[meteorite-list] Private vs. Institutional Curation (was - Sutter's Mill Meteorite Preserved For Present and Future Scientists)

Wed Aug 21 13:39:20 EDT 2013

My sutters mill pieces have been sealed in a glass jar since I got them at the site las year. Opened once or twice only.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 21, 2013, at 10:23 AM, "Galactic Stone & Ironworks" <meteoritemike at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi List,
> 
> I have a question for the "advanced" collectors -
> 
> How well do you curate your own collections?  Are there any
> privately-held collections who exercise similar environmental and
> handling controls as the major scientific institutions?
> 
> Obviously, I doubt your average Joe has a pressurized clean-room like
> JSC does, but are there any private collections that are known for
> being "scientifically-viable" ?
> 
> What level of curation would be required to achieve a level of
> preservation that science would find useful for research?
> 
> 1) controlled environment storage - free of contaminants.  Sealed
> hermetic containers kept inside a climate-controlled area that has
> positive pressure to the surrounding access.  Ideally, this area
> should be sealed from the rest of the building and any atmosphere
> going in should be micro-filtered and monitored.
> 
> 2) controlled handling - sterile handling area that meets the
> conditions stated above for storage.  No magnets or other types of
> non-physical contamination.
> 
> 3) extensive documentation of provenance and logged/recorded instances
> of handling.  Any cuts, samples, or portions removed are carefully
> plotted and logged.
> 
> To be fair, most universities don't go through the whole JSC "space
> suit" routine when curating their specimens.  So, how much is needed
> for a scientific institution to feel confident that a specimen from a
> given private collector would be viable for scientific research?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> MikeG
> -- 
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> 
> 
> 
> On 8/21/13, Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> http://carsonnow.org/story/08/21/2013/rare-meteorite-preserved-present-and-future-scientists
>> 
>> Rare meteorite preserved for present and future scientists
>> by Jeff Munson
>> Carson Now
>> August 21, 2013
>> 
>> The main mass of a rare meteorite observed in the skies over Carson City,
>> Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe that exploded over California's Sierra
>> foothills
>> in April 2012 will be preserved for current and future scientific
>> discoveries,
>> thanks to the collaborative efforts of five U.S. academic institutions.
>> 
>> It has found a permanent home divided among the University of California,
>> Davis; the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History
>> in Washington, D.C.; American Museum of Natural History in New York City;
>> The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; and Arizona State University
>> 
>> in Tempe. Together, the institutions have successfully acquired the biggest
>> 
>> known portion of the Sutter's Mill meteorite.
>> 
>> The meteorite is considered to be one of the rarest types to hit the Earth
>> -- a carbonaceous chondrite containing cosmic dust and presolar materials
>> that helped form the planets of the solar system.
>> 
>> Its acquisition signifies enhanced research opportunities for each
>> institution
>> and ensures that future scientists can study the meteorite for years to
>> come.
>> 
>> "With these museums and institutions storing the meteorite's main mass,
>> it leaves it in a pristine condition to preserve for future generations
>> to study," said UC Davis geology professor Qing-zhu Yin. "Fifty or 100
>> years from now, we may have new technology that will enable later
>> generations
>> to revisit the meteorite and do research we haven't thought of. This gives
>> us a better chance to realize the full scientific value of the meteorite,
>> rather than have it be just a collector's item."
>> 
>> The meteorite formed about 4.5 billion years ago. While it fell to Earth
>> roughly the size of a minivan before exploding as a fireball, less than
>> 950 grams have been found. Its main mass weighs just 205 grams (less than
>> half a pound) and is about the size of a human palm.
>> 
>> The main mass was X-rayed by CT scan at the UC Davis Center for Molecular
>> and Genomic Imaging. This was the first time a meteorite acquisition was
>> CT scanned before its division among a consortium of institutes, allowing
>> prior knowledge of each piece's contents. Then it was cut into five
>> portions,
>> reflective of each institution's investment, before being delivered to
>> the institutions.
>> 
>> The portion of the main mass acquired by each institution includes:
>> 
>> * American Museum of Natural History: 34 percent
>> * Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History: 32 percent
>> * The Field Museum of Natural History: 16 percent
>> * Arizona State University: 13 percent
>> * UC Davis: 5 percent
>> 
>> When the meteorite landed near Sutter's Mill, the gold discovery site
>> that sparked the California Gold Rush, it spurred a scientific gold rush
>> of sorts, with researchers, collectors and interested citizens scouring
>> the landscape for fragments of meteorite. The institutions that have
>> acquired
>> the main mass were among those that acted on this rare scientific
>> opportunity
>> to gain insights about the origins of life and the formation of the
>> planets.
>> 
>> At UC Davis, for instance, the meteorite fell just 60 miles east of the
>> main campus. Yin immediately traveled to the site with students and
>> colleagues,
>> looking for specimens and reaching out to the public to provide meteorite
>> donations for science. He confirmed for the original discoverer of the
>> main mass that it was carbonaceous chondrite. Yin and his UC Davis
>> colleagues
>> have also X-rayed the meteorite and determined its age and chemical
>> composition.
>> 
>> "It just happened in our backyard,' said Yin. "I felt obligated to do
>> something, and I still do."
>> 
>> Involvement from the other institutions included:
>> 
>> * The American Museum of Natural History worked closely with Yin to secure
>> specimens of the Sutter's Mill meteorite right after its fall, and performed
>> 
>> nondestructive computed tomography (CT) scans of several specimens kindly
>> loaned by their finders. These scans were used to determine the density
>> of several samples to very high accuracy, confirming the type of meteorite
>> represented by Sutter's Mill.
>> 
>> * The Field Museum of Natural History found several presolar stardust
>> grains in two smaller pieces of the meteorite donated by private collector
>> Terry Boudreaux. Presolar stardust grains are the oldest solid samples
>> available to any lab and are essentially time capsules from before the
>> solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
>> 
>> * Arizona State University's Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center
>> for Meteorite Studies, was contacted by Robert Haag, the private collector
>> who owned the main mass. She then contacted the other institutions to
>> initiate its joint acquisition.
>> 
>> * The Smithsonian Institution cut the mass into five portions.
>> 
>> Last spring, UC Davis alumnus Gregory Jorgensen and donor Sandy VanderPol
>> provided nearly 3 grams of the Sutter's Mill meteorite to Yin's lab at
>> UC Davis. Those 3 grams allowed UC Davis to learn the meteorite's age
>> and chemical composition. The university's recent acquisition of another
>> 10 grams of the main mass will allow for even further research, including
>> searching for presolar grains and performing isotopic analysis.
>> 
>> UC Davis' section of the meteorite was funded by a portion of Yin's
>> Chancellor's
>> Fellowship.
>> 
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