[meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?

Meteorites USA eric at meteoritesusa.com
Mon Aug 23 15:24:14 EDT 2010


Thank you Dr. Korotev! (Randy)

I appreciate your response, and I know you can understand the confusion. 
Comparing the list of pairings of the 130 total "stones" Your list 
combined with Norbert's gives a better understanding of just how few 
Lunar meteorites there actually are. Re-figuring the percentages of 68 
"paired" Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total classified meteorites 
that's 0.133% of all meteorites.

Wow! That's an "astronomically" small percentage.

Thanks!

Regards,
Eric



On 8/23/2010 11:53 AM, Randy Korotev wrote:
> 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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