[meteorite-list] "Boiling" (?) water in Carancas crater

From: Piper R.W. Hollier <piper_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:14:59 +0200
Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20071005210743.0381e4f0_at_pop.xs4all.nl>

Hello list,

Thanks for the reactions both public and private to my posting to the list
about sulfur dioxide at Carancas. This thread has also given me a new idea
about the "boiling" water in the crater. Yes, it may have been the obvious:
ground water raised to the boiling point by impact heat...

BUT, if there was enough sulfur dioxide generated in the impact to
significantly acidify the water, what do you get when you put pulverized
cenozoic limestone in acidic water? Bubbling carbon dioxide, maybe even
lots and lots of it. One wonders: did anyone actually verify somehow that
the "boiling" water was hot to the touch? Or might it have been only
"bubbling" and not "boiling"?

Sterling has added some valuable numeracy to the troilite/SO2 hypothesis by
tracking down the dissociation temperature of troilite, which is
surprisingly low: 700 kelvins, or 427 C. That's not all that hot, folks.

Are there professional (geo)chemists out there who would care to comment on
the credibility of this explanation for what would otherwise seem to be
some rather odd phenomena?

Piper
Received on Fri 05 Oct 2007 03:14:59 PM PDT