:08:23 -0700
"....a fireball was seen in the afternoon sky on December 16, 2012,
several school children saw the fireball explode and detonations were
heard near the village of Mehaires, Western Sahara. Pieces were
recovered approximately 40 miles south of Mehaires, near Mre?ra,
Mauritania, only a few days after the event."
This excerpt above is basically only "the proof" that it was a fall.
The lesson here is that NWA documentation needs to be meticulous with
identified individual eyewitnesses that corroborate with anything else
like cameras etc. (e.g. Chelyabinsk). What didn't measure up in this
case, was the anecdotal recovered fresh meteorites 40 miles from an
event that only anonymous school children witnessed. Also, no
documented strewn field was submitted (in situ photos etc.). I suppose
this can be a problem when people want to keep the actual strewn field
location a secret to keep out competing hunters? No such thing as too much documentation. Carl Agee
*************************************
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: a... at unm.edu http://meteorite.unm.edu/people/carl_agee/??????
Received on Tue 11 Mar 2014 07:11:25 PM PDT