[meteorite-list] Mercury question

From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:30:27 -0400
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=dhQ0mDVVk3=EpYUgbsTskBWJUag_at_mail.gmail.com>

All sales of high-potassium, non-feldspar Mercury rocks are hereby
suspended until further notice. ;)

Best regards,

MikeG

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On 6/17/11, Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Carl, List,
>
> Only one Mercury question?
>
> What is revealed from the first bulk composition
> scans is that Mercury surface, and presumably its
> crust, is composed of high-potassium non-feldspar
> rocks. In a word, Mercury is nothing like it's
> "supposed" to be.
>
> Mercury appears to have been made (the rock
> part) from high-volatile stuff, a notion that stands
> everything everybody has ever thought about
> Mercury on its head.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrBCExa2Rgw&feature=player_embedded
>
> Being non--field-geologically literate, I would
> like somebody on the List to post a list of Earthly
> high-potassium non-feldspar rocks rich in sulfur.
> I suppose that would be a bunch of high-potassium
> metallic sulfides, because one of the things we're
> seeing is a lot of sulfur on the surface of Mercury.
> Those yellow markings and stains in the photos?
>
> I don't think anybody ever thought Mercury
> would be a place rich in volatiles -- completely
> illogical.
>
> Welcome to the Real World...
>
> When I started out every book said the craters
> on the Moon were volcanoes. We spent a noticeable
> amount of the time we were actually ON the Moon
> looking for the evidence for lunar volcanoes. There
> aren't any volcanoes on the Moon.
>
> In one of the early Messenger flyby's there was
> a featured imaged called "Spider" crater. I posted
> here that I was pretty sure it was a caldera volcano.
> Now it appears that a lot of the "craters" on Mercury
> MAY be volcanoes.
>
> It would ironic (at the least) if we were to go from
> "Moon volcanoes that are really impacts" all the way
> to "Mercury impacts that are really volcanoes"!
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/science/space/17mercury.html
>
> Even better would be if Mercurian volcanoes were caused by
> impacts, because every geophysicist on Earth rejects the
> notion that impacts could cause volcanoes (and flood basalts).
>
> As long as we are going to be wrong about most
> things, why not be wrong about everything? (I love
> that NYTimes headline "Close Up, Mercury Is Less
> Boring." Well, Earth Monkeys, at least it's not as
> boring as the NYTimes...
>
> Oh, the other thing is that the magnetic field of
> Mercury is bigger (stronger) at one pole than the
> other pole, just in case there's not already enough
> weirdness.
>
> I have an easy explanation; Mercury's core is
> EGG-SHAPED.
>
> Huh? Or two imperfectly merged cores of differing
> sizes from a giant impact that did not completely
> differentiate after the event.
>
> And let's not even get close to the question of how
> a volatile-rich planet with a huge iron core could FORM
> this close to the Sun...
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <cdtucson at cox.net>
> To: "meteoritelist" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 5:41 PM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Mercury question
>
>
>> List,
>> I have a question.
>> With this new data from MESSENGER about the surface composition of
>> Mercury;
>>
>> http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=174
>>
>> What does this mean it terms of what a meteorite would be expected to
>> look like?
>> Would it be metallic -ish?
>> Anyone, Thanks.
>> Carl
>>
>> "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.
>> Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote".?
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--

Received on Fri 17 Jun 2011 02:30:27 PM PDT