Buck,

If it is OK, I'm just going to e-mail you when I think of something you might need to know, rather than trying to organize everything and put it in one letter.

I don't remember if I have told you or not, but I have sent off two additional samples for a K-Ar date test. The first sample would represent the red material and the second sample is a few of the little lava rocks that came from inside my rock. I believe these little rocks have been wet and should be somewhat older than the rock itself. I have saved back one of these little rocks in hopes that I can get a major elemental analysis. Unfortunately, Chemex, who has been doing my other testing, requires 1.1 grams to have enough material to test. The piece I have is about the size of a small pea (it is in the picture you have). I know that the Pathfinder rover was able to make these tests by just placing its probe onto the sample. Do you know anywhere that I can get this small piece of rock tested so that we will have the chemistry to go along with the age information that should be back soon? If so, please let me know and I will get it tested. By the way, the two additional age tests are costing me $800, which is a lot for a single parent.

Also, I have been looking at the graphs that I sent you and several things "stick out" to me. I think I mentioned the linear nature of the five plots. I am not a geologist, but mathematically this means that the ratio of materials is almost exactly the same, no matter what the quantity of each element. Also, in almost every graph, the range of the material from my rock represents almost the entire range of these same elements from over 60 earthly volcanoes. What this means to me is that the source material for all of these particles must be the same. This situation seems unlikely on Earth because of the intensity of the various reactions and because all material on Earth seems to get mixed with other materials in a variety of ways. On Mars, it looks like things are more regional. As I look at pictures from Mars, it seems that the major influence is volcanic. A volcano on Mars does not appear to have material mixed from other volcanoes. If you look at the picture I sent you of the volcano and its water course, it seems to me that this volcano has dominated this particular region and thus one would expect that different materials from the volcano might have the same origin.

When I look at that volcano, what appears to have happened is that there was an initial phase that built the basic shape of the volcano. But like Earthly volcanoes, the activity and the venting tend to change over time. It looks like to me that after this volcano was built, it went into a less active phase. This phase was releasing water and gasses which immediately froze in the cold atmosphere and then fell back into the volcano. After enough frozen material was collected, the volcano cycled to a warmer phase and this melted the water which flowed down the volcano. Or there could have been a phase that released vapors, but the volcano kept the "ground" warm and the vapors stayed as liquid water on the surface. The forces of heat and water would have created the small particles which would later flow down the water courses and arrive at various points down the side. My rock was made from a side vent and would represent the re-melting of older material. This would have reset the K-Ar clock and even though the lava portion of my rock is only 13 ma, I think it was made from older material that was apart of the lava produced by the volcano in the past. Thus, the sandy material has been worked the most by the volcano and the water and reduced the heavy elements while concentrating the silicon. If this model is any where near accurate, it would mean that the water on Mars is probably still there and is below the surface. As I look at the picture, the only place the water could come from is the volcano. There is no indication of rain or something like that. The water collected in the vent area and could only have come from the gasses of the volcano. Then from time to time, we had these catastrophic water flows which created the channels that we see from the satellite photos.

Also, on the Ar-Ar dating, my understanding is that it is a measure of exposure. If my rock was a surface rock, then the Ar-Ar date should be similar to the K-Ar date. If this rock was subsurface on Mars, then the Ar-Ar date would be a measure of time since the rock was uprooted from the planet. Is this correct?

I will write more later. My writings seem to alienate many people so please understand that I am always smiling when I write and that I mean you no harm nor disrespect. I only want to find the truth. Please let me know if you obtain additional information about this interesting object.

Your friend,