Re: A piece of the bolide?

[Ray McAllister <mcallist@gate.net>]

On Tue, 9 Apr 1996, King, Norm wrote:

> The March 29, 1996 (v. 271, p. 1806) issue of _Science_ has a short note 
> on the discovery of a 3 mm chip of rock from the K-T layer on the bottom 
> of the Pacific off the west coast of Mexico.  It is rich in iridium, and 
> contains metallic grains that are up to 87% nickel.  It is only the 
> second recognizeable meteorite found in all of the cores of deep sea 
> sediments ever taken--and "just happened" to be in the K-T layer.  If 
> part of the bolide, it would show that it was an asteroid rather than a 
> comet.

Hi,
        B ut tektites are common in deep sea sediments, at least magnetic 
tektites whish were swept with a magnetic "broom". I posted a short piece 
recently on tektites found on the Nicaragua Rise or near it, by the Deep 
Sea Drilling Program, right at the K-T boundary in a deep core. The odds 
on coring or dredging a meteorite in the deep ocean are infinitisimal. We 
have cored and dredged far less than 1 percent of the deep ocean.

Ray McAllister, Prof (Emeritus) Ocean Eng., FAU, Boca Raton, FL 33064
Diving Dinosaur, Geologist/Oceanographer/Ocean Engineer, 44 years SCUBA
mcallist@gate.net (954) 426-0808, Author Diving Locations, Boynton/Dania