Activities
The Meteoritical Society is the organization that records all known meteorites in its Meteoritical Bulletin . The Society also publishes one of the world's leading planetary science journals, Meteoritics & Planetary Science , and is a cosponsor with the Geochemical Society of the renowned journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta .
The Society presents or cosponsors seven awards each year:
- The Leonard Medal , awarded since 1966 in honor of the first President of the Society, Frederick C. Leonard, is given for outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields.
- The Barringer Medal , awarded since 1984 and cosponsored by the Barringer Crater Company, recognizes outstanding work in the field of impact cratering and/or work that has led to a better understanding of impact phenomena. The Prize is given in memory of D. Moreau Barringer Sr. and his son D. Moreau Barringer Jr.
- The Nier Prize recognizes outstanding research in meteoritics and allied fields by young (under age 35) scientists. It has been awarded since 1996 in honor of the late physicist and geochemist, Alfred O. C. Nier.
- The Paul Pellas-Graham Ryder Award , cosponsored by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America, is given for undergraduate and graduate students who are first author of a planetary science paper published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It has been given since 2000, and honors the memories of the incomparable meteoriticist Paul Pellas and lunar scientist Graham Ryder.
- The Meteoritical Society's Service Award is for members who have advanced the goals of the Society to promote research and education in meteoritics and planetary science in ways other than by conducting scientific research. The first award was presented in 2006.
- The Gordon A. McKay Award is for the best oral presentation by a student at the annual meeting of the society. It honors the memory of planetary scientist Gordon A. McKay. The first award was presented in 2009.
- The Jessberger Award is awarded to a mid-career female scientist in the field of isotope cosmochemistry. The award was endowed by the family of geochemist Elmar Jessberger. The award is given every other year.
The Meteoritical Society hosts an annual meeting during the summer, which generally alternates between North America and Europe. It has also held meetings in South Africa, Australia, Brazil, and Japan. The next meeting will be August 13-18, 2023 at UCLA.
Meteor Crater or Barringer Crater is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Canyon Diablo.
Daniel Barringer was a geologist best known as the first person to prove the existence of an impact crater on the Earth, Meteor Crater in Arizona. The site has been renamed the Barringer Crater in his honor, which is the preferred name used in the scientific community. A small lunar crater on the far side of the Moon is also named after him.
Lappajärvi is a lake in Finland, in the municipalities of Lappajärvi, Alajärvi and Vimpeli. It is formed in a 23 km (14 mi) wide, partly eroded meteorite impact crater. The lake is part of Ähtävänjoki basin together with Lake Evijärvi that is located downstream (north) of it.
Roter Kamm is a meteorite crater, located in the Sperrgebiet, within the Namibian section of the Namib Desert, approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Oranjemund and 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Aurus Mountain in the ǁKaras Region. The crater is 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) in diameter and is 130 metres (430 ft) deep. The age is estimated at 4.81 ± 0.5 Ma, placing it in the Pliocene. The crater is exposed at the surface, but its original floor is covered by sand deposits at least 100 metres (330 ft) thick.
The Canyon Diablo meteorite refers to the many fragments of the asteroid that created Meteor Crater, Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater.
Graham Ryder was an English geologist and lunar scientist.
The Paul Pellas-Graham Ryder Award is jointly sponsored by the Meteoritical Society and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. It recognizes the best planetary science paper, published during the previous year in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and written by an undergraduate or graduate student. The topics covered by the award are listed on the cover of Meteoritics and Planetary Science. It has been given since 2002, and honors the memories of the incomparable meteoriticist Paul Pellas and lunar scientist Graham Ryder.
The Barringer Medal recognizes outstanding work in the field of impact cratering and/or work that has led to a better understanding of impact phenomena. The Barringer Medal and Award were established to honor the memory of D. Moreau Barringer Sr. and his son D. Moreau Barringer Jr. and are sponsored by the Barringer Crater Company. The medal is awarded by the Meteoritical Society. The senior Barringer was the first to seriously propose an impact origin for the crater that now bears his name.
The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Conference, publication of a peer-reviewed journal and electronic newsletter, awards programs recognizing significant accomplishments in the field, and student development programs. The society's offices are located on the campus of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC.
Peter H. Schultz is Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University specializing in the study of planetary geology, impact cratering on the Earth and other objects in the Solar System, and volcanic modifications of planetary surfaces. He was co-investigator to the NASA Science Mission Directorate spacecraft Deep Impact and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). He was awarded the Barringer Medal of the Meteoritical Society in 2004 for his theoretical and experimental studies of impact craters.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1950 and is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Meteoritical Society. The editor-in-chief is Jeffrey Catalano. The journal covers topics in Earth geochemistry, planetary geochemistry, cosmochemistry and meteoritics.
Christian Köberl is a professor of impact research and planetary geology at the University of Vienna, Austria. From June 2010 to May 2020 he was director general of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. He is best known for his research on meteorite impact craters.
Meenakshi Wadhwa is a planetary scientist and educator who studies the formation and evolution of the Solar System through the analysis of planetary materials including meteorites, Moon rocks and other extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft missions. She is director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.
Robert Norman Clayton was a Canadian-American chemist and academic. He was the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Clayton studied cosmochemistry and held a joint appointment in the university's geophysical sciences department. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was named a fellow of several academic societies, including the Royal Society.
As of June 2018, 12 confirmed impact structures have been found in Finland. They are listed below, sorted by original diameter.
Gas-rich meteorites are meteorites with high levels of primordial gases, such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and sometimes other elements. Though these gases are present "in virtually all meteorites," the Fayetteville meteorite has ~2,000,000 x10−8 ccSTP/g helium, or ~2% helium by volume equivalent. In comparison, background level is a few ppm.
Minoru Ozima is a geochemist and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, at the University of Tokyo. He was named one of the top 100 Asian scientists for the year 2021 by Asian Scientist magazine.
Nicolas Dauphas is a planetary scientist and isotope geochemist. He is a professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences and Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. Within cosmochemistry, his research focus is on isotope geochemistry. He studies the origin and evolution of planets and other objects in the solar system by analyzing the natural distributions of elements and their isotopes using mass spectrometers.
Natalia Anatolievna (Natasha) Artemieva is a Russian planetary scientist whose research involves the computer simulation of meteor impacts and the craters formed by them, especially for planets such as the Earth, Mars, and Jupiter where atmospheric effects play a significant role in the impact behavior. This line of research has also led her to the study of the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary and the formation of suevite in meteor impacts. She is a senior researcher in the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics in Russia, and a senior researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, US.
