[meteorite-list] Researcher Says Tons of the Moon on the Earth; Tektite Events May Have Triggered Extinctions

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:42 2004
Message-ID: <200103231852.KAA11039_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?id=3798

Vector Science News Release
Thursday, March 22, 2001

Researcher Says Tons of the Moon on the Earth; Tektite Events May Have
Triggered Extinctions

The Moon is not the geologically dead world that most astronomy textbooks
claim, says Darryl S. Futrell, a California-based petrologist. Futrell
believes there's strong evidence of massive, lunar-volcanic explosions right
here on Earth. The most recent eruption on the Moon, which showered a
portion of the Earth with many tons of natural glass, occurred within the
past 770,000 years, he notes.

Futrell, who has written about his studies of meteoritic stones called
tektites in the journal Nature, says he has amassed evidence that strongly
suggests these natural glass stones are volcanic material blown off the Moon
by eruptions. Futrell studied the long-debated tektite origin puzzle under
the guidance of the famous Project Apollo lunar scientist John A. O'Keefe
(1916-2000) beginning in the late 1960s; like his famous mentor, Futrell is
convinced that the Moon periodically hurls volcanic debris into Earth's
gravity well causing climate change and extinctions.

"The Earth has experienced about 12 tektite events in the last 65 million
years," Futrell says. "Even though another event may not occur for thousands
of years, the slight possibility that it could occur tomorrow needs to be
taken into consideration."

Futrell refutes the popular theory that tektites were formed when asteroids
or comets impacted Earth and melted sediments and rocks. He has identified
volcanic structures within chunky, layered tektites (called Muong Nong
tektites), which cannot be explained in the context of terrestrial
impact-melt origin. According to Futrell, based on other physical evidence,
including the fact that Apollo 12 and 14 astronauts found rocks with
tektite-like chemistries on the lunar surface, it's now easy to conclude
tektites come from the Moon.

"There is an another extremely important reason why the scientific community
should take a closer look at the origin of tektites," he says. "If the
massive biological extinctions do have a tektite association, and tektites
are formed within the Moon, then we should be watching our natural satellite
for signs of explosive volcanic activity."

For more information: Darryl S. Futrell, 6222 Haviland, Whittier, CA
90601-3735 USA

For more information, contact:
Louis Varricchio
Science Correspondent
Vector Science News Release
802-388-3268
morbius_at_together.net
Received on Fri 23 Mar 2001 01:52:38 PM PST