[meteorite-list] Microcrater Swarms on Canyon Diablo
Dark Matter
freequarks at gmail.com
Thu Feb 19 16:42:57 EST 2009
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
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