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'


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