[meteorite-list] SNCs

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:05 2004
Message-ID: <3C6EEDD0.6995CC1F_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

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
Received on Sat 16 Feb 2002 06:40:00 PM PST