Jamie,

Before I get started, let me first thank you for your efforts. I know that you have lots of forces that are pulling you in different directions and I admire your willingness to follow this process through, so that we all might know the truth. You are a gem among humans and scientists, in my book.

I am enclosing the jpg pictures which plot this material as Martian. I have told you that I have never formally studied geology, but I have been involved with science all my life. I recorded all of the NASA news conferences that occurred while Pathfinder was still finding paths. I replayed the sections where they showed how they determine planet of origin. I then downloaded these same graphs over the Internet and then I plotted the values from my rock and its sand onto the same graphs that Hap McSween used. The first picture merely represents the raw data with my rock posted beside the Barnacle Bill and Yogi values. If you will look, you will see that these three rocks are "blood brothers" as far as composition goes. The second and third pictures are the actual plots. I don't know what kind of browser you use, but you should be able to double click these pictures and your browser should then show the photos. These are also posted at my web site on the Mars page. I can also fax you these pictures but they would lose the color and the color seems to highlight the results. Here are the photos and the discussion follows.

First notice how similar that my rock is to Barnacle Bill and Yogi. Every percentage is completely in line with the values obtained with these two rock that we know are now on Mars. My rock has slightly less silicon and iron, and slightly more Calcium and Aluminum. At the bottom of the chart I have normalized each value to silicon. This is what Hap did for the two plots that follow.

The first graph plots Ca vs Fe (after they have been normalized). As you can see, my rock plots directly on top of Barnacle Bill. My rock has an identical ratio of Fe and slightly more Ca. The barnacle bill rock is plotted too high on the Ca scale, by my measurement, but every value is exactly what I would expect of a rock similar to Barnacle Bill, yet from a different part of the planet Mars. Before barnacle bill, we didn't know about these kinds of rocks on Mars. Barnacle Bill plotted closer to Earth material than any other we had seen. But we know that my rock is only 13 Ma so it would represent the end result of the evolution of volcanic material on the planet Mars. Barnacle Bill is probably older. However, we do have proof that volcanic activity continued for a good portion of the history of Mars. Tell me, how would you know by the tests you have done, where this rock originated. Wouldn't you expect feldspar and quartz to exist on Mars also, since it has had a quite extensive volcanic period? How would this be different from the same minerals found on Earth? Since I don't know much about geology, I just went straight to the tests that are specific to planet of origin.

As you look at where the sand plots on the Ca vs Fe plot, we see that it plots completely out of terrestrial range. But notice that the sand has almost the exact amount of Ca as do two of the Mars meteorites, while no Earthly material has so little Ca and so little Fe. The sand I tested would not be the same test that was performed on the Martian "soils" because all the measurements on Mars have been of mixed materials. The sample I sent in for testing only represents part of my Martian "soil" because I separated the different size particles and only sent in for testing the very small particles. So my "soil" sample represents only one part of the "whole" Martian "soil." I did this because I didn't want any of the pieces of debris in the sand to be annihilated by the testing process. So the results of this test are slightly skewed from the other samples of Martian soil, but I think everything makes perfect sense if you just look at the results.

Next is the plot of Magnesium against Aluminum (after normalizing to silicon). Here again, the rock portion of my sample plots right next to the plot of Barnacle Bill. My rock has slightly more Al but almost the exact same ratio of Mg. (Actually, the Mg percent of my rock lies between Barnacle Bill and Yogi). Earthly rocks don't seem to have this little Mg in them. And now look at where the sand plots. Directly on the side of Martian materials. All of these things taken together clearly point to a Martian origin.

Now let's take some of the other evidence. My rock is K-Ar dated at 13 Ma. Although he now seems unwilling to become involved, Dr. Sayre told me that between the Rocky mountains and the mid-Atlantic ridge, there are no volcanoes that are more than 9 Ma. I have collected many samples of this material and I have yet to find any that resembles my rock, except that they are all lava type rocks. But there is no way that I could take any of the rocks from the Clayton-Raton range and be able to drive a 5/8" piece of copper tubing through a rock that is almost a foot thick. Of the 8-9 Ma rocks, there is no lava left. Everything has been decomposed by those millions of years of weather. (I will still be glad to send you samples of these rocks if you want) But my rock is so delicate I could throw it to the ground and break it apart. There is no dirt on the rock and I can prove to any open minded person that the contents of this rock have never been wet since the rock was formed. These characteristics are incompatible with an Earthly origin in the Clayton-Raton range or any other terrestrial volcanoes.

And remember that you saw with your own eyes that the outer surfaces have been melted to varying degrees. Please trust your senses. You saw the melting. (You are the only geologist who has actually bent over and looked at my rock through a microscope, so I applaud you for your open mindedness) The other geologist have all said that the rock shows melting but they believe it melted when it was shot out of a volcano here on Earth. This scenario can not be true if one examines all of the facts of this rock. But we now know that the rock was formed by lava moving through a bed of sand and the sand is actually still in the rock in all the vesicles. I believe that some of the results you have gotten, are from viewing the sand locked in the lava part of the rock. It looks to me like the sandy material is all through the volcanic material and thus will skew the results when trying to look at just the lava part.

You have admired my ability to stick with this problem, but I stick with it only because I realize the value of this rock to humanity. If I were trying to accomplish some kind of hoax, I wouldn't be trying to get people to test the rock. I have never asked anyone to believe anything I have said about the rock (or my philosophy) only that they listen to what I have said and run scientific tests to determine the truth of the matter. That is why it was so important that you gave me the name of Chemex where I could have some of the tests done for myself. What needs to happen soon in the meteorite collecting community, is to realize that these tests for planet of origin are cheap and every rock that might be a meteorite needs to be tested. Remember that a meteorite is something that falls from the sky to our planet, not something that is declared a meteorite by a meteorite expert. (By the way, I have always thought that an ex is a has-been and a spurt is a drip under pressure.)

In summary, this rock was found by a competent observer in a situation similar to the Antarctic collecting grounds. The rock is melted over the entire outer surface to varying degrees. The composition and structure explain the amount of melting. The rock has never been wet since it was formed. The rock is far too delicate to have survived 13Ma on our planet. To me, the evidence is overwhelming that this rock represents a Barnacle Bill type rock and the sand within the rock is compatible with measurements taken of Martian meteorites and Martian soils. Also, from my examination of the contents of the sand that has came from the middle of the rock, Martian life developed far past the bacterial stage as reported on ALH-84001. Since 84001 represents very old Martian material and my rock represents very new Martian material, these observations seem consistent with everything we have learned about Mars to date.

Keep working, you are so close.

Your friend,