Nevada Meteorite Picture of the Day
(for the Month of March 2007)

Explanation:

Up until this year, all of the Nevada meteorites that have appeared on this monthly webpage were "REPORTED" finds. This means that each and every one of those finds have been reported to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. But in spite of all that has been written about the importance of reporting finds, more and more finds are going "unreported". And what with even more and more Nevada meteorites being found each year, soon the "unreported" finds will OUT NUMBER the reported finds. All it would take is for just one bureaucrat to get wind of this developing situation and we could see some draconian measures put in place. Worst case scenario is that our hobby gets banned.

So instead of doing nothing, and just sit and let the worst case scenario happen, I've decided to become more proactive. I'll continue with this webpage and let it try to lead by example. And I'll continue to try and educate by reaching out to the new hobbyists. But, since some of these unreported finds were made more than 5 years ago, it isn't simply a case of nouveau hunters being uneducated on this subject. It's probably more a case of procrastination. But how long is too much time spent procrastinating? How much recovery information has already been lost for ever?

I know how big of a procrastinator I am, and if it weren't for peer pressure I know that many of my meteorite finds would still be waiting to get into the Meteoritical Bulletin. But we're not talking about "going public" with these "unreported Nevada meteorites", let alone getting them classified. We're talking about the prompt reporting of only the most basic recovery information that will be kept in strict confidence, so that it can be forever archived. Think of it as a "backing-up" of your most important data, in order to protect it from any tragic loss, such as a computer crash, or worse.
Other examples of meteorites can end up "lost to science" are:
Accidental deletion of files and messages,
Hard drive "crash",
Finder changes email address,
Finder moves or loses meteorite,
Procrastination,
Reticence in accepting the fact that the Nomenclature Committee has NEVER compromised confidentiality,
Refusal to report finds because of a near pathological phobia that someone else will "find a meteorite that you missed in your strewn field",
and many other reasons, but most could have been adverted if more prompt attention were given to, or more frequent backing of, data and record files.

So starting this year, this "NevMetPOD" webpage will be depicting an image each month of another nearly forgotten, but possibly already lost for all time, "unreported Nevada meteorite". You could think of it as peer pressure, but it can also be considered as a reminder, with the hope that the "unreported" find will soon become the latest "reported" Nevada meteorite.

[Note: This web page will be revised when the finder has reported this meteorite to the Nomenclature Committee (Nom Comm) of the Meteoritical Society.
{See "For Reference:" below}
You don't need to be a member of the Society in order to do this reporting. In fact, the Committee prefers that the finders, themselves, report each of their Nevada meteorite finds. The minimum information they require is 1) Date of find, 2) Mass of find, and 3) Location of find. With this minimal information you can then have a Provisional Name and/or Number assigned to your find. Yes, that's right. Your find doesn't need to be classified in order to get a Provisional name. The NomComm will keep this "information" and the Provisional Name strictly confidential - AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE, for every finder that has contacted them.]

(In "close-up" images, Scale is either a 1 centimeter cube, and/or a US One Quarter Dollar, or a ruler.)

For Reference:

UNREPORTED FINDS (WITHOUT NomCom "Provisional" names or numbers):


Meteorite finds (from North America) can now get "Provisional" names or numbers assigned to them.  
These are assigned by the Nomenclature Commmittee (NomComm) of the Meteoritical Society.  
In the past it wasn't always possible to get a "provisional" name, so in the future this may be subject to change.  
But for now, given the glut of meteorite finds and the long delay in getting classifications, it has been recognized that 
it is better to provisionally record a meteorite find (now) than it is to wait for ALL the required information (years later).  


And as is the current trend, where there are more and more important meteorites being found and are in need of being studied, 
it has been recognized that there are even that many more Ordinary Chondrite finds being made, and not only are they going "unstudied", they are going "unrecorded"!  So, in order to not lose this data, the NomComm is accepting recovery information directly from meteorite finders 
and issuing to them "provisional" names and/or numbers.
Clearly this policy is borrowed from the NWA provisional numbering process and is only intended to be a stop-gap measure until the glut of Ordinary Chondrite finds from North America subsides (if ever).   

So, if you have found a new Nevada meteorite and would like to report it and get a "provisional" name, or even easier, 
you have made a find from a known, formally named locality and would like to have a number issued, please contact the 
Editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin, Dr. Harold C. Connolly Jr

Would you like to see your image displayed here? Feel free to submit your image to the editor's email address below. Any and all submissions of Nevada meteorite images are welcome.