"Paul Henney" wrote:

Hi,

I'm a geologist (igneous petrologist) and I'm totally baffled by the recent
microscopic images from Opportunity.

This is clearly a very fine grained chemical sediment with occasional
detrital grains (Blueberries). Its not detrital, not bedded.
Totally weird.


My hunch is that the Martian "blueberries"

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rove...s/image-1.html

are meteorite-impact spherules that form as minerals vaporized by
meteorite impacts recondense and cool in the atmosphere. Spherules,
also known as microtektites, are even predicted to be common on Mars:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/5thMars99/pdf/6039.pdf

They are also found on Earth

http://gisp.gi.alaska.edu/tutorial/tekt.htm
http://geology.rutgers.edu/spherbig.gif
http://geology.rutgers.edu/brimages.html

and throughout the K-T boundary that's believed to be debris from a
massive meteorite impact that may have wiped-out the dinosaurs. The
world-wide distribution of spherules at the K-T boundary is considered
to be strong evidence that the K-T boundary was caused by a meteorite
impact versus a massive volcanic event, which should not distribute
spherules throughout the world. It's also possible that the Martian
"blueberries" might be volcanic spherules. Either way, in my view
there's a strong similarity between the "berries" and spherules.


Ian Goddard's Journal: http://iangoddard.net/journal.htm

"When we have lived any time, and have been accustomed to
the uniformity of nature, we acquire a general habit, by
which we always transfer the known to the unknown, and
conceive the latter to resemble the former." David Hume