[meteorite-list] "Boulders" on Mars

From: Kelly Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:12 2004
Message-ID: <3A974926.5D9F664F_at_bhil.com>

Hi, Stu,
    Of course, thinking it over afterward, what if it were CO2 ice? It's
not immediately obvious to me how a CO2 glacier would behave, not
intuitive at all!
    And, then, sure, they look like boulders, but it's also possible
they could be pingoes. I know that pingoes have been hypothesized for a
Mars geology with sub-surface water, but I can't for the life of me
remember whether anyone has ever identified any on Martian photos.
Pingoes on earth often have very dark (dirty) exposed surfaces and
there's plenty of windy dust on Mars!
    Always second thoughts...
    Some future historical moments: When will somebody carry a piece of
an Earth-found Mars rock back to Mars? (Ought to send one with the first
expedition, don't you think?) When will someone on Mars find the first
Earth rock? And when will a piece of it be brought back to Earth?


Kelly Webb


STUARTATK_at_aol.com wrote:

> Kelly,
>
> That makes a lot of sense, thanks... where I live, here in the Lake
> District
> in the north of England, I'm surrounded by glacier-carved valleys,
> classic,
> u-shaped basins, and the low lying fields are just a giant's
> playground of
> boulders. Oh well, we can always dream! I remain convinced that there
> are
> meteorites-a-plenty on Mars, just waiting for us to go and collect...
> even
> wrote a section of my kids SF novel about just such an expedition...
> One day
> there'll be a "meteorite gold rush" there, I'm sure, maybe even with
> impoverished Martian field geologists sending / smuggling rare
> specimens back
> to Earth to eager buyers...
>
> Of course, no-one on this List would ever *dream* of doing such a
> thing, I'm
> sure... ;-)
>
> Stu
>
> http://hometown.aol.com/stuartatk/myhomepage/profile.html
Received on Sat 24 Feb 2001 12:39:50 AM PST