Comparison With Known Mars Rocks
If
the Frass Meteorite came from Mars, shouldn't it look like other rocks from
Mars? A number of meteorites on Earth are said to
have come from Mars, but
the Viking and Pathfinder missions have both given us close up views of the
rocks on the surface of Mars. If we look closely, in every view of the
surface of Mars, we see rounded rocks, many with a parting plane and many with
one or more red streaks, much like the Frass Meteorite. As we look
at
the rocks of Mars, it is uncanny how closely the Frass Meteorite resembles the
very rocks we have seen on the surface of Mars.
The Frass rock represents only a single sample from the
entire world of Mars, yet in some ways, it may contain much of the history of
Mars. It is far too early to be sure about anything, but after looking at the
Frass rock for so many years and comparing that information with all the
evidence coming in from other sources, I am willing to describe an initial
model which attempts to explain the different
rocks shown below.
The basic history of Mars seems to be such: In the early days of the
planet, there was much energy available and so volcanoes flowed constantly and
kept the atmosphere replenished. A number of the pictures of Mars taken from
orbit, show layers where watercourses have cut through ancient material to
expose these layers. I think these layers represent the early lava flows from
giant volcanoes, that essentially covered the planet with these initial layers.
These rocks are represented by number 1 in the
photo and by ALH84001, the Martian meteorite which is very old
(4.5ga) and which
contained the first signs of Martian life. These rocks would have been created
under a greater atmospheric pressure and thus are more dense than later rocks.
Also, please realize that if these rocks do contain bacterial remnants, it is
almost a billion years before the same things show up in Earth Samples. I think
it is likely that life started first on Mars, probably coming from comets, which
are just the oceans of ancient worlds blown apart by dying stars. Then, life on
Earth, was transferred from Mars by meteorite much like the Frass Meteorite.
NASA estimates that 1,000 pounds of Mars land on Earth each year. Over the
history of our planet, this would amount to a lot of Mars on Earth.
Water and gasses would have spewed from the vents of the giant Martian volcanoes
and the water
would have collected in many different places. Oceans were formed in the early
years, but as the systems grew older, the calderas of the volcanoes held water
and these appear to have burst from time to time and let water out of the
calderas. But later, as time passes and the energy of the planet decreased, the
water receded from the oceans and concentrated around the volcanoes. There were
the large lakes in the calderas and small pools everywhere that liquid water
could collect. These pools would have been been near the volcanoes and downwind
from the prevailing winds.
Over time, the main calderas went silent, but the volcanic activity continued as
side vents. On Earth, we often see where the side vents move with time. Pictures
from Mars seem to suggest this has happened and may still be happening. These
side vent flows would be occurring on a regular basis for millions of years and
maybe on cycles that last 10's of millions of years. These flows would cool
rapidly like pillow lava and would explain the large number of round rocks on
Mars. These flows would also flow across the ancient watercourses that were
created when the calderas gave up their water in cataclysmic floods. Many of
these flows occurred while Mars still had an atmosphere and thus have been
exposed to water and have had time to rust. These are the "red" rocks we see
represented by the number 3 above in the picture.
There seems to be an entire field of these rocks. The Frass rock has some of
these kinds of rocks and I have cleverly called them the "red" rocks.
Now rocks type 2 and 4
present a problem. Some people think that they are sedimentary rocks and others
think they are just more of the lava flow type rocks. In the Frass rock, there
is only sedimentary material that has been on the surface. I have yet to find
any sedimentary type rock, that has been under the surface of the planet and
thus compressed into harder rock. (After examining the Frass Meteorite for
several months daily at the UFO Museum in Roswell, I did finally find one little
microscopic piece that appears to me more firmly packed sedimentary material.)
Since Mars has had such a simple history, compared to Earth, I currently don't
think there is any kind of rock like sandstone, where the sand has been pushed
under other material and then compressed. So I think rock 2
is just another kind of rock 1 and that rock
4 is just another kind of rock 2.
Since the red rock flowed into sandy areas, it would have a lot of sand in it.
If it had been under water, some of this sand would be washed out. Rock
4 appears to have undergone this process.
After the atmosphere essentially left the planet, some activity still remained.
(I now suspect that
the atmosphere left Mars a number of times. Mars shows to
have been hit by very large asteroids six or seven times in its history. It may
have been the case, that these large hits disrupted the ocean and atmospheric
system. But since the volcanoes were still active, they re-powered the system
each time and recreated the ocean and atmosphere. If so, this would have meant
that life on Mars would be disrupted also, and one would think it would
interfere with the development of more complex creatures. This large cycle of
wet and dry, could explain the evolution of the Glassy Martian Rock Fungus
(glassies) that are currently living in the Frass Meteorite. These creatures
would have had to learn to deal with large periods of reduced water.) Rock
number 5 represents the gray rock that I think
probably formed after there was no more water, or at least there was no water
where the rock formed. It is gray because it is made from the source material
that was gray, which is rock number 1. (I think the
chemistry of the rock and its contents clearly show the gray rock to be side
venting, and thus it is just the rock number 1
remelted a single time. That is why, even though it is the youngest material in
the Frass Meteorite, it has the oldest chemistry.) The gray rock has more open
and larger vesicles, probably because it was formed with less atmospheric
pressure than the red rock or rock number 1.
And finally, rock number 6 is a plant. I know some
of you are disappointed, but rock number 6 is
actually the Frass rock that has been electronically altered to make it appear
that it is still on Mars. Rock number 5 would
probably be a "sister rock" to rock number 6 (The
Frass Meteorite).
The
picture to the left clearly shows the red streak in a rock on the surface of
Mars. The two other inserts are false colors to enhance the contrast, but
the surface image on the left shows gray rocks, and one has a definite red
streak through it. Since the Frass Meteorite and the "Ginger" probably
didn't come from a single source, or location on Mars, then there must be some
planet-wide reason why so many rocks have red streaks and are relatively round.
I believe the basic model presented above helps explain how this could happen.
When rocks are first made on Mars (and many on Earth) they are gray. As
they oxidize, they become more red. Ancient water systems broke up these
early rocks and split them into small pieces. Later lava flows attached to
these rocks while the lava was still hot. The rock above was probably made
in at least two stages, just like the Frass Meteorite.