[meteorite-list] Microcrater Swarms on Canyon Diablo

From: Dark Matter <freequarks_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:42:57 -0700
Message-ID: <822da19a0902191342h7d99a405ub5cea43f6382f5a3_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi All,

Once again, I found myself wandering the Smithsonian meteorite display
in Washington DC this past weekend. This time, however, I spent less
time studying the sexy stones and irons, and instead concentrated on
the more common ones that I usually overlook.

One in particular caught my attention.

On display is a 435kg individual of Canyon Diablo. At first, I started
on a quest to answer the question about if CD contains thumbprints or
not. As I was carefully studying the surface, I noticed what I can
only describe as swarms of micro craters.

I tried to come up with alternate hypotheses such as mechanical
disassembly like pounding on it with a hammer and chisel, but no go.
They have the splashforms of craters just like those commonly found on
Sikhote-Alin individuals. Here's a link to a .pdf article about the
S-A impact craters:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LPSC98/pdf/1839.pdf


Linked are some pics of what I'm talking about.

http://www.geocities.com/planetwhy/CD1.JPG

http://www.geocities.com/planetwhy/CD2.JPG

http://www.geocities.com/planetwhy/CD3.JPG

Any thoughts?

-Martin
Received on Thu 19 Feb 2009 04:42:57 PM PST