From: "M Buitron" rokemit@oneimage.com
To: ufosnw@rt66.com
Subject: BRICKS ON MARS?
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 01:12:40 -0700
BRICKS ON MARS?
I have spent 26 years roaming the mountains and for 24 of those
years my intense interest lay in geology. The topic I wish to
discuss here is: rectangular rocks with squared sides, or more
to the point the BRICKS seen in the Pathfinder photos. On Earth
one often finds such rocks directly below cliffs and on the slopes
of steep mountains were erosion has been active. Even in these
finds the rocks in question all come from either old lava fields
or sedimentary beds. If one is far from cliffs or steep slopes
one doesn't usually find many rocks with squared off brick features.
Rivers sometimes raft such rocks, but even in those cases the
rocks will show some rounding due to the effects of transport.
When one adds in the conditions of hard dry winds (like those
seen on Mars) to see exposed sharp brick-like rocks is AMAZING.
Consider the pictures from the old Viking Lander: you do not see
such a host of bricks in those pictures. NASA, in their own computer
animation prior to the landing, added no such rocks to their animation.
Why? Because they did not expect to find them, and to have added
them would have looked silly. You can see from the pictures yourself
that there are no cliffs or sharp mountains near to the lander.
Nor has there been water on Mars for some time. How then did so
many squared brick-like stones end up in so small an area? Begin
your search by starting with the two hills that appear in the
distance. Center your eyes on the left most hill. Look downward
and stop between the bottom of the hill and the top of the lander.
Now move your eyes left past the area of the hill and you will
see two rectangular stones with flat faces facing up and with
squared edges. About the same distance left again will bring you
to another squared stone somewhat further away in the distance.
Further to the left and nearer the lander is a dark stone with
one very squared side. Warning: you must understand that since
these pictures are built with many smaller frames not all the
straight lines that are visible are the result of the Mars surface.
Nevertheless, the squared stones mentioned here ARE very much
part of the Mars surface. Now return to the two hills again and
this time scan towards the right. Several more will be seen as
you do. Looking again at the whole seen you should also see that
many other squared stones lay around, but they are turned at angles
and covered with more sand. This is a seen one might see at the
very foot of a cliff or sharp mountain. It would not be the seen
on the bed of a wide dry gulch or river on Earth. On Mars, with
its terrific winds, no such sharp edges would last for long (see
the Viking Lander pictures).
I would not go so far as to say that no geologic action could
be responsible for the rocks in the Pathfinder pictures. About
the only such action I could imagine would be that the rocks were
carried to this location and buried before the water left Mars.
Then the wind ARMORED the ground level by slowly removing the
sand. Yet one would still not expect to find so many bricks laying
around in one spot! Moreover the squared stones that would be
found should have been rounded by the wind and appear like those
in the Viking Lander scenes. But I will say that it is unexpected
and even would be RARE to see this seen on Earth. A few scenes
like this may be found in deserts on Earth, but you must remember
that it still rains in the deserts of Earth. Again I remind you
of the NASA computer animations and what they expected the rocks
to look like. No doubt NASA will resist and try to find many excuses
to explain the Martian Bricks. On Earth a good cause for so many
bricks being found would the result of finding an archaeological
site. A semi-recent fallen wall or structure, or the ruins of
a city would produce much the same array of stones. Could we have
lucked out to this degree? Only if such cities were once plentiful
on Mars!
Mark Buitron (7-6-97)
PO BOX 1402
Lyons, CO 80540
rokemit@oneimage.com
Click here to
see Mars photo
Click here to see Mars photo closeup of
'BRICKS'
INDEX