[meteorite-list] Re: New Meteorite

From: wahlperry_at_aol.com <wahlperry_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue May 23 10:20:36 2006
Message-ID: <8C84C2CCBD9B4E9-830-B50_at_MBLK-M18.sysops.aol.com>

Hi Rob and Bob,

I have read both posts about the new Nevada meteorites. Alot of my
meteorites are in the process of being classified. As far as finds from
published locations of meteorite finds, these meteorites will be
submitted for provisional numbers. We have discovered many new areas
and recovered many new meteorites from the California and Nevada
locations. These locations will not be submitted untill most of the
field work is complete. The amount of work to thoroughly check out a
location may take years. All of the data, surface conditions (Dry
lake Bed / desert pavment), depth of find, location of nearest pairing
meteorite and density of meteorites from location are being recorded.
Most meteorites have been photographed in situ and will also be
supplied to the Universitys doing the clasification work. I hope to
announce a couple of new meteorites in the next bulletin but most of
the finds may take a couple of years due to the locations and amount of
work needed to complete the field work.

Sonny


----------------- Original Message -------------------
[meteorite-list] New Meteorite
Matson, Robert ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com
Fri May 19 02:11:55 EDT 2006


Hi Sonny,


> I just finished cutting up some suspected meteorites

> from a hunting trip last week. I have started
bringing
> home any suspicious rocks that may resemble
weathered
> meteorites, even if they do not attract to a magnet.

> Out of the 10 suspected meteorites one turned out to

> be a weathered 13 gram chondrite.


Congrats! This shows the value in bringing home
anything suspicious -- even if it appears to fail one
test or another. No sense wasting valuable daylight
field hours windowing every single promising rock you
find. Better to sort it out later when you're home.


> The 13 gram meteorite came from a new Nevada area
with > no reported finds. I will post some pictures of
the
> new finds on my web page next week.


Look forward to seeing the images ... though you bring
up a point I've been meaning to pester you about.
Sonny -- you've found a significant number of
meteorites in Nevada, Arizona and California over the
last several years, and my hat's off to you as a
fellow meteorite hunter for all your hard work. My
"bone to pick" is that
I've yet to see any of your finds classified and
documented in the Meteoritical Bulletin. You know
they're meteorites, I know they're meteorites, so why
not make them official? I realize some of your
locations are "works in progress", and it would be
very premature to tip your hand and publish them, but
surely you have a few finds from already published
locations -- why not Bulletinize them?

Look forward to another hunt with you soon!

Best wishes,
Rob

P.S. Feel free to re-post my message to Meteorite
Central since despite being included in the "To:"
address above, I guarantee you this message will not
post there since I'm sending it from home.
------------------------------------------------------

Hello Rob and Sonny,

Apparently, when it comes to the List, nothing is
"guaranteed".

Too bad this discussion didn't start Off-List. If I
could have been part of that discussion, I would have
been able to tell you, Rob, that among all of our
fellow meteorite finders that communicate with me,
Sonny is the most forth-coming of them all. The main
reason being that some of our search areas overlap,
and Sonny is keenly interested in knowing whether any
of his search areas have already been assigned a
provisional name and whether any of these finds by
other hunters have been classified.

I have a hard time answering Sonny's questions, but
the best suggestion that I've been giving Sonny is the
same that I tell everyone, just report everything you
find to Rhian Jones and let her determine what your
provisional name/number will be. I can't say that
Sonny is or isn't requesting Provisional Names/Numbers
from Rhian because that is only known to Rhian and
Sonny, but I can say that Sonny and I are jointly
requesting numbers at one locality. So, at least for
this one locality, I know that Sonny is trying to do
the right thing and get his finds reported to the
NomComm. (Sorry Sonny, I know that was priviledged
information, but I felt it needed to be said.)

Now with regard to NomCom formally approved and
MetBull published localities (specifically, dry lakes
with NUMBERED finds), I'm not aware of Sonny having
made a find at any of these. But if he has, and if he
hasn't submitted them to the Committee for assignment
of the next sequential number, then that would be
regrettable. On the otherhand, he wouldn't be alone,
for many of us are remiss in not getting numbers
assigned for our finds at these localities.

The reason this happens is partly a misunderstanding
of the function of provisional numbers, and partly a
resistance to getting a provisional number for a find
that most likely will never get classified. I can see
this being an area for discussion in the future. But
if this thread about Sonny should continue, it should
focus only on whether finds from "published locations"
(with NUMBERED finds) are going unreported (to Rhian
Jones).

Just my 2cents,
Bob V.
Received on Mon 22 May 2006 11:04:52 PM PDT