Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Smithsonian Institution (SI) also took an early
interest in the Antarctic program, mainly through the
efforts of Brian Mason. Mason saw its importance to
meteoritics the moment he heard from Cassidy about
his plans for going to Antarctica. Mason volunteered to
have thin sections made of each meteorite collected in
Antarctica and to publish descriptions of them. He also
hoped to join the field team some year soon. Meanwhile,
the Smithsonian management pursued its century-old
tradition of claiming ownership of specimens or artifacts
found on federal lands or collected by projects on federal
funds. At the meeting on November 11, it yielded to
NASA the processing of Antarctic meteorites and their
primary distribution for research. But it successfully
pressed its claims to serve as the final, archival curator of
samples of each ANSMET meteorite.
main responsibility is to review requests for Antarctic
meteorite samples for research and to prepare an alloca-
tion plan for approval by the MSG, which consists of
three members: one each from the NSF, NASA, and SI.
In an effort to inform the worldwide scientific community
of the number, character, and availability of each new
batch of specimens, the MWG proposed the issuing of
what became the
Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter,
which
is composed and distributed by the curatorial staff at
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). It includes descrip-
tions of each available sample and its thin section, and is
accompanied by a sheet for submitting requests for
research material to be reviewed by the MWG.
These new procedures were to be put into practice in
the upcoming 1977-1978 season. Meanwhile, the field
team lost one member and gained two new ones. Ed
Olsen did not take part again because he could not add
his finds to the collection at the Field Museum. In fact,
he would be collecting for the benefit of a competitor:
the Smithsonian Institution. Bill found an enthusi-
astic partner in Billy P. Glass, a professor of geology at
the University of Delaware. Billy was well known for
having discovered microtektites in deep sea cores and
greatly extending the sizes of certain tektite strewnfields.
Keizo Yanai and Minoru Funaki made up the Japanese
contingent. Incidentally, from the beginning of these
searches, there was a clear understanding among partic-
ipants that this was to be a group effort. No counts
would be kept of the numbers of specimens found by
each person. Only the final totals would be recorded.
Everyone approved of this policy, which served to keep
the team members friendly.
1.6. A MEETING OF MINDS AT THE NSF,
11 NOVEMBER 1977
On Armistice Day in 1977, shortly before the start of
ANSMET's second field season, the NSF convened an
ad hoc group of meteorite specialists from NASA, the
Smithsonian, and various universities to formulate proce-
dures for collecting, processing, and distributing Antarctic
meteorites. I was invited in a surprise call from Mort
Turner. He said he was calling people who were recom-
mended by other people. (Perhaps I was on somebody's
list because I had served as president of the Meteoritical
Society in 1975 and 1976.) Mort said he would like me to
come, but he added: “We have no funds to pay for your
travel.” I knew the Smithsonian would pay my way, so
I agreed to attend the meeting, at which I obtained my
first intimate knowledge of the Antarctic meteorite
project and of big government bureaucracy.
At the meeting, Cassidy willingly relinquished his
proposal to process meteorites at Pittsburgh. And the
NSF, NASA, and SI worked out a three-agency agreement
that was unique in the U.S. government: the NSF would
continue to fund and provide field support for the expedi-
tions from the University of Pittsburgh, but the NSF
stipulated its technical ownership of all Antarctic mete-
orites collected with NSF funding; NASA agreed to serve
as the processor and distributor of meteorite samples for
research, and the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian
Institution) would become the final archival curator
of ANSMET meteorites. The Smithsonian also would
publish reports on each season's activities and describe its
collection of meteorites.
During the meeting, the NSF set up two advisory
groups: the Meteorite Working Group (MWG), and the
Meteorite Steering Group (MSG). The MWG consists of
about 10 people with a rotating membership from the
three agencies and the wider meteoritical commuity. Its
1.7. ANSMET SEASON II: 1977-1978
For this season, Cassidy decided to return to the Allan
Hills and do some more searching. This proved to be an
excellent choice. They soon discovered what we now call
the Allan Hills Main Icefield. It is a large exposure of
blue ice bearing a rich concentration of meteorites with
no terrestrial rocks among them. The team erected its
tents at the edge of the ice for an extended stay. During
that season, they recovered about 350 specimens, each of
which was collected according to the new protocols.
On being discovered, each specimen was described in a
short note and photographed in situ beside a measuring
device with a 6-cm scale. Figure 1.3a illustrates a chon-
drite, from a rock formation about 4.5 billion years old,
that fell so recently that it broke into two pieces when it
struck the ice. Figure 1.3b shows an achondrite, a poly-
mict breccia likely from the surface of asteroid 4 Vesta
(Plate 57), that has been carried within the moving ice
for perhaps several hundred thousand years before
appearing at the surface.
