[meteorite-list] Meteorites on Mars Paper?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jan 20 17:39:02 2005
Message-ID: <200501202238.OAA20870_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>
>
> In this article, there is a reference to a paper by Alex Brevan in 2000 about
> predicting meteorites on Mars. Does anyone know what paper this is?
>

Pierre Rochette has found the paper:

 Meteorite Accumulations on Mars
 Authors: Bland, P. A.; Smith, T. B.
 Affiliation: AA(Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum,
 London, United Kingdom), AB(Department of Physics, The Open
 University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom)
 Journal: Icarus, Volume 144, Issue Icarus, pp. 21-26. (Icarus Homepage)
 Publication Date: 03/2000

Here's the abstract:

 We have modeled single-body meteoroid atmospheric entry speeds at Mars
 and the effect of drag and ablation, and identify a narrow range of
 small masses (10-50 g) that should impact Mars at survivable speeds.
 The rate of oxidative weathering is much lower than that on Earth, so
 this small flux of meteorites could give rise to significant
 accumulations: ca. 5x10^2 to 5x10^5 meteorites greater than 10 g in
 mass per square kilometer. Given that extremely large numbers of
 meteorites may be present on Mars, future sample-return missions
 should consider the real possibility that they may recover
 meteoritic material. Due to the low weathering rate, meteorites
 may survive on the surface of Mars for more than 10^9 years,
 preserving a record of the temporal variability of the meteoroid
 flux and the compositional evolution of the meteoroid complex.
 Intact carbonaceous chondrites may also preserve organic compounds
 from degradation by ultraviolet radiation. Terrestrial meteorites
 may be present, but would probably be sterile.

Ron Baalke
Received on Thu 20 Jan 2005 05:38:50 PM PST