Hi Piper,
I've been thinking about the "boiling water" and might have another
explanation or two. First if this hit the ground faster than terminal
velocity, I think that air could have been compressed under the specimen
and is slowly bubbling out under as the water reacts to erode around the
mass, releasing the trapped compressed air. Also if this is a fairly
friable meteorite, it might be absorbing water and air is being
displaced from the mass rising to the surface. I suppose that both could
be true. Certainly a chemical reaction as you suggest is a good
possibility. All my best!
--AL Mitterling
Piper R.W. Hollier wrote:
Hello list,
Thanks for the reactions both public and private to my posting to the
list about sulfur dioxide at Carancas. This thread has also given me a
new idea about the "boiling" water in the crater. Yes, it may have
been the obvious: ground water raised to the boiling point by impact
heat...
BUT, if there was enough sulfur dioxide generated in the impact to
significantly acidify the water, what do you get when you put
pulverized cenozoic limestone in acidic water? Bubbling carbon
dioxide, maybe even lots and lots of it. One wonders: did anyone
actually verify somehow that the "boiling" water was hot to the touch?
Or might it have been only "bubbling" and not "boiling"?
Sterling has added some valuable numeracy to the troilite/SO2
hypothesis by tracking down the dissociation temperature of troilite,
which is surprisingly low: 700 kelvins, or 427 C. That's not all that
hot, folks.
Are there professional (geo)chemists out there who would care to
comment on the credibility of this explanation for what would
otherwise seem to be some rather odd phenomena?
Piper
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