Pot-of-gold question

The Rock currently being studied by the Spirit rover on Mars reminds me of
Coral. Question to someone in the field of Coral research: could this be the
case? Could the rock be what is left over once the coral itself has long
since died and rotted away.

Ta

Nathan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Blurrt"


The Rock currently being studied by the Spirit rover on Mars reminds me of
Coral...Could the rock be what is left over once the coral itself has long
since died and rotted away.


I have been looking for someone to bring that up. "Pot of Gold" NASA calls
the rock. See he
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/...se-062504.html

I don't know anything about coral, either, which is no doubt why the idea
appeals to me.

A little research shows that hematite, which the rock contains, can replace
the organic material in fossils, but I have yet to find a reference to
hematite coral.

Coral would be suprising. It actually came along rather late in terrestrial
history, just a 500 million years ago, with the rest of the multicellular
animals. The Blue Mars people, however, usually say that Mars has been
desiccated for at least 3.5 billion years. So, if Pot of Gold is Martian
coral, then Martian evolution was much faster than evolution on Earth.
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John J. Reilly
E-mail: aesir[no
Website: http://[no spam]pages.prodigy.net/aesir/index.htm
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