Buck,

I thought that I would give you the day off yesterday while I spent time looking at these new ages and trying to figure out what they mean. I went and got the meteorite this morning and looked at it and I think I know what is going on.

Originally, I thought the red streak was caused by all the tiny little red inclusions and they still probably have some impact. But after I examined the spot where I took the sample that came out 27.9 ma, I realized that that spot on the rock probably represents just two different ages rather than three. The red streak, I now believe, is caused by the inclusion of a lot more of the old rock (49 ma) than I had ever imagined. As I look at the spot where the sample was taken, I realize that the sample represents some of the new rock (13 ma) and some of the old rock (49 ma). That is why its age is in between the two other dates. I think the whole red streak was caused by the inclusion of a whole lot of the older material which is slightly more red than the younger material. These two were so completely integrated that I never realized that there were two different types of rock there. Now that I know how to recognize the different rocks, they are easy to spot. The new material is much more gray in color and the vesicles are larger. Also, this rock shows no signs of being in the presence of water. But the older rock is more red in color, the vesicles are much smaller and the rock shows to have been wet, although it could never have been in running water or it wouldn't have so many sharp edges remaining. Thus, I think that the last water on Mars was sometime between 50 ma and 13 ma. That ought to bring some controversy.

Also, what now seems obvious, is that the older rock sat around for 36 million years and got wet, but was never in running water. It was in a water system (as evidenced by the sand), but even many of the particles of sand have square or sharp edges and so we have some indication that this sand didn't erode much in 36 million years. I think that the possibility that this condition could exist on Earth is very near zero, while Mars is a much more likely candidate to have had small amounts of water in the last 50 million years.

I'll have more to say later, so have a good day and believe in miracles.

Your friend,