This Special Publication has 24 papers with an international authorship, and is prefaced by an introductory overview which presents highlights in the field. The first section covers the acceptance by science of the reality of the falls of rock and metal from the sky, an account that takes the reader from BCE (before common era) to the nineteenth century. The second section details some of the world's most important collections in museums - their origins and development. The Smithsonian chapter also covers the astonishingly numerous finds in the cold desert of Antarctica by American search parties. There are also contributions covering the finds by Japanese parties in the Yamato mountains and the equally remarkable discoveries in the hot deserts of Australia, North Africa, Oman and the USA. The other seven chapters take the reader through the revolution in scientific research on meteoritics in the later part of the twentieth century, including terrestrial impact cratering and extraordinary showers of glass from the sky; tektites, now known to be Earth-impact-sourced. Finally, the short epilogue looks to the future.

Excerpt from Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Meteorite Collections in the United States National Museum Aerolites or Stony Consisting essentially of silicate minerals with minor Meteorites. Amounts of the metallic alloys and sulphides. Consisting of an extremely variable network or sponge of metal, the interstices of which are occupied by the silicate mineral. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

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The US Antarctic meteorite collection exists due to a cooperative program involving the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1976, meteorites have been collected by a NSF-funded field team, shipped for curation, characterization, distribution, and storage at NASA, and classified and stored for long term at the Smithsonian. It is the largest collection in the world with many significant samples including lunar, martian, many interesting chondrites and achondrites, and even several unusual one-of-a-kind meteorites from as yet unidentified parent bodies. Many Antarctic meteorites have helped to define new meteorite groups. No previous formal publication has covered the entire collection, and an overall summary of its impact and significant samples has been lacking. In addition, available statistics for the collection are out of date and need to be updated for the use of the community. 35 seasons of U.S. Antarctic Meteorites (1976-2011): A Pictorial Guide to the Collection is the first comprehensive volume that portrays the most updated key significant meteoritic samples from Antarctica. 35 seasons of U.S. Antarctic Meteorites presents a broad overview of the program and collection nearly four decades after its beginnings. The collection has been a consistent and reliable source of astromaterials for a large, diverse, and active scientific community. Volume highlights include: Overview of the history, field practices, curation approaches Special focus on specific meteorite types and the impact of the collection on understanding these groups (primitive chondrites, differentiated meteorites, lunar and martian meteorites) Role of Antarctic meteorites in influencing the determination of space and terrestrial exposure ages for meteorites Statistical summary of the collection by year, region, meteorite type, as well as a comparison to modern falls and hot desert finds The central portion of the book features 80 color plates each of which highlights more influential and interesting samples from the collection. 35 seasons of U.S. Antarctic Meteorites would be of special interest to a multidisciplinary audience in meteoritics, including advanced graduate students and geoscientists specializing in mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, astronomy, near-earth object science, astrophysics, and astrobiology.