Jamie inquired: > I am just curious. Does anyone know why it seems Shergottites are > more common than Nakhlites or Chassignites? It just seems that if > a new Martian meteorite is found, you can almost bet it will be a > shergottite. Is it just that they had a better chance of surviving > the journey from impact on mars to the fall through our atmo- > sphere?
Steven responded: > There could be any number of reasons for that. The impactor that sent > the SNCs on their way here could have hit an area composed dominantly > of shergottite type rocks or if there were multiple impacts, the distri- > bution of the types of SNCs could be telling us something of the distri- > bution of rock types on Mars. As the SNCs are closely related in physical > properties, if not mineralogically, I don't think it tells anything about > re-entry survival characteristics. McSWEEN H.Y. Jr. (2002) The Leonard Medal Address: The rocks of Mars, from far and near (MAPS 37-1, 2002, pp. 007-025): "Similarities in the Phobos-2 VISNIR spectra of Syrtis Major and that of basaltic shergottites previously led to suggestions that shergottite-like basalts may be c o m m o n volcanic rocks on Mars (Mustard and Sunshine, 1995; Mustard et al., 1997)." References: McSWEEN Jr. H.Y. (2001) The rocks of Mars, from far and near (MAPS 36-9, 2001, A129). McSWEEN H.Y. Jr. (2002) The Leonard Medal Address: The rocks of Mars, from far and near (MAPS 37-1, 2002, pp. 007-025). Best regards, Bernd ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
