[meteorite-list] Mercurian meteorites

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:34 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4EE78_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

On this subject, here's a re-post of a portion of Bernd Pauli's
post from April 22, 2002:

LOVE S.G. et al. (1995) Recognizing mercurian
meteorites (MAPS 30-3, 1995, 269-278):

"The groups in which a misclassified mercurian meteorite would be most
likely to lurk are differentiated, low-FeO objects such as the lunar
anorthosites and the aubrites. Future searches for mercurian meteorites
should focus on similar objects."

Excerpts from the March issue of MAPS:

- the Sun is up to 11 x more intense than on Earth
- the sunlit side of the planet heats up to over 400=B0C
- specific gravity of 5.44 as compared to the Moon's 3.34
- Mercury has the highest metal/silicate ratio and the Moon the lowest
- Rocks on Mercury are generally Fe-poor, and therefore light-colored
- ~3 wt% FeO is the most reasonable value for the crust of Mercury
- presence of a magnetic field (strength of ~1% of the Earth's field
  is just enough to indicate the existence of a core dynamo)
- current models suggest that the evolution of a planetary dynamo
  requires the presence of a solid inner core and a liquid outer core
- discovery of material of high radar reflectivity near the poles
  is interpreted as ice, possibly mantled by dust.

>From the Editors, Mercury 2001 conference, Field Museum,
Chicago, Illinois, 2001 October 4-5 [MAPS 37, 307-309 (2002)]
Received on Wed 22 Oct 2003 08:59:38 PM PDT