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Rock Origins
Last post 09-10-2009 02:19 PM by bruth. 3 replies.
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  • 08-04-2009 04:18 PM

    • leroy37
    • Joined on 04-25-2008
    • Texas
    • Posts 83

    Rock Origins

    How were the first rocks made in space?And why are there so many of them out there. Dosent there have to be intense heat and pressure for them to be made?

    Signature
    "The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination, but the combination is locked up in the safe."
  • 08-04-2009 04:37 PM In reply to

    Re: Rock Origins

    Good question.

    The basic answer is that all you need is raw materials (silicates, some metals, in a big dust and gas cloud) plus gravity. Tiny bits clump together to form bigger bits, and so on, until eventually you have a few hundred miles of diameter and then gravity does the rest. Takes a while, of course, but that's the basic model.

    There are several posts here with more detail. Here's one:

    http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/forums/p/38736/409967.aspx#409967

    You can also Google terms like the following:

    presolar nebula

    nebula hypothesis

    protosolar disc

    planetary accretion disc

    After a point, they're no longer "in space" in the sense that they're surrounded by vacuum or at most some gas and dust in a big cloud: the bigger bits have formed enough of a planetary body for true mineralogical processes to begin. Once a silicate body reaches a few hundred miles in diameter, there is enough mass that the heat and pressure you alluded to come into play. That's when you start to get more complex lithologies and true "rocks" ...

    Why are there so many? Because the accretionary nebula was huge ... it was several times as large and the current mass of the inner Solar System. Ferocious solar winds from the Sun's formative years blew most of it away from the inner Solar System, much of it going into interstellar space. In the intervening eons, collisions have caused many of the larger bodies to break up into smaller ones. Gravitational encounters with Jupiter have tossed many of these into the outer reaches of the Solar System.

    While the process may have peaked more than 2 billion years ago, it still goes on. And on Earth, plate tectonics recycles crustal rock every few hundred million years. The Solar System is a dynamic place -- even for rocks.

    Signature
    The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine. --- JBS Haldane
  • 09-09-2009 11:16 AM In reply to

    • bruth
    • Joined on 03-28-2009
    • Olympus Mons
    • Posts 105

    Re: Rock Origins

    You can also google these:

    - sedimentary rock

    - diatom

    - cyanobacteria

    Regards.

    Bruth

  • 09-10-2009 02:19 PM In reply to

    • bruth
    • Joined on 03-28-2009
    • Olympus Mons
    • Posts 105

    Re: Rock Origins

    Absolutely incredible when we factor in Cosmic Dust.

    Bruth

    “The Earth is the true and original owner of everything inanimate. This would include anything that has been transmuted into service for humans.”

     

     

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