[meteorite-list] Meteorwrongs and Meteorites

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:12:37 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <437972.20167.qm_at_web30706.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

I could not agree more. People often forget that there is considerable costs
involved in characterizing real meteorites and for some reason they expect this
service for free. Meteorite-wrongs tie up a lot of resources and are a drag on
the few laboratories that are qualified to study real meteorites. I do not think
there is a laboratory left in Arizona that will still take "meteorites" from the
general public for study. This is due to the increase in meteorite-wrongs that
waste every bodies time. If this increase in meteorite-wrongs continues, expect
a lot more laboratories to be off-limits.

Researchers valuable time is better spent on real meteorites rather then telling
somebody they are not the latest millionaire.

Best Regards,

Adam

  




----- Original Message ----
From: Carl Agee <agee at unm.edu>
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Thu, April 21, 2011 9:41:59 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorwrongs and Meteorites

My take on this is the following. Most people who come to us with a
suspect meteorite are for some reason expecting that identification
costs us nothing, and that we can glance at sample and give quick
answer. So when they go to an average geology department and get a
"free" meteorite screening they may often get what they pay for --
someone's best guess -- often of dubious merit. Of course there are
many samples that are so obviously meteorwrongs that a quick glance is
all that is needed. But - I would never tell someone they have an iron
meteorite before I had at least run an EDS analysis on it for Fe and
Ni. And that's just the start -- if you want to know what kind of an
iron -- well that's a lot more work still! But of course not everyone
has an SEM in their basement. And guess what? These instruments cost
money, and the technicians who keep them running are paid salaries. As
for stones, yes, I can tell you fairly quickly, running a calibrated
electron microprobe, if your sample is a eucrite, ureilite, lunar,
martian -- or a just terrestrial basalt. So this is the dilemma that
we often face: definitive answers usually take time, money, and
expertise -- there is no free lunch for good data.

--
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://epswww.unm.edu/iom/pers/agee.html
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Received on Thu 21 Apr 2011 01:12:37 PM PDT