An absolutely stunning piece of work, well done Svend and Matthias. I've only managed a quick browser through so far, but look forward to spending longer reading it later. It's enlightening to see this amount of detail regarding a fall and it's subsequent collection/distribution.
Thanks for all your time and effort, Matt. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > We are pleased to announce that the Descriptive Catalog on the Recovered > Masses of the Bassikounou Meteorite Fall is now available as a non-commercial > download. > > The catalog lists 108 single masses of a combined weight of 62.186kg > (including the 6.120kg main mass) individually and another 31.665kg in lots. > More than 80 individual masses are pictured. The final TKW of the Bassikounou > meteorite fall is 93.851kg. > > In the latest phase of this undertaking we have often been approached by > collectors explaining that regarding to their observations the TKW should be > much higher. To prove their point they showed us images of single Bassikounou > meteorites or complete lots they were offered recently. In 99% of these cases > we had cataloged the particular masses before either individually or under a > certain lot. > > In this context it might be interesting for some of you, that many meteorites > change hands already before they get distributed. Moroccan sellers equip > their colleagues with commission material to visit Europe, or they simply > exchange certain batches of material between one another. This is the reason > why one and the same meteorite can be offered to you from different sellers > from the same NWA country successively. > > During our research we were able to follow an exemplary Bassikounou mass on > its journey from the local finder, to a distributor in Morroco, to a > meteorite fair in France, to a European mineral dealer and finally to a > collector in Canada. During the stations of the journey this particular > meteorite was offered no less than 12 times under different circumstances and > with different photos. > > This in mind it is no wonder that people think there is much more material > circulating than actually is. Our experience lead us to the conclusion that > many recent meteorite falls that produced showers are largely overestimated > in their total weight. > > We hope that our investigation may aid the understanding and recovery of > future meteorite falls in isolated areas. And we are positive, that our > undertaking helps to sensitize finders as well as distributors in Mauritania > and Morocco to preserve the information that is connected to the meteorites > they trade. > > You can access the complete catalog by clicking at the cover image on the > bottom of page 5 of the Bassikounou report: > > http://www.niger-meteorite-recon.de/en/Bassikounou_Meteorite_5.htm > > Or simply by copying the direct link into your browser: > > http://www.niger-meteorite-recon.de/img_inventar/Buhl_Baermann_Catalog.pdf > > Please allow the large document some time to load. > > > Thanks again to all contributors. > > > Svend Buhl & Matthias Baermann > > > > ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
