Curation and classification procedures for the UK Antarctic meteorite collection

Abstract

The field of advanced curation is important for existing astromaterials collections, which includes samples returned by space missions, and meteorites and cosmic dust samples that have been recovered from here on Earth. In order to maximize the scientific return of the samples, contamination needs to be minimized at all stages of sample collection, preliminary examination, classification, and curation. Utilizing best practice methods, a detailed acquisition and curation plan was implemented during the UK's first two expeditions to collect Antarctic meteorites from two new blue icefields, Hutchison Icefields and Outer Recovery Icefields. This article documents the design and execution of the procedures used during the project's curation and classification processes. It describes two case studies showing the processes applied to the recovered meteorites, and reviews our experiences and lessons learned for the future.