Creation Model
It
appears that the Frass Meteorite was made from the side venting on an ancient
Martian volcano. The chemistry of the rock shows
that it was probably originally laid down from a very old major lava flow that
remained untouched for a very long time. Then, about 50 million years ago,
the surface lava was remelted by side-venting lava flows, allowing the chemistry
to remain "old," even though the rock had just been created. This lava lay
on the side of the volcano and was later in the presence of liquid water on the
surface. At around 13 million years ago, the same side vent became active
again and the lava flowed. Particles from the older rock, sand, and other
debris were captured with this flow and later transported to Earth, most likely
by the result of the impact of a large asteroid onto the surface of Mars.
Since I have been in the computer industry for so long, I
have come to realize that a program is never "finished." Likewise, scientific
models must constantly undergo revisions as new information appears and changes
the way we view things. Therefore I want to make clear that this model of the
creation of the Frass rock is just an initial attempt at making sense of the
particles found within the rock, and that is why I have labeled it Model 1.01. I
am sure to be wrong about many things and so I am making myself "room" to make
corrections as new information appears.
Every since I first viewed it, I have been intrigued with this picture of Mars,
which shows a probable
site for the expulsion of the "new" Martian meteorites (Ceraunius
Tholus). This picture shows a
volcano with a water system running down the side and a large impact crater near
the edge of the volcano. What has attracted me to this picture was the discovery
of volcanic particles in the sand that comes from within the Frass rock. When I
first looked at the sand with my microscope, I saw many of these tiny little
pieces of rock that were obviously pieces of lava. For a long period of time I
couldn't decide if they were actually particles of the rock that broke when I
took the samples, or were they pieces of lava that were lying in the sand when
the lava flowed around it to form the Frass rock. I was later able to determine
that both kinds of lava particles existed (ages and
chemistry) and that some of the internal lava
rocks were actually a slightly different color than the material of the rock
itself. This led me to conclude that my rock must have been made as material
from a side vent in the middle of a watercourse on a larger volcano. These
conditions are all met, I believe, in the picture above. Therefore, my model
assumes that the Frass rock was made at a location similar to the one shown.
I think the assumption is that the asteroid strike that ejected the Martian
material must have
occurred from a similar site within the last few million
years. Looking at the picture we can guess at a few things.
The volcano is
probably old since it has numerous meteorite strikes on the surface of the
volcano. Also, I think we can see multiple phases of this volcano system. There
must have been some process that lifted this volcano to its present height
above
the surrounding plains. But concurrent with that phase, or in a later phase, the
volcano had to be venting water. That is the only place that the water could
have come from. A final phase involved the moving of the vent from left to right
in the picture above. Many terrestrial volcanoes exhibit this tendency and it
doesn't
seem to be a large leap to think that a similar process might occur on
Mars. If you carefully examine the water system, you can see where there are
many "bumps" and several "worms." I believe these represent side vents where
lava flowed. From viewing the contents of my rock, I believe this system could
have been stable for millions of years. Water vapor and other gasses were
ejected from these vents. But the cold and thin atmosphere would not be
conductive to carrying off these gasses and they tended to freeze and fall back
down in the near vicinity of the volcano. Thus the main crater of the volcano
collected water for a long time and was once filled to the "brim." Before the
side broke, you can see where water flowed from the rim in several different
directions. Then later, the water washed through one side and began digging the
deep trench we now see. I see evidence of multiple floods, but the system could
well have been stable for a long period with water coming from the vents,
freezing in the atmosphere, falling back to Mars, collecting in holes which were
either warm continually, or were warm from time to time. This system would be
great for supplying the necessary energy for life to evolve and fill many
niches. The following drawing demonstrates the
model I have proposed.
This drawing represents a side view of the volcano in the picture above. I have
"cut" it right through the center of the main crater, down the watercourse, and
across the ejection crater at the far right side. The legend for the drawing is
as follows:
1 is the "level" surface of the planet (not visible
in picture).
