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#1 2004-01-03 16:00:58

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

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#2 2004-01-03 16:18:15

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

*Cool!  I couldn't help remembering all the times I went rock hunting as a kid (big rock collection)...I wonder if there was ever a chance I held a bit of Mars in my hand without knowing it.

I once found a really vivid, well perserved fossil (seashell).

By the way, Rik...what is your avatar?

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#3 2004-01-03 16:56:19

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

errr... My avatar? just 2 minutes scanning and filtering through photoshop of a scribbled 'Rxke' with a dot on the 'x' ... (its pronounced "Rick-skU" (short u, like in dust) just a diminutive of my name... written a bit awkward... should be Rikske

did it after a discussion on newyear's eve with friends from a band i used to play in... But i think it's a bit too egocentric... Another nickname of mine is Calimero (used by some collegue students), but that's copyrighted stuff, so i won't use that....

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#4 2004-01-03 16:59:52

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

Anyhow... That article raises some eyebrows with me: they have a lot of stuff, but no money to get it examined????

That's really, really sad...

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#5 2004-01-21 10:58:37

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

It's been confirmed!
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3414143.stm]BBC

Strange, now all of a sudden this in the headlines... Wonder how that's possible tongue

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#6 2004-01-21 11:08:17

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

It's been confirmed!
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3414143.stm]BBC

Strange, now all of a sudden this in the headlines... Wonder how that's possible tongue

*Cool!  smile  Very nice specimens, wow.  Those folks have found a total of 6 Marsian rocks to date...that's enviable.

I think this is an extremely wise idea:

"It was picked up by a local worker on an isolated plateau in the mountains at --->a location which is now being kept secret because of fears it may be spoilt by visitors.<---"

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#7 2004-01-21 11:48:21

dickbill
Member
Registered: 2002-09-28
Posts: 749

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

It's been confirmed!
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3414143.stm]BBC

Strange, now all of a sudden this in the headlines... Wonder how that's possible tongue

They shouldn't touch the stone like that without gloves but whatever.
I am puzzled by the white veins in the rock. It looks like quartz.
Are veins of quartz  supposed to happens in a magmatic rock ? I mean in veins rather than cristals.

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#8 2004-01-24 06:39:12

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

Hi Dickbill!
    I'm not sure whether the rock has veins of quartz in it or not but I don't think quartz veins are volcanic artifacts - at least not directly.

    I did a bit of googling because I, like you, am interested in the origin and history of Mars rocks. Obviously, such data is important for understanding the conditions which prevailed on Mars in the past and, by extrapolation, for understanding the possible nature of the crust today.
    The website is a Question-and-Answer kind of site, dealing with geology, and the information I've taken from it appears in the answer to the second question on the page.
    If you're interested in checking it out, [http://rockhoundingar.com/askmikey/askMgold.html]CLICK HERE.

    But the key points are these:-
    " ... quartz veins form from hydrothermal (hot water) solutions."
    Apparently, the quartz is deposited  " ... from the fluid in pre-existing fractures in a host rock, usually sandstone or shale."

    At the very least, even if the white inclusions aren't quartz, this rock is a maximum of 1.3 billion years old and that's another piece of evidence that Mars was still hot inside at that time.
    Everybody is keen to assume that Mars' small size necessarily means it lost its internal heat early in its history. But this rock was created by volcanism at least 3.3 billion years after Mars formed!
    Not a bad performance for a burnt out cinder of a planet!!
                                               :;):


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#9 2004-01-26 09:19:50

dickbill
Member
Registered: 2002-09-28
Posts: 749

Re: French Scientists find rare Martian Meteorite - important discovery

But the key points are these:-
    " ... quartz veins form from hydrothermal (hot water) solutions."
    Apparently, the quartz is deposited  " ... from the fluid in pre-existing fractures in a host rock, usually sandstone or shale."

Hi Shaun, yes, that's what I thought. Mars magma has undergone a significative water degasage during its volcanic history, but not complete from what I remember I've read. So there would be a lot of water left in the deep martian rocks.

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