[math-fun] Moon as tape recorder for events on Earth
FYI -- It would be fabulous to find bits from the k-T boundary (65Mya) on the Moon. http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/ancient-life-moon-earth-180954282/ Ancient Life on the Moon  From Earth The possibility that terrestrial fossils are preserved in Moon rocks makes lunar exploration even more appealing. It was once said the Moon acts as a cosmic tape recorder, quietly and continuously collecting a detailed history of the Earth-Moon corner of the universe over the last 4 billion years. Now we are discovering that this geologic tape recorder holds an even more impressive collection of Âtunes than we had previously imagined.
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> FYI -- It would be fabulous to find bits from the k-T boundary (65Mya) on the Moon.
Hate to be a party-pooper, but with all due respect, I think it would be mildly interesting, but hardly "fabulous". There's tons and tons of K-T boundary material that stayed on Earth, and is conveniently ready-to-hand for examination. So what's the value-add? * * * I wish science people would refrain from constant agenda-driven gushing like "...strongly suggests the need for more search and discovery on the Moon." Yes, yes, as a civilization I agree that we should have an ongoing programme to glean as much such interesting data as possible... But all in due course. This kind of breathless case-pleading (basically for more funding sooner) with every single damn article about anything gets tiresome and ultimately is counterproductive. "OMG! Terrestrial lunar debris! It Could Unlock The Secret of Life On Earth! Send more money quick! Wolf!" For many many values of <Terrestrial lunar debris>...
The last time I looked, the k-T stuff on Earth is highly compromised. Hopefully, the Moon stuff will be well-preserved -- especially if it somehow managed to get covered. At 11:26 AM 2/19/2015, Marc LeBrun wrote:
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> FYI -- It would be fabulous to find bits from the k-T boundary (65Mya) on the Moon.
Hate to be a party-pooper, but with all due respect, I think it would be mildly interesting, but hardly "fabulous".
There's tons and tons of K-T boundary material that stayed on Earth, and is conveniently ready-to-hand for examination. So what's the value-add?
* * *
I wish science people would refrain from constant agenda-driven gushing like
"...strongly suggests the need for more search and discovery on the Moon."
Yes, yes, as a civilization I agree that we should have an ongoing programme to glean as much such interesting data as possible... But all in due course.
This kind of breathless case-pleading (basically for more funding sooner) with every single damn article about anything gets tiresome and ultimately is counterproductive.
"OMG! Terrestrial lunar debris! It Could Unlock The Secret of Life On Earth! Send more money quick! Wolf!"
For many many values of <Terrestrial lunar debris>...
[just us] Compromised how? There's just the usual processes that affect stuff 65M years old (also 64M, 66M etc)--erosive dispersion, oxidation and other chemistry, radioisotope interactions... Are you talking about asteroidal debris material or terrestrial stuff? I suppose asteroidal reference samples that have been subject to a different "chain of custody" that would allow comparison of, say, iridium isotope levels or the like might possibly be useful for something. But I don't think there's going to be much of interest with the much larger terrestrial percentage, since Earth was just minding its own business doing nothing special when it got whacked, so whatever divots got flung to the moon should be pretty ordinary. Now if we could ALSO find some debris from the Permian-Triassic event to compare, to help understand why they had different consequences, that could be interesting... Best regards, --MLB
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com>
The last time I looked, the k-T stuff on Earth is highly compromised. Hopefully, the Moon stuff will be well-preserved -- especially if it somehow managed to getpretty ordinary/ covered.
At 11:26 AM 2/19/2015, Marc LeBrun wrote:
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> FYI -- It would be fabulous to find bits from the k-T boundary (65Mya) on the Moon.
Hate to be a party-pooper, but with all due respect, I think it would be mildly interesting, but hardly "fabulous".
There's tons and tons of K-T boundary material that stayed on Earth, and is conveniently ready-to-hand for examination. So what's the value-add?
* * *
I wish science people would refrain from constant agenda-driven gushing like
"...strongly suggests the need for more search and discovery on the Moon."
Yes, yes, as a civilization I agree that we should have an ongoing programme to glean as much such interesting data as possible... But all in due course.
This kind of breathless case-pleading (basically for more funding sooner) with every single damn article about anything gets tiresome and ultimately is counterproductive.
"OMG! Terrestrial lunar debris! It Could Unlock The Secret of Life On Earth! Send more money quick! Wolf!"
For many many values of <Terrestrial lunar debris>...
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The k-T stuff from Earth has been compromised by later DNA, RNA, microbial stuff. And it wouldn't have been stored in a deep freezer. The stuff that got to the Moon would have been flash-frozen, and if the pieces were in big enough chunks, there could be really well-preserved organic material deep inside the chunks. Ditto for Mars, but there's probably many orders of magnitude more Earth stuff on the Moon than on Mars (even ignoring the fact that the Moon may consist primarily of Earth-stuff). At 12:50 PM 2/19/2015, Marc LeBrun wrote:
[just us]
Compromised how? There's just the usual processes that affect stuff 65M years old (also 64M, 66M etc)--erosive dispersion, oxidation and other chemistry, radioisotope interactions...
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> The k-T stuff from Earth has been compromised by later DNA, RNA, microbial stuff. And it wouldn't have been stored in a deep freezer.
The stuff that got to the Moon would have been flash-frozen, and if the pieces were in big enough chunks, there could be really well-preserved organic material deep inside the chunks.
Oh I think I see -- you're interested in well-preserved old organic samples, the fact that they were sampled at the k-T time is just a accident. (Heh, does your interest have anything to do with the recent real estate speculation on Isla Nublar?)
I'm particularly interested in the k-T event because I think it was capable of heaving relatively large chunks onto the Moon. I'm also interested in the significant changes in the types of life forms pre- and post-k-T. In particular, I think that the % of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere pre-k-T was substantially higher than the 20% or so today. I think that O2 partial pressure might have been 30% or more. My evidence is based upon the oxygen-carrying capacity of the dinosaur circulatory system. Just as an Olympic athlete might utilize EPO to gain an advantage, I think that the dinosaurs had a natural athletic advantage (relative to today's mammals) in the form of a higher O2 partial pressure. At 02:55 PM 2/19/2015, Marc LeBrun wrote:
="Henry Baker" <hbaker1@pipeline.com> The k-T stuff from Earth has been compromised by later DNA, RNA, microbial stuff. And it wouldn't have been stored in a deep freezer.
The stuff that got to the Moon would have been flash-frozen, and if the pieces were in big enough chunks, there could be really well-preserved organic material deep inside the chunks.
Oh I think I see -- you're interested in well-preserved old organic samples, the fact that they were sampled at the k-T time is just a accident.
(Heh, does your interest have anything to do with the recent real estate speculation on Isla Nublar?)
participants (2)
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Henry Baker -
Marc LeBrun