* One website has this paragraph on shatter cones. "Shatter cones that may form beneath a meteorite impact crater are similar to what happens on a SMALL scale when a BB strikes a window and pops a cone out of the glass pane. The sharp end faces toward the impact, and the larger circular base faces away from it. Shatter cones occur on a LARGE scale when a sufficiently massy object strikes Earth. Billions of tons of rock are vaporized. Below that, rock is shattered and melted. As shock waves speed through hard rocks below and surrounding these rocks, they leave shatter cones in their wake, fossilized shock waves, their points facing toward the direction of impact. "
* One problem with the bolide impact theory seems to be that fractured rock is often not found under craters. Isn't that correct? Isn't that true of Meteor Crater?
* Another website says:
Shocked Quartz:
- has a microscopic structure that is different from normal quartz;
- was discovered after underground nuclear bomb testing;
- is found worldwide, in a thin K-T Boundary;
- can only be formed by intense pressure at moderate temperature, as high temperatures would anneal the quartz back to its standard form;
- is indicative of impact (or nuclear explosion) [or lightning etc?].
* Hmm. If the K-T Boundary contains a lot of shocked quartz, would that mean worldwide impacts? Or worldwide electrical activity, like lightning?
* Shatter cones are considered to be produced by shock waves, as is also shocked quartz, and lightning is known to produce shock waves, but no one seems to think about lightning producing shatter cones. So I just did a net search for anything that might connect shocked quartz to lightning and I found the following interesting material at http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~mpasek/Pasek_CV.pdf. Check out his publications.
Matthew A. Pasek
Department of Geology
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave
Tampa FL 33620
Phone: (813)-974-8979
Fax: (813)-974-2474
Visiting Assistant Professor of Geochemistry, University of South Florida 01/09-05/10
Research Goals:
1) To constrain the role of meteorites in the origin of life from the perspective
phosphorus redox biogeochemistry
2) To constrain the aqueous redox geochemistry of phosphorus
3) To constrain the effects of lightning on geologic samples
4) To detail chemical processes occurring in the solar system
Invited Talks and PresentationsUniversity of Washington, 6/10Shocked quartz and lightning- rethinking impact hypotheses.
Peer- Reviewed Publications (14 published, 3 under review, H = 6)
Pasek, M.A., Collins, G.S., Carter, E.A., and Melosh, H.J., 2010, Shock Metamorphism of
Quartz by Lightning. Nature Geoscience, in prep.
Carter, E.A., Pasek, M.A., Smith, T., Kee, T.P., Hines, P., and Edwards, H.G.M., 2010, Rapid
Raman mapping of a fulgurite. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 397, 2647-2658.
Bryant, D.E., Greenfield, D., Walshaw, R.D., Evans, S.M., Nimmo, A.E., Smith, C., Wang, L.
Pasek, M.A., and Kee, T.P., 2009, Electrochemical studies of iron meteorites.
Phosphorus redox chemistry on the early Earth. International Journal of Astrobiology
8, 27-36.
Pasek, M.A., 2008, Rethinking early Earth phosphorus geochemistry. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA 105, 853-858.
Owens, B.E. and Pasek, M.A., 2007, Kyanite quartzites in the Piedmont Province of Virginia:
evidence for protolith production in a high-sulfidation hydrothermal system. Economic
Geology 102, 495-509.
Pasek, M.A. and Lauretta, D.S., 2005, Aqueous corrosion of phosphide minerals from
iron meteorites: a highly reactive source of prebiotic phosphorus on the
surface of the early Earth. Astrobiology 5, 515-535.
Funded Grants
NASA Astrobiology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology: Reduced Phosphorus Assemblages
as Sources of Reactive P the Origin and Evolution of Early Life. $305,295 for 3 years.
01/01/2008-12/31/2010.
Renewed 09/01/2010 with $255,167 for 3 years.
Selected Abstracts & Poster Presentations
Joseph, M.L., Atlas, Z., Royall, D., and Pasek, M.A. Geochemical Analysis of a Type II
Fulgurite. Meteoritical Society Meeting 2010.
Pasek, M.A., Collins, G., Carter, E.A., Melosh, H.J., and Atlas, Z., Shocked Quartz in a
Fulgurite. Meteoritical Society Meeting 2010.
Selected Abstracts & Poster Presentations
Block, K.M., Pasek, M.A., Biogenic element reduction in fulgurites.
Mousis, O., Lunine, J.I., Thomas, C., Pasek, M., Marboeuf, U., Alibert, Y., Ballenengger, V.,
Ellinger, Y., Pauzat, F. and Picaud, S., 2008, A partial sublimation of the planetesimals
that formed Titan. Lunar and Planetary Science Conference XXXIX, Houston TX.
Pasek, M.A., Kee, T.P., and Lunine, J.I., 2007, Oxidative pathways of reduced phosphorus
compounds: a primary source of condensed phosphates on the early Earth. 7th EANA
Workshop on Astrobiology, Turku Finland.
Owens, B.E. and Pasek, M.A. 2005, Kyanite quartzites in the Piedmont province of Virginia:
evidence for protolith production in a high-sulfidation (advanced argillic) hydrothermal
system. Geological Society of America National Meeting, Salt Lake City UT.
Pasek, M.A., and Lauretta, D.S., 2005, Meteorite mass flux and the delivery of prebiotic
material. 68th Meteoritical Society Meeting, Gatlinburg TN.