Posts by Chris Landau (geologist)

ALIEN HUNT: Water similar to life-bearing Earth lakes FOUND ON MOON of Saturn

More proof needed of pH of water and of serpentinite on Encelaudus is needed.

The proposal for serpentine being created from mafic rocks rich in pyroxene or olivine or amphibole that we would get in basalt, dunites, pyroxenites and peridotite can only be a proposal unless these rocks have been identified in the plumes in the forms of small grains.

The specific gravity of the moon, Encelaudus is very low at 1.6 grams per cubic centimeter.

Heavy ultramafic basalts are about 3.2 to 3.5 grams per cubic centimeter. I realize this is an average density and the core could be heavier, but I think we need more proof of these rocks to propose a weathering process like serpentinization of olivine and pyroxene to serpentine and Aegerine Augites.

There is no rock evidence. There is no pH evidence.

The density of the moon worries me too. It is very low.

I think a weathering process on the ultramafic rocks on Earth is being transferred to Encelaudus with no rock evidence.

This is heavy thumb suck pseudo science.

More proof is needed.

Chris Landau (geologist)

SATANIC 'HELL DIAMOND' tells of sunless subterranean sea

The inclusion of Ringwoodite is in Wollastromite and is not in the diamond

The inclusion of Ringwoodite (olivine-peridot) is in Wollastromite(Wollastonite-pyroxene) and is not in the diamond

Basalt is made of mostly three crystals, pyroxene, olivine and feldspar. Kimberlite (mantle magma) volcanic pipes which carry this igneous magma from the mantle to the surface pass though basalt and are in any case olivine rich(dunite) and pyroxene rich (peridotite) magmas. These magmatic fluids include chromite, garnet, ilmenite, rutile, apatite(teeth enamel) and mica crystals.

So as the carbon (diamond-reduced carbon dioxide-reduced carbon monoxide) makes its way to the surface in a volatile bubbling mass, it picks up crystals of the surrounding country rock, mostly pyroxene and olivine, because that is what the mantle is made up of and some of the other crystals mentioned above and the Kimberlite carries them to the surface.

This mineral mass of Ringwoodite-Wollastromite (glorified basalt) is on the outside of the diamond, not fully enclosed, so it could have been picked up anywhere.along that Kimberlite pipe even at deep crustal to shallow crustal depths.

The diamond is also poorly crystallized. If it had been euhedral ( well formed crystal) and the Ringwoodite had been found inside a bi-pyramidal octagonal diamond, It might give more credence to this Ringwoodite-Wollastromite deep mantle origin, but as it is not in the center, I do give its original depth origin as definite by any means.

Also, there is no the water content in the chemical formula of olivine or Ringwoodite, that is, Mg2SiO4 to Fe2SiO4 .Therefore water content can only be included in bubbles or vesicles in that crystal.

Vesicles or bubbles containing water or carbon dioxide can be found in any mineral or crystal in an explosive type magma such as kimberlite or a volcano like Mount St Helens or Mt. Etna. According to literature, manufactured synthetic Ringwoodite may contain up to 2.6% water, I assume again this is in bubbles in the crystal not in the crystal structure itself. No where is this made clear in these articles.

I guess you have to be a geologist to read between the lines.

So we have an ocean of water, where again? In laboratory made surface Ringwoodite and shock metamorphic olivine in veins in meteorite? Mmm. Yeah. Mmm.

I am not talking about original metamorphic water to derive the minerals.

There is no attached water molecule to Ringwoodite. The chemical formula is the same as that of Olivine.(Mg2SiO4 to Fe2SiO4 with a solid solution percentage variability existing for iron and magnesium).

Lastly Ringwoodite found in veinlets in meteorites is a shock metamorphic olivine. Kimberlite pipes intrude themselves through the crust in a blast shock metamorphic style changing the country rock near the surface of the earth based on their high carbon dioxide and high water contact.

This shock metamorphic conversion of Olivine to Ringwoodite could have occurred at a high temperature low pressure environment. Heaven only knows what conditions prevailed in Ringwoodite formation in Meteorites, possibly high pressure high temperature OR low temperature high pressure.

Did these basaltic meteorites get their Ringwoodite from collisions or from original planetary core formation. Was that meteorite from a core or planetary body since destroyed. If Ringwoodite is shock high pressure low temperature created, than shock conditions on the Earth's surface in explosive eruptions could just as easily have made it. Ringwoodite does not have to come from depth at all.

So, I dispute the fact of Ringwoodite coming from great depths because it is:

1) On the outside of an diamond.

2) The diamond is not euhedral(well crytallized)

3) Shock metamorphism to the diamond at the Earth's surface as with meteorites could just as easily have formed this crystal.

One tiny crystal on the outside of a badly formed diamond is much more likely to just be contamination.

How about a new idea for a big juicy grant. Why do the researchers not get the universities to fund them to find water bubbles inside diamonds, but only make damn sure they are well formed (euhedral diamonds)

Now water bubbles inside diamonds would not be open to debate because of the depth they are formed at. Please no artificial diamonds are allowed to be sneaked in for papers. Please date the water in these bubbles.

Did anyone date the water content in this tiny crystal or is the water contact real or just thumb-suck based on average water content for Laboratory Ringwoodite or Meteorite Ringwoodite? I doubt if there was enough of a sample at 60 micro meters.

As you can see, I have a few questions about this paper.

Chris Landau (geologist)

14th March 2014

Hydroxyl groups in diamonds do not prove oceans of water.

