Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.2.
(a) Sanplatec auto-desiccators are used to house Antarctic iron meteorites, powdered stone types, and type sections of
aubrites and enstatite chondrites. (b) Laboratory equipment and supplies are located within the clean room storage area. Sample
allocations and study take place on a biological-grade laminar flow “clean” bench. (c) The Smithsonian Antarctic storage facility
is a Class 10,000 clean room, which has a dedicated triple HEPA filtered air handling system. Fourteen stainless steel glove boxes
are filled with 99.998% pure nitrogen gas supplied from a central LN tank. Paired glove boxes share an airlock with air shower.
Each glove box has gas flow and relative humidity monitors.
the original mass yet scientific interest in the sample con-
tinues. A current listing of the special protected samples
can be found on the JSC webpage:
http://curator.jsc.nasa.
Antarctic meteorite sample requests from individual
scientists may involve one particular sample or dozens
of samples, depending on the nature of the study being
undertaken. The number of requests received by the
program has steadily grown over the years, such that
recent years have seen more than a hundred requests
(and over a thousand individual meteorite samples) per
year, whereas the program average is about 80 per year
(Figure 3.3). Interest in samples from the collection can
be assessed by considering the history of requests for
specific samples. In most cases, there is an initial high
level of interest as a new sample is recovered and made
available. This is followed by a long period of sustained
interest as more is learned about specific samples and
how they fit into the big picture of knowledge that
might exist for a specific group or groups of samples.
For example, the martian meteorite EET A79001
(Plate 70) was found in 1980, and even after several
years of intense study it remains of great interest and
has received more than 300 requests over the years of
