[meteorite-list] Thunderstones & Shooting Stars by Robert T. Dodd

[MARK BOSTICK]

Hello again,

Another book, fitting the fairly cheap and good read catagory is 
"Thunderstands & Shooting Stars" by Robert Dodd.  This one, and the two 
others I posted on, are books that anyone who does not have should search 
for.  Besides Amazon and the book search engines, be sure to check various 
meteorite dealers.  Some of them listed on the Meteorite Exchange's book 
dealer page, http://www.meteorite.com/book_list.htm.  (I noticed I am 
missing from this list, but I am still in the process of moving so I suggest 
checking one of the other book sellers, like the Jensens.)

Anyone have any other books to suggest, that you think are good reads, and 
can be found for $20 or less?

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com

"Thunderstones & Shooting Stars" by Robert T. Dodd. HARDCOVER (c) 1986, 196 
pages, Harvard University Press, Reference Index, Book Index.

>From dust jacket of soft cover: A streak of light crosses the night sky as a 
bit of extraterrestrial material falls to Earth. Meteorites, which range 
from particles of dust to massive chunks of metal and rock, bombard the 
Earth constantly, adding hundreds of tons of new material to our planet each 
day. What are these objects? How do we recover and study them? Where do they 
come from, and what do they tell us about the birth and infancy of the solar 
system? Why do many scientists now believe that meteorites have played a 
dramatic albeit occasional, role in the evolution of life on Earth? In 
Thunderstones and Shooting Stars, Robert T. Dodd gives us an up-to-date 
report on these questions. He summarizes the evidence that leads scientists 
to believe that most meteorites come from asteroids, although a few come 
from the moon and a few more from a planet, probably Mars.  He explains how 
chondrites-the most numerous and primitive of meteorites-contribute to our 
evolving picture of the early solar system and how some of them may tell us 
of events that took place beyond the sun and before its birth, Finally he 
examines the controversial hypothesis that impacts by asteroids or comets 
have interrupted the evolution of life on Earth, accounting for such 
geological puzzles as the rapid demise of the dinosaurs.  Meteorites have 
been called "the poor man's space probe," for they are the only 
extraterrestrial rocks that we can collect without benefit of space-craft. 
This lively and accessible book both illuminates the complex science of 
meteoritics and conveys a sense of its excitement. University teachers and 
students will appreciate its synthesis of new research on a broad range of 
topics, and amateurs will delight in its lucid presentation of a science 
that is unlocking many mysteries of Earth and space.

Notable Photos include: Two page B/W Arizona crater (before page 1), 
Micrometeorite (page 3), Miller Arkansas Meteorite (page 3), Polished slice 
of the Mount Edith Iron Meteorite (page 25), Photomicrograph of a thin 
section of the Manych  LL Meteorite (page 26), Polished etched slice of the 
Thiel Mountains Pallasite (page 27), Slice of the Bloomington, Illinois LL 
Meteorite (page 39), Abnighite ("the tent") Cape Cod meteorite (page 114), 
Polished Etched slice of the Carbo Medium Octahedrite Metal Meteorite (page 
117). Thin Section of the Kenna Ureilite (page 143), Australasian "Button 
tektites,  two photos, (page 182), Rizalite, Philippine tektite (page 182), 
and more. Notable charts and tables  include: Relationship between mass and 
frequency for meteoroids in the vicinity of Earth (page 4), Geographic 
distribution of meteorites recovered after observed falls (page 12), 
Comparison of population density and number of recovered falls (page 13), 
Vital statistics for the sun, planets and moon (page 56), Hypothetical 
structures of ordinary chondrite parent bodies with different histories 
(page 90), Tektite strewn fields and impact craters to which each is or may 
be related (page 181) and more.

Mark Bostick's comments:  This is a good book on the ABC's of meteorites.  
Lots of photos, charts and tables. Wrote by Robert T. Dodd who was at the 
time the Professor of Mineralogy of the State University of New York at 
Stony Brook. This was Dodd's second meteorite book, following "Meteorites: A 
Petrologic-Chemical Synthesis".