2 is the layers of the volcano, some of which are
visible in the picture above and in other pictures of Martian water systems. In
the picture above, look at the main crater itself. If you look at the point
where the watercourse leaves the crater, near its right side in this picture
orientation, there are two "ledges" that I think represent different layers of
volcanic activity. These layers seem to show through in the ejection crater
also. I see this feature many times in terrestrial waterways when you have
materials of different densities and they erode at different rates, leaving
these "plateau" regions along the meanders of the river system.
3 represents the "sand" making portion of the
volcano. If the volcano provided millions of years of heat, then there would be
time to work material to concentrate the silicates and then provide water to
break these rocks down into small pieces. Some of the sand in the Frass rock was
probably made here, according to this model. This conclusion is based on
the linear nature of the chemistry of the meteorite and all of its contents.
4 represents a plug at the volcano main vent. There
probably was an initial phases where this vent was open and the main portion of
the volcano was raised from the surface of the planet. But at some point, the
heat energy became less and the plug formed and made a nice crater for the
collection of water. The flat, feature-less bottom of the crater suggests to me
that it had liquid water in it for a long time.
5 is the common heat and/or magma source from
within the planet, whatever its mechanism might be. The common magma source is
necessary to account for the linear nature of the rock and its contents. This
heat source probably moved with time much like Earthly volcanoes do, except on
Mars the process is much slower and more prolonged. The result of that
movement would be side
venting. The geology of Mars is
probably much more regional than Earth. Earth is a larger planet and has more
energy to devote to moving things around and mixing them together. Mars would
represent a more simple system where, at least in the later years, local areas
are affected mostly by local events. One of the most compelling arguments that
the Frass rock came from Mars is the linear nature of the chemistry of the rock
and its contents. This linear nature means that the contents of the rock were
made from the same base material as the rock itself and thus shows a very
regional nature to its chemistry. I think Mars is the most likely place in our
solar system to have these long term and stable volcanic systems.
6 is where a lake later formed in the caldera of
the volcano, after the volcano has stopped its large, main eruptions. This
marks the original lake top, before the other side "broke loose" at a later time
and allowed the water to "flood" down the sides creating the large river courses
we see here. Because I see multiple small water systems leaving this crater from
several different sides, I think I can conclude that this lake was once full all
the way to the top.
7 demonstrates the water vapor and other gasses
being expelled from the main vent or nearby vents. Mars has probably
cycled between wet and dry times, but during the wet times, these volcanic
gasses would have "powered" the atmosphere. during these "wet" times, Mars
probably had a decent atmosphere, higher surface temperatures, and liquid water
on the surface of the planet. During the dry times, the atmosphere might
have evaporated or been returned back to the land. Gasses during cold
times would immediately freeze and fall back into the crater where they could
collect as frozen or liquid material, depending on the temperature of the bottom
of the lake or surface at the time in question.
8 shows the cross section of the water course.
Successive floods have deepened the river so that it is very deep. Large floods
were probably necessary at first to create the watercourse of the size we see,
but over time it could have flowed on a steady basis, if the volcano was
ejecting and collecting enough liquid water. I see evidence of multiple flows
and it looks to me like there has been volcanic and water action in the ejecting
crater since the material was ejected. This would mean that water has flowed on
Mars as recently as a few million years ago. Mars may have just died or being in
the final phases of dying. See the reference section at
MarsLife Home for more evidence of recent water flows
on Mars.
9 shows the edges of the expulsion crater, or the
crater that was made when a large object collided with Mars at the edge of this
volcano and within the water system created by the volcano. When this object
struck Mars, much material was ejected from this spot, leaving the crater. Some
of the material from this event apparently made its way to Earth and the Frass
rock well could have been one of the rocks sitting near this water system when
the asteroid struck. Although the Frass Meteorite shows no signs of being
"shocked" by this event,
recent studies
(see page 7 of the introduction) have concluded that material can be
ejected from the surface of Mars with little or no shocking. The mechanism
involves shock waves from the impact being bounced off the interior of the
planet, thereby imparting escape velocity to small surface rocks, such as the
Frass Meteorite.
