Book Review: MAPS 40-4, 2005 April, pp. 655-656
The origin of chondrules and chondrites, by Derek Sears.
Cambridge University Press, 2004, 209 pp.
$110.00, hardcover (ISBN 0-521-83603-4).
To test impact and nebular models for the origin of chondrules and relate the
spectral properties
of asteroid surfaces to those of meteorites, Sears argues that we must bring
back asteroid samples
for study in laboratories. The only way to disentangle what happened in the
nebula from what happened
on asteroids is to visit actual outcrops on asteroids, do geological fieldwork,
and return samples. The
Japanese space agency's Hayabusa spacecraft will attempt these tasks in the
fall of 2005 when it visits
the S-type asteroid, Itokawa.
To condense chondrite research into a relatively small book that focuses on
chondrule origins and metal-
silicate fractionation, Sears was forced to omit detailed accounts of several
important topics about
chondrites. For example, if you want an up-to-date, detailed review of presolar
grains, Ca-Al-rich
inclusions, organic matter, or early solar system chronology, you should read
the chapters by Zinner,
MacPherson, Gilmour, and McKeegan and Davis in the Treatise on Geochemistry,
(2003). Researchers
who need detailed accounts of the minerals present in chondritic components and
their compositions
should go to the extraordinary 398 page compendium by Brearley and Jones
published by the Mineralogical
Society of America in 1998, which includes about 1000 references. But the only
book that will give you
a concise account of the properties and proposed origins of chondrules and
chondrites is this monograph.
You may not be convinced that Sears has identified the correct model for
chondrule formation, but you will
learn much about chondrules and chondrites.
E.R.D. Scott
Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawai'l, 96822, USA
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