[meteorite-list] Is Amgala Official? / New Bulletin

[Jeff Grossman]

This happens all the time with meteorites that get on the market before 
they come to the NomCom.  It's just a fact of life.  If a meteorite is 
found halfway between towns, then usually the person who submits it to us 
chooses.  Hyphenated names are only used in special circumstances (there 
will be one announced this week where pieces fell on both sides of an 
international border).  We give a lot of deference in choosing names to the 
person or team that first classifies it as long as the name is reasonable 
and appropriate.

There are thousands of synonyms for meteorite out there.  Amgala will be 
another.  It won't be used in the scientific literature, but it will get in 
all the databases.

Jeff

At 03:54 PM 5/10/2005, Meteoryt.net wrote:

> > Amgala was the provisional working name for Oum Dreyga.  The meteorite
>fell
> > between Amgala and Oum Dreyga in the country of Western Sahara.  It was
> > determined later on to have fallen closer to Oum Dreyga than Amgala thus
>the
> > new name.  The coordinates were provided by us from the beginning and do
> > plot closer to Oum Dreyga.  If you dig through the archives you will see
>we
> > even provided a map. NAU was working on this material from the beginning
>and
> > would have also called it Oum Dreyga.   It doesn't matter either way
>because
> > it is now formerly classified.
>
>OK.
>Unfortunatelly we have here two worlds.
>World of science and comercial world. Unfortunatelly science world make
>rules here :)
>
>So what will happend if strewfield will be in half way beetween 2 towns ? It
>will have name of town closer to bigger specimens or not ? :)) Or we will be
>have X-Y like Gao-Guenie ? :))
>
>Its for me little funny now. One meteorite will be have now 2 names.
>Official and unofficial.
>I only hope that noone will return Amgala purchased from me becouse its not
>Oum Dreyga :))
>
>-----[ MARCIN CIMALA ]-----[ I.M.C.A.#3667 ]-----
>http://www.Meteoryt.net             marcin at meteoryt.net
>http://www.PolandMET.com       marcin at polandmet.com
>http://www.Gao-Guenie.com      GSM +48(607)535 195
>--------[ Member of Polish Meteoritical Society ]--------
>
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Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman       phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey          fax:   (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA