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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