71st Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society (MetSoc 2008)

Special Sessions:  The following special sessions will be featured:

• Special Session:  Kaguya Mission, Monday morning, 09:30
• Special Session:  Petrology and Geochemistry of Differentiated Bodies (session dedicated to the memory of Gordon McKay), Tuesday morning, 08:30

The program with abstracts is now available. Authors may locate their presentation by looking in the author index.

Note about posters:  The poster session will be held on Tuesday, July 29, at 18:00 in the Large Exhibition Hall. Posters can be a maximum of 41 inches by 57 inches (103 cm by 146 cm). Posters may be installed beginning at 12:00 noon on Monday, July 28, and will remain on display through the meeting. All posters must be removed by 12:00 noon on Friday, August 1.

Matsue, a city of great antiquity, is located about 650 km west of Tokyo, and is the prefectural capital of Shimane. Matsue is surrounded by water and blessed with an abundance of beautiful natural scenery. The venue for the meeting is the Kunibiki Messe, Shimane Prefectural Convention Center, which is located along a river connecting Lakes Shinji and Nakanoumi, and is within walking distance from all hotels in the city center.

MetSoc 2008 on the web:  Additional information regarding transportation, accommodations, meeting activities, etc., can be found on the Matsue meeting website.

Transportation:  Matsue is served by Izumo (IZO) and Yonago (YGJ) Airports with regular services from Tokyo (Haneda Airport, HND), Nagoya (Chubu Centrair Airport, NGO), Osaka (Itami Airport, ITM), and Fukuoka (Fukuoka Airport, FUK). JAL flights from Haneda to Izumo, ANA flights from Haneda to Yonago or ANA flights from Centrair to Yonago are convenient.

We strongly recommend that international travelers arrive at Narita International Airport (NRT) by mid-afternoon because they must transfer to Haneda by bus.

Kansai International Airport (KIX) is easily accessible by airport limousine to Itami airport. Flights from Itami to Izumo are available.

It takes about half an hour to reach the city center of Matsue by shuttle bus, from the Izumo and Yanago Airports.

A map of Japan is provided.

Accommodations:  Matsue offers plenty of hotel rooms, and many of them offer very reasonable rates. The following hotels are holding 210 rooms for this meeting (5,670–9,600 JPY for single occupancy, including breakfast and taxes). Forty twin rooms are also available.

Matsue Tokyu Inn
Matsue Urban Hotel
Matsue New Urban Hotel Annex
Matsue Ekimae Universal Hotel
Toyoko Inn Matsue Ekimae

The detailed booking information, including special rates for MetSoc 2008, is available at the Matsue meeting website.

Weather:  The rainy season in Japan usually ends at the middle of July. After a seasonal rain front goes north, the weather becomes stable and hot. High temperatures are approximately 30–35°C (86–95°F) and lows are around 20°C (68°F).

If you want to travel in Japan before and/or after the meeting, you may wish to buy a Japan Rail Pass. Note that you have to buy the pass BEFORE coming to Japan and qualify for "temporary visitor" entry status.

Wednesday Excursion:  Wednesday, July 30. In the afternoon, we will visit the Adachi Museum of Art and Izumo Taisha Shrine. Adachi Museum of Art is set in a beautiful natural environment, and is well known for both its superb Japanese gardens and its collection of contemporary Japanese paintings, comprising approximately 1,300 of the country's most highly regarded paintings produced after the Meiji period and centering on the works of Yokoyama Taikan. Izumo Oyashiro (Izumo Shrine) is one of the most important Shinto shrines and is known as the home of Okuninushi no Mikoto, the "Celestial Matchmaker". According to Shinto beliefs, in the tenth month of the old lunar calendar, all the gods of Japan assemble at Izumo and hold a series of divine conferences. The shrine is built in the taisha-zukuri style, considered the oldest of shrine architectural styles in Japan. The main temple has been designated a national treasure. The present main building of the shrine was built in 1744, the 25th building since the original structure.

