[meteorite-list] Fwd: Primitive Achondrite Question

[MexicoDoug]

Thank you Dr. Rubin, and Bernd for your observations as well!  Some of 
us are now wondering what those looking back 50 years from now will 
think of the current system which one could gather is assumed to be 
an extendable foundation to accomodate future developments.
 
I have also been thinking all along how the modern zoological 
nomenclature has the same wars all the time over which classification 
blocks fit under which subfamilies, tribes, or other higher level 
constructs.  If Alan is right, theoretically the pieces in a good 
classifications can just be rearranged as new generic relationships are 
determined.
 
I enjoy the 'heated discussions' after seeing first hand how two 
Lepidopterists can stop being on speaking terms just because of 
disagreement on which small butterfly is slightly MORE related to 
another.
 
Here's an excerp from Nabokov's Blues.  Vladimir Nabokov was probably 
the most insightful classifier in recent Lepidopteran memory (he wasn't 
afraid to risk his reputation by going out on a limb and causing a 
ruckus among his opeers, and as it turned out he was right nearly about 
everything):
 
"Yet, dissecting and drawing only 120 specimens (compared with the 
2,000 in his big Lycaeides study), Nabokov proposed what he called "a 
rather drastic rearrangement" of the Latin American Polyommatini, 
naming in the process seven new genuses of Blues -- a reordering so 
thorough as to link Nabokov's name with the group forever if his study, 
preliminary and incomplete as it was, should stand up to re-examination 
by subsequent lepidopterists. On the other hand, if it failed, it would 
simply wind up as an idiosyncratic footnote of the Nabokov legend, a 
warning to others not to overreach, and Nabokov's detractors could say 
I told you so. In an interview for The New York Times in 1997, Charles 
Remington recalled that "eyebrows were raised when Nabokov published 
his research. A lot of people have been uneasy about how well his work 
would stand up under the scrutiny of good professionals."
 
Charles Remington was the founder of the Lepidopterists' Society, his 
counterpart would be Frederick Leonard of the Meteoritical Society, 
founded 14 years earlier.
 
Kindest wishes
Doug


-----Original Message-----
From: Bernd V. Pauli
To: meteorite-list
Sent: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 2:17 pm
Subject: [meteorite-list] Primitive Achondrite Question


Hi All,

Alan kindly wrote:

"George Merrill's "The Story of Meteorites" from 1929:

There are andrites, eukrites, shergottites, howardites, bustites,
chassignites, chladnites, amphoterites, howarditic chondrites, white
chondrites, intermediate chondrites, gray chondrites, black chondrites,
spherulitic chondrites, crystalline chondrites, carbonaceous 
chondrites,
orvinites, tadjerites, ureilites, lodranies, grahamite mesosiderites,
siderophyrs, and more."

or Tschermak for that matter:

The meteorite types known to date are:

I. Main constituents are pyroxenes and plagioclase.
The crust is glossy.

- Eucrites (Rose). Augite and anorthite (or maskelynite).
- Howardites (Rose). Augite, bronzite, anorthite.

II. Pyroxenes and olivine form the main constituents.
The crust is slightly glossy to dull.

- Bustites* (Tschermak). Diopside and enstatite. (*bustites = now 
aubrites)
- Chladnites+ (Rose). Enstatite with a little anorthite.

+Only Bishopville at Tschermak's time but Bishopville is an aubrite (!)

- Diogenites (Tschermak). Bronzite.
- Amphoterites (Tschermak). Bronzite and olivine. (now LL chondrites)
- Chassignites (Rose). Olivine. (now SNC)

III. Bronzite, olivine, iron as main constituents.

Chondrites (Rose). Texture chondritic.

IV. Iron, forming networks, enclosing silicates: plagioclase, olivine,
pyroxenes, troilite.

- Grahamites (Tschermak). Plagioclase, bronzite, and augite, in iron.
(Vaca Muerta was a grahamite for Tschermak)
- Siderophyres (Tschermak). Bronzite in iron. (Steinbach)
- Mesosiderites (Rose). Bronzite and olivine in iron.
(Lodran (!) and Hainholz were mesosiderites for Tschermak)
- Pallasites (Rose) Olivine in iron.

V. Iron with subordinate troilite, schreibersite, etc.

- Iron meteorites

Tschermak omitted the name "shalkite" proposed by Rose because
reports on the composition of Shalka were contradictory at that time.

Reference:

TSCHERMAK G. (1885) Die mikroskopische Beschaffenheit
der Meteoriten (Stuttgart E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagshandlung,
E. Koch, 23 pp.).

English Translation: The Microscopic Properties of Meteorites, Vol. 4,
No. 6 (Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics, Washington, D.C., 
1964).

Cheers,

Bernd


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