[meteorite-list] Re: Tektites and Impact Books

From: Kelly Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:43:32 2004
Message-ID: <3B51F0EE.4A8A744C_at_bhil.com>

Hi, Dave, Sarah, & List,

    Books About Big Impacts.

    The big everything you ever wanted to know about impact's effects on
all
planetary surfaces and the dynamics of impact book would be:
H. J. MELOSH (1989), Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process, Oxford U.
Press,
245 pp.

    For a more specific source on the dangers and nature of impacts on
the
Earth, there's:
TOM GEHRELS (Ed.), Hazards Due To Comets and Asteroids, U. of Arizona
Press,
1994, 1300 pp.
    An expensive book but I got a used copy from a dealer that sells
through
Amazon.com for fifty bucks, like new. If you read a chapter per night,
you can
get through it in half a year...

    Although nuclear bomb effects are smaller than big impact effects,
there's
a wealth of useful (and scary) information very clearly presented in:
SAMUEL GLASSTONE and PHILLIP DOLAN (1977, 3rd Ed.), The Effects of
Nuclear
Weapons, in a variety of government versions, AEC, DOD, etc., 653 pp.
    A lot of quantitative data here, formulas, graphs, etc., that can be
scaled up to impact sizes. One neat (weird) thing is a beautiful
circular
slide rule in the back of the book with which to calculate destructions
of
various kinds. I got a used Army copy through Amazon for $8.50. Does
that mean
that the "8th Special Group" doesn't need to know about nuclear weapons
anymore?

    I actually took the basic physics from the first source I always
turn to:
JOHN S. LEWIS (1995), The Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System,
Academic
Press, 556 pp.
    This book is built on 14 years of class prep. for MIT's course of
the same
name taught by Lewis and Shapiro. This is one of my favorite books for
covering everything and I recommend it highly. But, since it's a
textbook, the
price ($60) is pumped up to gouge students. Sometimes you can buy new
copies
at a fraction of the retail price ($6.95) from
<http://www.hamiltonbook.com/>.
I'm on my second copy, having worn one out. They didn't have this
course when
I went to MIT or I'd have been there in the front row, even at 8:00 in
the
morning!

Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------

Dave Coleman & Sarah Kennedy-Coleman wrote:

> Hi Sterling,
> Your discussion from the back of the envelope is great. If I want to
> look into the quantitative behavior of impactors a little further, can
> you suggest a good, up to date reference?
> Thanks, Dave
Received on Sun 15 Jul 2001 03:37:18 PM PDT