One acorn does not make a forest. There are many inclusions of many minerals in many diamonds in many thousands of Kimberlites. Hydrated minerals of the Chlorite group and hydrated micas have been known for decades in diamonds. Nobody has been talking about oceans of water based on these. The fact is many metamorphic minerals contain hydrated minerals. So what! i for one am not excited. Check it out. Check the data. One inclusion of a diamond in a diamond does not prove a damn thing. Get real! Get real Nature Magazine Wake up! Are you so thin on publishable data to make a song and dance about this or is this just the press blowing everything out of proportion.

Silicate rocks all contain oxygen. Olivine, pyroxene, micas, quartz and felspar all contain oxygen, These are the building blocks of every rock you see on this planet and the moon. Nobody is looking for oceans of oxygen in the mantle. The oxygen is now incorporated into the silicate structure as is the hydrogen in micas, amphiboles and asbestos minerals in the hydroxyl or OH group.

What about these rock forming minerals and what about them as inclusions in diamonds. Why no excitement for them?

Lastly at what depth was the mineral introduced into this poorly crystallized diamond. Is the sample contaminated?

Chris Landau (geologist)

14th March 2014

ROCK FROM MARS FOUND in Africa, reveals Red Planet's SECRETS

There are a couple of things that worry me about all the meteorites coming out of North West Africa. I know it is a desert, but there are other deserts for preservation purposes. I worry about scams going on. Secondly, It is extremely rare to find a rock on Earth older than about 4.0 billion years old. Just as Earth's surface has been reworked, so has the surface of Mars. What we look at today is younger rocks. It is laughable to think that you can tell the exact chemistry, mineralogy or age from a vast suite of rocks by scanning from satellite. The scan of Vesta in 2012 is a case in point. (HED meteorites from Vesta very vague). I had enough trouble telling one mineral from another under a petrographic microscope and to sweep large sections of the planet Mars as the same smacks of huge arrogance or stupidity or both. Mineralogy varies from one meter to another and age dates from one millimeter to another depending on the crystals and degree of melting.

We do not know where this rock came from. They do not know. In any case the Martian surface they now explore is a highly altered "new surface" a few million to 1 or 2 billion years old, not a 4.5 billion year old pristine surface of an asteroid. We cannot compare the NOW surface chemistry of Mars with the chemistry of a meteorite fro who knows where.

It could have come from our Earth, our moon, our other planets or their moons, our asteroid belt or any one of the unseen Kuiper belt bodies.

We also do no have bubbles of gas in vesicles in rock to date from Mars as we have no definitive samples from Mars or any where else.

Chris Landau (geologist) November 22, 2013

Re: Ok, excuse me for asking but HTF do they know it is from Mars?

Good point. We do not know where it came from. They do not know. In any case the Martian surface they now explore is a highly altered "new surface" a few million to 1 or 2 billion years old, not a 4.5 billion year old pristine surface of an asteroid. We cannot compare the NOW surface chemistry of Mars with the chemistry of a meteorite fro who knows where.

Chris Landau (geologist) November 22, 2013

NASA signs off on sampling mission to Earth-threatening asteroid

Billion Dollar Bang on asteroid 101955 Bennu because NASA has cotton wool for brains

So in summary,a billion dollars is going to be spent on sending a rocket to a half kilometer size asteroid to gather a pound of rock that has less than a 1% chance in 156 years time of hitting the Earth. As one rendezvous is not enough to know how much the orbit might change with time and multiple radar mappings based from Earth bound telescopes would far more accurately determine its actual orbit next century. Spectroscopic analysis from the Earth or from satellites orbiting the Earth would tell us if this is a carbon chondrite, a stony asteroid, a stony iron or a nickel iron meteorite. Perturbations of of the orbit of 101955 Bennu by other passing asteroids will determine its mass and density. We do not need to spend a billion dollars to do what we can do from Earth for a hundred thousand dollars.

Now I do give the marketing team full marks for talking a hole in NASA'S head. They are brilliant in getting NASA to spend a billion dollars on a "PROJECT TO NOWHERE"

Now The Dawn Mission, launched in 2007, that has already mapped the giant asteroid(dwarf planet) Vesta of 525 kilometers in 2011-2012 and will be arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres of 952 kilometers in 2015 designed and built by Orbital Sciences and managed by JPL has been a magnificent success so far at a cost of less than half a billion dollars for detailed analysis and year long photography of really giant bodies.

There are two other giant asteroids Pallas of 544 kilometers and Hygiea of 431 kilometers. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) surveys have found 140 asteroids with diameters of 120 kilometers or more and we have to spend a billion dollars on a pint size half kilometer asteroid that has an infinitesimally low chance in 150 years time of colliding with the Earth.

Now let us suppose that a 10 kilometer asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, What do you think a 120 mile or 500 mile asteroid let alone Ceres of 952 kilometers, will do to life on Earth. Do you not think that money is being thrown at irrelevant garbage to make some guys rich?

Will it not make more sense to send out ion drive probes like Dawn to map the hundreds of 50 kilometer plus asteroids over the next 100 years. Let us stop swatting flies when there is a herd of elephants inside the house.

NASA, wake up and get your priorities straight and get somebody with an IQ of slightly above 2 to manage the billion dollars you spend. Make the projects worthwhile with long lasting relevance. You are making scientists look like idiots. The paying public will not thank you for this in the years to come.

Think NASA

Chris Landau (geologist)

5/20/2013