It's funny, I was just talking about this with Sonny Clary this morning
about this very thing. I would consider Sonny and many other
professional meteorite hunters, authorities on Meteorite ID in the
field. You bring up a very good point Greg.
That's what meteorite hunting is all about. ID! Being able to ID a
meteorite, or "suspect" meteorite while in the field is the most
important part next to actually getting out there. That's why physical
examination of ALL types of meteorites are so vitally important to
successful meteorite hunting. I'm sure most meteorite hunters will
agree. If you don't know what you're looking for, how can you expect to
find it?
Weathered Lunar meteorites will probably look similar weathered earth
rocks to the untrained eye. Some Lunars actually "look" like meteorites
with fusion crust and thumbprints. ;) (just look at NWA 482
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/stones/nwa0482.htm one of the most
beautiful Lunar meteorites I've ever seen)
However, many great meteorite hunters know what they're doing, can ID a
meteorite from 50 feet away, and have examined thousands of meteorites,
many of them Lunar meteorites. Yet even with all their thousands upon
thousands of combined hours in the field, the elusive USA Lunar is
hiding still.
It IS out there... Somewhere.
Regards,
Eric
On 8/23/2010 1:34 PM, Thunder Stone wrote:
Feldsparic breccias are very common throughout the SW deserts and (I believe)
in many other areas, and these look very similar to luners. I think it's going
to have to have a fusion crust. If its sandblasted or very weathered, it may
never be found.
Greg S.
----------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:25:18 -0400
From: meteoritem...@gmail.com
To: e...@meteoritesusa.com
CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] How Many Lunar Meteorites?
I get photos of US lunaites emailed to me all of the time! LOL ;)
On 8/23/10, Meteorites USA wrote:
I also noticed, there are no Lunar meteorites recovered in the USA. Yet...
Does this still hold true?
Eric
On 8/23/2010 11:53 AM, Randy Korotev wrote:
Dear Eric:
My alphanumeric list contains 140 named stones,
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
with the caveat that some do not actually have official names yet
(e.g., "Unnamed 12"). They're on the list because I've analyzed them
and know them to be lunar. That's the main reason that my number,
140, is larger than the MetBull number, 130. It's my hope that all
the unnamed get official names someday.
"Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been
recovered and classified, Ever?" Stones, yes; meteorites, no.
My composition-ordered list has only 68 meteorites because of known or
strongly-suspected pairings.
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alumina.htm
Norbert Classen keeps close tabs on this and has 67 on his list (he
and I both know about one that is on my list but may not be on his
list yet):
http://www.meteoris.de/luna/list.html
So, ~68 is the total number of known lunar meteorites. That
information is not easily available from the MetBull database. It
sometimes takes years to establish that different named stones are or
are not paired.
A confusion for your calculations is that practically every individual
lunar and martian meteorite stone gets it's own name and line-item in
the MetBull database whereas all Allende stones have one name.
Randy
At 12:40 PM 8/23/2010 Monday, you wrote:
Hi List,
I know this has been talked about on-list but... I keep getting this
question, or people that say they have found a "Lunar" meteorite. I'm
wondering how many there actually are. I've heard numbers thrown
about haphazardly, but no one has been able to give me a clear and
concise answer.
The Met-Bull has "...130 records found for meteorites with historical
types that contain "Lunar"...'
Does this mean there are 130 Lunar meteorites that have been
recovered and classified, Ever? Or is my search flawed? (as a side
note, it also says there are "...92 records found for meteorites with
historical types that contain "Martian"...")
Dr. Randy Korotev's "List of Lunar Meteorites" on the Washinton
University website has the number at 140.
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites_list_alpha.htm
Just for giggles I wanted to know how many total classified
meteorites there actually were on the planet.
"...39146 valid meteorite names; 11959 provisional names; 4589
full-text writeups..."
That's a whopping 51,105 classifications. Wow!
Doing some simple math, 130 Lunar meteorites out of 51,105 total
classifications means that "Lunars" only makeup about 0.254% of the
total number of meteorite ever classified. (0.180% for Martian
meteorites).
Are these number correct?
Regards,
Eric
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