Bob's Bulletin - Vol. 2 No. 2
A newsletter for unclassified meteorites found in the USA.
In all of my previous Bob's Bulletins, I explained the meaning of the phrase "orphaned-meteorites from the USA". I defined these "orphans" as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite "finds" that are recovered in the U.S., but that the finders of these meteorites have found great difficulty in getting their finds recorded, let alone accepted for classification.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of new U.S. finds are of this type.
I went on to write that these "Unclassified U.S. finds" (UU) were being orphaned from the family of "approved" meteorites for the following reasons:
1) The lack of funding for U.S. researchers to authenticate, classify, and document/record these U.S. OC finds has resulted in several new [negative]; trends.
2) The increasing trend of commercializing the classifying of meteorites by U.S. researchers has priced U.S. OC finds out of the market, and
3) The increasing trend of U.S. researchers to turn away OC finds, even when finders of U.S. OC meteorites are willing to pay for their classification.
This month's edition of the "Newsletter" focuses on just the most recent US finds that I have had the priviledge to record. All of the images in this article are by me, but not all of the meteorites depicted were found by me. So, even though I took the in-situ image, it doesn't mean that I found that meteorite. Although I am aware of, or have been informed about, many other recent U.S. finds, I am not privvy to their recovery data, so they won't appear here. And so, consider the meteorites depicted here to be just the tip of the iceberg. And there lies the problem. There continues to be a large number of U.S. meteorites being found, and the list of those going unreported is growing longer.
This months finds, being relatively recent, haven't gone under the blade of my rock-saw, let alone had a type-specimen or a thin-section prepared. So, for this month I will forego the "Petrographic Description" until some time later. And since nearly all of the specimens are moderately-weathered externally, I will also forego the "Macroscopic Description" until later, as well. I hope the reader will enjoy the image gallery.
The following "Bulletin" is just one example of an alternative way in which to record U.S. OC meteorite finds that are going unreported (because of a lack of funding to classify U.S. meteorites [but there is funding for Antarctic meteorites], which leads to a lack of interest in OC finds by U.S. researchers). It is my hope that this compilation will bring attention to the problem of the increasing number of meteorites found here in the USA, not only going unclassified, but also going unrecorded. Hopefully, some volunteers will offer to help establish an on-line database that will document these "orphans".
Due to the pace of recovery of recent meteorite finds, this edition of the Newsletter is going to forego (until a later time) the publishing of "Recovery Information" and Petrographic Descriptions" that usually appears here. For now, what will appear here will be a gallery of images of the finds (before they are cut) to include their in-situ photos.
| Gallery of Unclassified USA (UU) "Orphaned" Meteorite Images -- |
|---|
CA160326B and A -- part of "Pam's Meteorite":
The above "Bulletin" is just one example of a way in which to record U.S. OC meteorite finds. Hopefully, this compilation will bring attention to the problem of the increasing number of meteorites found here in the USA, not only going unclassified, but even going unreported. Hopefully, some volunteers will offer to help establish a database that will document these "orphans".
In the meanwhile, I will do my part and continue to gather data, and along with others, make a list of what we know to be "orphaned meteorites".
Bob's Bulletin - Vol. 1 No. 1 -- In my first Bulletin, I introduced the phrase "orphaned-meteorites from the USA". I defined these "orphans" as being unwitnessed-fall Ordinary Chondrite (OC) meteorite "finds" that are recovered in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of U.S. finds are of this type. I went on to write that these U.S. finds were being orphaned from the family of "approved" meteorites for the following reasons:
1) The lack of funding for U.S. researchers to authenticate, classify, and document/record these U.S. OC finds has resulted in several new [negative]; trends.
2) The increasing trend of commercializing the classifying of meteorites by U.S. researchers has priced U.S. OC finds out of the market, and
3) The increasing trend of U.S. researchers to turn away OC finds, even when finders of U.S. OC meteorites are willing to pay for their classification.
Bob's Bulletin - Vol. 1 No. 2 -- In my 2nd Bulletin, I went into more detail about why I use the phrase "orphaned-meteorites from the USA". I focused on the lack of U.S.-tax-dollar-funding and why no funding was going towards the classification of these particular meteorites. In hindsight, I now realize that I should have pointed-out that there is also a lack of funding for just authenticating and recording that a U.S. meteorite has been found. This function should never be confused with "classifying" a meteorite, which is obviously way more labor intensive and costly.
Bob's Bulletin - Vol. 1 No. 3 -- In my 3rd Bulletin, I proposed the idea of an on-line database for these "orphaned" and other unclassified U.S. meteorites. This would have to be an all-volunteer effort, much in the same manner that the American Meteor Society has established the Fireball Reporting System. This database would give finders a central point to report their finds and have a field ID number issued to them. This "Field ID" would reflect which US state and date of find. The function of this database should not be confused with already established processes of getting a meteorite "classified", which is obviously way more labor intensive and costly.
Bob’s Bulletin – Vol. 1 No. 4 — In my 4th Bulletin, I reported that several U.S. researchers were volunteering their time and effort to record and publish meteorite falls and finds, such as, Creston and Misfits Flat. I suggested that this method of cataloging newly found US meteorite specimens could be expanded, but the main hindrance is that there is no funding for this kind of effort.
Bob’s Bulletin – Vol. 2 No. 1 — In my 5th Bulletin, I published a table of all the unclassified finds from Coyote Dry Lake DCA that were reported prior to 2007.
Meteoritical Bulletin: the search results for all provisional meteorites found in "USA" - Published by Meteoritical Society - Meteoritical Bulletin, Database.
Meteorites of California the list of formally-recognized California meteorite falls and finds.
My previous Bob's Bulletins can be found *HERE*
If you would like to sponsor any of these orphans, and help in the funding for getting them classified, in order to get them entered into the Meteoritical Bulletin Database, then please contact me by email:
bolidechaser at yahoo-dot-com
