Fw: [meteorite-list] what is this, really

From: MexicoDoug <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Aug 25 03:09:07 2006
Message-ID: <001401c6c815$4b6de700$14cd5ec8_at_0019110394>

Hello Randy, List:

1. I just wanted to thank Dr. Korotev -- a long-established specialist in
Lunar rocks from St. Louis, for the opportunity to hear his present and
future comments on the list!

2. On the scale, does this mean the clasts get arbitrarily large for the
known sample pool or is there a sort of maximum size assumed, my head is
starting to hurt to imagine what sort of size distribution this could be.
It couldn't be constant or you'd bump in to some very large pieces too
frequently (??), but at the other extreme an inverse exponential wouldn't
give you the robust size representations you are looking for in the asphalt,
right, wrong, or... The 'fractal' thought suggests a pattern- is this just
the "feel" of randomness at all reasonable lab scales or do you know if more
can be read into this? If there really is a maximum size we can keep in mind
for clasts, what would that be - over a variety of localities, and how much
does this vary, I wonder. Any help would be kind, though the question is
mostly curiosity, it could come in handy while hunting meteorites. And it
is hard to reproduce this idea in a sandbox. The closest I can come is
looking at a suspension like milk, under magnification?

3. http://epsc.wustl.edu/admin/resources/moon/howdoweknow.html <==
Everything you ever wanted to know is probably here on Lunar recognition,
thanks to the excellent web site Randy maintains at Wash. U. St. Louis. (As
in Missouri.)

Best wishes, Doug

----- Original Message -----

1) In addition to not having a fusion crust, the object is suspiciously
non-lunar in that the clasts are too much all the same size. Lunar regolith
breccias are the closest lunar analogs to terrestrial sedimentary rocks, and
there is often a superficial resemblance. In many (but not all) terrestrial
sediments, however, wind and water processes lead to size sorting so that
the clasts are all about the same size. There are no such sorting
mechanisms on the Moon. I've called this a "fractal" effect - it doesn't
make any difference what scale you look at a lunar regolith breccia, it
always looks the same. To me, in the rock in the photo (asphalt?), there
don't seem to be enough big clasts or small clasts, as, for example, in ALHA
81005:

http://epsc.wustl.edu/admin/resources/meteorites/alha81005.html

I've never heard of "meteorite expert" mentioned in the blurb.


2) Regarding text of Pluto news release: "Although astronomers applauded
after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell -- a specialist in neutron stars from
Northern Ireland ..."

How many neutron stars are there in Northern Ireland?

Randy Korotev



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Received on Fri 25 Aug 2006 03:08:38 AM PDT