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Commas or em-dashes?
1. Harrison Schmitt examined a small molybdenum mine—the New Year's Eve mine—in southern Arizona in 1955.
2. Two newer pits, West Esperanza and Sierrita, are nearby.
Apr 12, 2023 10:40: writeaway changed "Field (write-in)" from "(none)" to "Punctuation"
Non-PRO (2): Chris Ellison, Yvonne Gallagher
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Discussion
Generally, em-dashes tend to be used where something is genuinely an aside — and ( ) might equally have been used; this tends to interrupt the reader's flow slightly more than the simple use of commas, which are often used to indicate a clause that is of subsidiary interest, but still important.
The bit between the dashes is more of an aside and could be left out of the original sentence. The bit between the two commas *could* be left out, but you'd have to rewrite the sentence, because "Two newer pits are nearby" sounds incomplete. (You could make it "Two newer pits can be found nearby", or "Two newer pits are located nearby" for instance.) It's about the rhythm of the language, essentially.