[meteorite-list] Sutter's Mill TKW Update - Friday May 18

[Jeff Grossman]

Once again, I've gotta take issue with calling a stone that is only 10% 
of the total recovered mass the "main mass".   I don't think this is a 
reasonable usage.  Allende, Murchison, Holbrook, and now this meteorite 
simply don't have a single main mass. Give Ward credit for the largest 
known piece.

I also want to point out that classifications published in the Bulletin 
are not official classifications.  They are considered by the committee 
to be authoritative classifications, which means they were judged to be 
done by people with the proper expertise and their findings were judged 
to be reasonable.  But every classification in the Bulletin is nothing 
more than a finding made by the listed classifier(s), i.e. the work of 
one specific person or group.

Jeff

On 5/18/2012 9:47 AM, Michael Gilmer wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> The find tally page has been updated again.  I was contacted by one of
> the early finders who informed me that his SM-numbered stone was
> actually a wrong.  It was some kind of tar-coated concrete or asphalt.
>   So that stone was struck from the list and run out of town on a rail.
>
> The current unofficial TKW is 432.81 grams.
>
> The current unofficial number of finds is 55.
>
> The main mass is still Robert Ward's superb 44 gram stone.
>
> The official classification on this one is going to come pretty quick
> - think along the lines of Ash Creek.  A specimen from that fall was
> recovered very early and analyzed and it appeared in the Bulletin
> within a couple of weeks.  I expect this new fall will follow a
> similar path to publication.  The only thing that remains to be seen
> is what will the official classification type be?  CM?  CM2?  CM3(!),
> CI?  Or......?
>
> Official Sutter's Mill page (NASA-Dr. Jenniskens) - http://asima.seti.org/sm/
>
> Unofficial TKW and Find Tally - http://www.galactic-stone.com/pages/lotus
>
> To those still who are still hunting - good luck and bring home the
> big rocks!  :)
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
>