[meteorite-list] Earthites

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Sep 23 19:44:36 2005
Message-ID: <43349344.89BE1307_at_bhil.com>

Hi, Ken, List,

    I've posted on "Earthites" or terrestrial meteorites
a couple of times before; they're somewhere in the
archives... Howver.
    Likely event? More energetic than the impacts
that launched the Martian meteorites off Mars, since
our atmosphere is thicker, hence harder to get back
out through.
    Likelihood of "Earthites"? Fairly good, as roughly
50% of the material blasted OFF a planet will likely
return to the same planet, according to simulations, as
opposed to the 1% to 5% that makes it to another
planet. This actually makes it a puzzle as to why there
are no examples of an "Earthite."
    Transit times are longish. 10,000 years would be
a quick trip. Allow at least 100,000 years to a million
years for most, and times up to 10,000,000 years are
possible. Many Martians have space exposures of
13,000,000 years...
    As to what Earthly material it would be, that would
depend entirely on the nature of the terrestrial surface
that was impacted. And, presumably, tektites are
"Earthites," but with a short space duration as no CRE
exposure can be found in them.
    I am compelled to opine that Earthites may have
been found and discarded as "pseudometeorites" down
through the decades. This is the most likely fate for an
"Earthite": the trash can.
    The best case of proof would be a fossiliferous
limstone with a fusion crust and a solid long time CRE
date; that would be hard to disprove.
    Then, there's BLECKENSTAD (Sweden, 1925)
for which just such an excellent case exists, except that
there will be no radiometric dating as the stone was lost
long ago (apparently; it couldn't be found in the 1950's).
    Bleckenstad has impeccable eye-winess reports full of
accurate details about meteorite falls that no Swedish
peasant farmer would be likely to possess (the "whirring"
noise of a soft-landing meteorite), the fact that the region
contains NO native limestones whatsoever, good black
fusion crust, and several capable scientists who risked
their careers writing about it. It got thrown away anyway...
    Ninninger found a limestone meteorite while searching
for Pasamonte; nobody knows what happened to it. He
thought it was a meteorite (fusion crust, "thumbprints,"
and fossils!).
    There are two West Virginia stones put forward as
"Earthites." They were never examined on the basis that
the whole idea was ridiculous. Their whereabouts are
unknown now.
    See a pattern here?


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------
drtanuki wrote:

> List,
> Which would be the most likely event that
> potentially could have created an Earthite meteorite?
> What age would it be? And of what earth rock
> material and how could it be determined (other than
> fusion crust)? Would they not be more valuable than
> Lunites?
> Thanks for any comments. Dirk Ross..Tokyo
Received on Fri 23 Sep 2005 07:44:04 PM PDT