Conference Banquet:  Wednesday evening, July 30. After the excursion trip, the conference banquet will be held with local traditional food at the Matsue Vogel Park, a bird and flower park. The park is a breathtaking showcase of about 10,000 flowers such as begonias and fuchsia, and up to 3,000 birds, including pelicans and owls. Because of the afternoon tours, attire for the banquet is informal.

Guest Excursions:  During the meeting, guests will have the opportunity to freely visit the town of Matsue or to participate in organized tours at reduced costs to visit nearby spots of historic, natural, and scientific interest. A help desk from Nippon Travel Agency will assist meeting participants in planning activities in the city and to many attractive destinations (e.g., one-day pass for sightseeing by bus: 500 JPY; tour of castle moat by sightseeing boat: 1,200 JPY).

Farewell Party:  We will have a farewell party at Kunibiki Messe just after closing the Friday session.

On August 1, we will depart from the hotel late in the afternoon, fly from Izumo Airport to Fukuoka Airport, and stay the night in Fukuoka City. The next day, we will leave the hotel early in the morning for Suga Shrine, and may visit Dazaifu Shrine and other areas in the afternoon. Tour buses will be chartered. The tour finishing point is Fukuoka. The tour cost is 50,000 JPY, including lodging and airfare. Maximum enrollment is 20 people. The registration deadline is June 30, 2008.

Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine Ruins — Saturday, August 2:  The Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine site, about 80 km west of Matsue, is a cluster of mountains rising to 600 meters and interspersed by deep river valleys featuring the archaeological remains of large-scale mines, smelting and refining sites, and mining settlements worked between the 16th and 20th centuries. The high quality of the silver resulting from the use of advanced techniques, and the quantity of silver mined, contributed substantially to the overall economic development of Japan and Southeast Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries, and prompted the mass production of silver and gold in Japan. The mining area is now heavily wooded. Included in the site are fortresses, shrines, parts of Kaido transportation routes to the coast, and three port towns, Tomogaura, Okidomari and Yunotsu, from where the ore was shipped. The property extends to 442 hectares and the buffer zone to 3,221 hectares. The area was designated as a World Heritage Site in July, 2007.

We will depart from the hotel early in the morning, visit the Iwami Ginzan Siliver Mine and the related sites, and return late in the afternoon. Tour buses will be chartered. The tour cost is 8,000 JPY, including lunch. Maximum enrollment is 40 people. Registration will be accepted in order of receipt of payment.

Registration for the post-conference field trips can be made at the registration site. Please note that the registration deadline for the post-conference field trip to Suga Shrine (Nogata Meteorite) is June 30, 2008.

REGISTRATION FEES (JPY)
		Through June 30, 2008		July 1–7, 2008
Society Member		25,000		30,000
Non-member		30,000		36,000
Student Member		13,000		16,000
Student Non-member		16,000		20,000
Guest		13,000		16,000

Cancellation Policy:  A 2,000 JPY cancellation fee will be charged on any cancellations received by July 7, 2008. No refunds will be given after July 7, 2008.

Antarctic Meteorites:  Search, Recovery, and Classification
Dates:  July 26–27, 2008
Venue:  Kunibiki Messe (same as that of the annual meeting)
Conveners:  Hiroshi Kaiden (NIPR) and Kevin Righter (NASA-JSC)

Many groups are recovering large numbers of meteorites from Antarctica. The purpose of the workshop is to gather meteoriticists to discuss issues relating to these collections, and how to allow these new discoveries to have the largest impact on our field. The workshop format will allow discussion of topics not usually covered during the regular sessions of the Meteoritical Society meeting. Specifically, the topics of interest will include the search, recovery, classification, weathering and curation of Antarctic meteorites. The workshop precedes the annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society.

    Keiji Misawa
    National Institute of Polar Research
    Tokyo 173-8515, Japan
    Phone: +81-3-3962-4353
    Fax: +81-3-3962-5711
    E-mail: keiji.misawa@nipr.ac.jp

For information regarding meeting logistics and announcements, contact

    Kimberly Taylor
    Lunar and Planetary Institute
    Phone: 281-486-2151
    E-mail: taylor@lpi.usra.edu