10 shows one of the lava "ledges" that I spoke of
earlier, created during one of the ancient major lava flows from this volcano.
I think this probably represents a separate flow from the volcano, old or new.
If you look in the picture above at the place where the river enters the crater
area, you can
see this raised plateau. It appears that this layer was made of
"harder" material than that above it and so was not dislodged when the asteroid
struck this place. Or, it could be new volcanism that has occurred since the
impact. In this case, life would probably still be active in this area. Also,
this marks a region that apparently shows volcanic material from more than one
eruption. This could account for the variety of particles that have come from
within the Frass rock. Of course, the internal lava rocks could have come from
any material produced upstream, so they could have come from anywhere from the
main vent on down to the impact crater.
11 shows a possible site for the source material to
make the gray portion, or majority of the rock. This material could have been
very old, but had its K-Ar clock reset when it was re-melted 13
million years
ago. This would explain why it has more iron in it than does the sandy material
alone. The sandy material was made upstream where it had spent much more time in
hot zones being melted and re-melted. But the Frass rock was probably made from
material at the edge of the volcano that had been sitting there a long time
without being melted. Thus it has much more iron than the sand itself and shows
the "oldest" chemistry of any materials in the meteorite, while it has the
youngest date of creation.
12 is a possible region where the red portions of
the rock might have originated. When the main portion of the rock was made 13
million years ago, numerous inclusions of material were trapped by the lava
flow. Some of this was very red colored and appears to be older volcanic
material that had been in the presence of liquid water, at least for a portion
of its life. The different layers within the watercourse would provide
opportunities for different kinds of lava and other materials to be included
within the rock.
13 is the water table under this volcanic system.
This system shows to have been operating over a very long period of time, at
least millions of years. For Mars to show so many water systems there must once
have been lots of water. Where did it go? If the model I am proposing is
anywhere near correct, then it means that the water of Mars was and is in the
ground. (The previous sentence was written in 1998, based solely
on the information contained with the Frass Meteorite. Recent evidence
from the Odyssey spacecraft has shown that many spots on Mars are more water
than dirt. The fact that I was able to make these same claims years before
the evidence came out, is further proof of the Martian origin of the Frass
Meteorite.) Since the "river" starts at the crater of the volcano, this is
where the water had to have originated from the viewpoint of the surface. On
Earth, water gets stored in layers between rocks as some rocks are porous and
some are not. The same thing could easily happen on Mars, as we have evidence of
different layers from the photographs. Heat from the volcano would provide the
necessary energy to keep water in its liquid state. I think there is a good
chance that the water is still there and is just below the surface and now
probably mostly frozen since most of the heat of Mars is now used up (written
in1998).
14 is just another "view" of the layers within the
volcano. This shows the possible candidates for different creation sites for
different parts of the rock and its contents.
15 is the most likely places to find life currently
living on Mars. Some of these vents may still be slightly active and life may
still flourish in these spots. A good microscope on the next Mars probe
might be
able to see some of the small creatures that exist in the Frass rock. The
Gusev crater landing site, should make a good candidate for finding creatures
and creature bodies much like those discovered within the Frass Meteorite.
In summary, for all of the particles within the Frass rock to have a linear
chemistry means that they had to have had a common source material. The diagram
shows how a system of this nature could be stable for millions of years and
shows how the system could produce the liquid water necessary to make the water
systems that we see all over Mars and which clearly show within the Frass
Meteorite. Earthly volcanoes just don't stay stable long enough to rise
above the surrounding surface, make sand from this material, have the sand move
down a water course, and then have related material surround the sand in the
form of a lava rock. On Earth, there is too much energy and a single system
can't stay stable for very long without being mixed with material from other
places. A couple of the sand samples do show small variations from true linear,
so this would probably represent material that has been carried to this site as
dust from other locations.
