[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
>>
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Received on Thu 10 Oct 2013 12:35:17 PM PDT