Jeff,

Thanks again for your time and for bringing more light to the subject of the origination of the names, NWA and Kem Kem. You mentioned about where the Kem Kems went to and I forgot to mention that I have a piece of Kem Kem that I purchased back when Planet Brey meteorites got specimens of Kem Kem and I have it on ebay and if you want to have a look at it with the Original COA that says Kem Kem and the information on the card, here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/KEM-KEM-Meteorite-19-7g-IMCA-COA-Unclass-Probably-H5_W0QQitemZ270440268847QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH

I added in the description that since it's technically Unclassified and probably an H5.

Thanks again for your help and your wonderful and thorough explanation.

Brian Cox
IMCA # 6387

Searchingforfun is my ebay User ID






 [meteorite-list] Kem-Kem was never the generic for NWA
Jeff Grossman jgrossman at usgs.gov
Fri Aug 14 00:50:48 EDT 2009

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kem Kem meteorites from Casper were a trigger for the NomCom
approving the NWA designation, which was my coinage in January
2000. But to really understand the history, you need to go back a
few years earlier, to El Hammami (aka Hamada du Draa), which was the
first case for which the NomCom became aware that meteorites were
being transported and sold in this region. With this history, plus a
series of inquiries from other dealers about the Kem Kem meteorites,
compounded by our inability to learn many details about those
meteorites from Casper, we needed to take action of some kind. We
decided on a generic term, Northwest Africa, that could be applied as
a "tracking" label to all stones, even ones that had not been
classified, so that individual meteorites would not be divided and
sold under multiple names. We also had no ability to investigate
multiple vague or anonymous claims about meteorite provenance in the
region. Thus it was decided that all of these meteorites would be
named NWA, even those that had been classified. I'm not sure what
ever happened to the Kem Kems that triggered the whole thing. Since
I don't think Casper ever numbered them, there were no synonyms to
publish, assuming they eventually became NWAs.

jeff

----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Cox" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 1:55 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Kem-Kem, the original "GENERIC" name for NWAs, Northwest African meteorites


Hi Jeff,

Thank you very much for your explanation of Kem Kem and the NomCom approving the NWA designation because of all the confusion and the situation of all the meteorites coming out of the region.

Thank you for mentioning that you and NomCom decided on "A Generic Term" Northwest Africa, that could be applied as a "Tracking" label to all stones.

I really appreciate your explanation.

All the best!

Brian
IMCA # 6387

[meteorite-list] Kem-Kem was never the generic for NWA
Jeff Grossman jgrossman at usgs.gov
Fri Aug 14 00:50:48 EDT 2009

a.. Previous message: [meteorite-list] Kem-Kem was never the generic for NWA b.. Next message: [meteorite-list] Fw: Kem Kem, the original generic name before NWAs, Northwest African meteorites
 c.. Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Kem Kem meteorites from Casper were a trigger for the NomCom
approving the NWA designation, which was my coinage in January
2000. But to really understand the history, you need to go back a
few years earlier, to El Hammami (aka Hamada du Draa), which was the
first case for which the NomCom became aware that meteorites were
being transported and sold in this region. With this history, plus a
series of inquiries from other dealers about the Kem Kem meteorites,
compounded by our inability to learn many details about those
meteorites from Casper, we needed to take action of some kind. We
decided on a generic term, Northwest Africa, that could be applied as
a "tracking" label to all stones, even ones that had not been
classified, so that individual meteorites would not be divided and
sold under multiple names. We also had no ability to investigate
multiple vague or anonymous claims about meteorite provenance in the
region. Thus it was decided that all of these meteorites would be
named NWA, even those that had been classified. I'm not sure what
ever happened to the Kem Kems that triggered the whole thing. Since
I don't think Casper ever numbered them, there were no synonyms to
publish, assuming they eventually became NWAs.

jeff



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