[meteorite-list] Tektites-Earthites

From: mark ford <markf_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:35 2004
Message-ID: <6CE3EEEFE92F4B4085B0E086B2941B310143AC_at_s-southern01.s-southern.com>

Zelmir,

To me the very fact that there are no known Earthites, (other than
Tektites) or any known 'venusites', (or indeed any meteorites of types
not believed to be from asteroids/persolar nebula/mars/moon/and maybe
mercury?) raises some interesting questions...

Either,
=20
1. The mechanism we believe that allows rocks to escape from Venus and
Earth (i.e. larger planets with a thick atmosphere and high gravity) is
wrong and they can't or don't get ejected very often at all.

2. or we have misidentified some of the Lunar or Martian or other rock
types when in fact they are from other planet(s) (although this is
unlikely)

3. or statistically we have not found them because we just haven't found
enough meteorites yet (although we (mankind) have found quite a few
now!).

4. or they look [very different] to what we are used to, and they are
actually all around us!=20

Personally I think that we still have a lot to learn about atmospheric
rock interactions and particularly about ejections on planets like
Venus, I mean a rock has to undergo two atmospheric 'meltings' to arrive
here on earth.
I'ts different with the Martian rocks because the atmosphere is very
thin, that must make a big difference to the ejected rock 'yield'?

Just my thoughts,
Mark
Received on Fri 24 Oct 2003 07:35:33 AM PDT