[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

[Randy Korotev]

Dear Eric:

My alphanumeric list contains 140 named stones,

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm

with the caveat that some do not actually have official names yet 
(e.g., "Unnamed 12").  They're on the list because I've analyzed them 
and know them to be lunar.  That's the main reason that my number, 
140, is larger than the MetBull number, 130.  It's my hope that all 
the unnamed get official names someday.

"Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been 
recovered and classified, Ever?"  Stones, yes; meteorites, no.

My composition-ordered list has only 68 meteorites because of known 
or strongly-suspected pairings.

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alumina.htm

Norbert Classen keeps close tabs on this and has 67 on his list (he 
and I both know about one that is on my list but may not be on his list yet):

http://www.meteoris.de/luna/list.html

So, ~68 is the total number of known lunar meteorites.  That 
information is not easily available from the MetBull database.  It 
sometimes takes years to establish that different named stones are or 
are not paired.

A confusion for your calculations is that practically every 
individual lunar and martian meteorite stone gets it's own name and 
line-item in the MetBull database whereas all Allende stones have one name.

Randy




At 12:40 PM 8/23/2010 Monday, you wrote:
>Hi List,
>
>I know this has been talked about on-list but... I keep getting this 
>question, or people that say they have found a "Lunar" meteorite. 
>I'm wondering how many there actually are. I've heard numbers thrown 
>about haphazardly, but no one has been able to give me a clear and 
>concise answer.
>
>The Met-Bull has "...130 records found for meteorites with 
>historical types that contain "Lunar"...'
>
>Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been 
>recovered and classified, Ever? Or is my search flawed? (as a side 
>note, it also says there are "...92 records found for meteorites 
>with historical types that contain "Martian"...")
>
>Dr. Randy Korotev's "List of Lunar Meteorites" on the Washinton 
>University website has the number at 140. 
>http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
>
>Just for giggles I wanted to know how many total classified 
>meteorites there actually were on the planet.
>
>"...39146 valid meteorite names; 11959 provisional names; 4589 
>full-text writeups..."
>
>That's a whopping 51,105 classifications. Wow!
>
>Doing some simple math, 130 Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total 
>classifications means that "Lunars" only makeup about 0.254% of the 
>total number of meteorite ever classified. (0.180% for Martian meteorites).
>
>Are these number correct?
>
>Regards,
>Eric
>
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