[meteorite-list] Some thoughts on find coords

[dorifry]

Keeping it secret would weed out the unprofessional riff raffs that could 
potentially cause problems for everybody.

Phil Whitmer
Joshua Tree Earth & Space Musuem
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Fries" <chief_scientist at galacticanalytics.com>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 11:12 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Some thoughts on find coords


> Greetings all
>
> I've been talking with a few people about logging the Battle Mountain 
> meteorites, and I'd like to start some discussion on the topic of find 
> coordinates. This is NOT directed at any one person, but I would like to 
> editorialize a bit. I'm getting a lot of push-back about printing find 
> coordinates and I'd like to open the topic to general discussion.
>
> Historically, the locations of found meteorites have been a closely 
> guarded secret. That made a lot of sense when meteorite hunting relied 
> most heavily on eyewitness reports. A hunter could easily put in many, 
> many miles of walking before coming across a meteorite. For finds that are 
> made with weather radar, however, I don't think its the same situation. 
> When I post radar analyses, it is like posting a treasure map that says, 
> "Go Here".  At that point everyone knows where the meteorites are, and it 
> seems to me that the locations of individual stones aren't nearly as 
> important as they were in the past. (Strewn fields without detailed radar 
> data are another matter, of course.) Where those locations do matter are 
> to A) the science behind describing the meteorite fall, and B) the value 
> of the individual meteorite since a well-documented meteorite should be 
> worth more than a random stone from a given fall.
>
> I am a scientist, and my first instinct is to collect, analyze, 
> and -share- data. I understand where that is at odds with the level of 
> secrecy needed in the past, but I think that that level of secrecy is no 
> longer needed and actually works contrary to the value of meteorites, both 
> monetary and scientific. On the Galactic Analytics website, I'm willing to 
> go against my better instincts and hide find locations, at least until a 
> scientific paper is released describing the fall. But to be honest, I 
> think that's a little silly - I'll basically have a table showing 
> meteorites with the find locations redacted, and then you can scroll down 
> the page a bit and see a map showing where the meteorites are.
>
> So let me throw this out there as a general question - is it really 
> important to hide the find locations?
>
> Cheers,
> Marc Fries
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