[meteorite-list] CCNet Excerpts: Tektites, Plant Burning and Stone tools

From: Darryl S. Futrell <futrelds_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:46:23 2004
Message-ID: <01e401c0dbc8$354db0c0$d14d173f_at_pavilion>

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorites_at_space.com <meteorites@space.com>
To: jonee_at_epix.net <jonee@epix.net>
Cc: Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
<Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 8:20 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] CCNet Excerpts: Tektites, Plant Burning and
Stone tools


There were about 27 references claimed to support the terrestrial origin of
tektites originally listed here. In my last post, maybe I shouldn't have
deleted even the two that are pro-lunar. So, I'll list those two here in
case anyone was wondering about them. Also, I want to include a third
reference that I forgot to include earlier. The one by Yamei et al, 2000,
in Science. This is about the age of early Chinese stone tools, and NOT
about tektites. The only mention of tektites is when these authors chose to
date their stone tools with the age of around 800,000 years. This is the
age claimed by the 'impact' people for the fall of the Australasian
tektites, as that is when they were last all molten, and therefore presumed
to have fallen. Others, however, have presented evidence that the
Australasian tektites, even though they formed some .8 m.y. ago, didn't fall
until only 10,000 to 15,000 years ago! The Russian tektite researcher Emil
Izokh could find no tektites in Vietnam in sediments older than 10,000 -
15,000 years, and several Australian geologists earlier found the same to be
true for Australites. This is easily explained in the context of a lunar
volcanic origin. Although the tektite glasses were volcanically deposited
on the lunar surface some .8 m.y. ago, they remained there until being
ejected toward Earth in a later colossal eruption some 10,000 - 15,000 years
ago. This would explain the 60 or so Australasian microtektites found in
the Indian Ocean exhibiting micrometeorite impact pits. Makes a lot more
sense to me that those stone tools date back only some 10 to 15 thousand
years. Based on the conflicting evidence, I don't think one can depend on
the .8 m.y. old age of the tektites to date other objects. I think another
way needs to be found to date those stone tools.
Darryl


 References
Chao, E. C. T., 1993, Comparison of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary impact
events and the 0.77-Ma Australasian tektite event: relevance to mass
extinction, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2050, Denver.

Povenmire, H., Liu, W., and Xianlin, l., March, 1999, Australasian tektites
found in Guangxi Province, China. 30th Annual Lunar and Planetary Science
Conference, Houston.

Yamei, H., Potts, R., Baoyin, Y., Zhengtang, G., Deino, A., Wei, W., Clark,
J.,
Guangmao, X. and Weiwen, H., 2000, Mid-Pleistocene Acheulean-like stone
technology of the Bose Basin, South China. Science, 287, 1622-1626.
Received on Sun 13 May 2001 12:16:56 PM PDT