[meteorite-list] Pairing discussion/questions

[Jeff Grossman]

> Make your homework. How many different meteorites do we have from 
> Antarctica after a third of a century hunting and spending billions of 
> USD? 7000.
This statement, appearing in some of the recent emails, is wrong.  There 
are over 16,000 classified meteorites from the ANSMET expeditions, plus 
a few thousand unclassified.  Counting the Japanese, Chinese,European,  
Korean, and minor collections, There ~27,000 classified Antarctic 
meteorites, and probably close to 20,000 not yet classified (mostly in 
the Japanese and Chinese collections).  And where in the world did this 
figure of billions of dollars being spent by the US to collect its 
20,000 meteorites come from?

Also, don't overlook the fact that Antarctic meteorite have proven to be 
vastly more valuable scientifically than NWA meteorites.  They probably 
occur as subjects of scientific publications at >10x the frequency as 
NWA meteorites (I posted statistics on this some years ago, but can't 
locate it at the moment).  This is because the main masses are well curated.

Jeff

-- 
Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman       phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey          fax:   (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA