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Allabogdanite

3 July 2021
Geology

Allabogdanite is associated with meteors – see https://phys.org/news/2021-06-mineral-previously-meteorites-dead-sea.html … allabogdanite has been found in the Dead Sea region. This is an interesting observation as I immediately made a connection with the proposed Sodom meteor towards the end of the MB era. Previously, it was found in the Negev – in surface rocks. These are probably rocks that go back much farther than the Sodom meteor or even Mount Horeb of the Mose story, yet it is an interesting coincidence. Terrestrial allabogdanite can be found at pressures exceeding 25 gigapascals – which corresponds to ca.250 kbar. Such high pressures can be attained during catastrophic collisions – or they might have formed deep in the earth's Mantle. So, was allabogdanite in the southern Levant the result of Mantle rocks that were thrust upwards – or the result of atmospheric meteor explosions. One might think in terms of the recent research of a meteor explosion over the Dead Sea [see earlier posts on the subject] if one should seek to join the dots in an attempt to pin down the dates. No doubt the allabogdanite is of a more venerable age but it is an interesting similarity in locale. What is required is a reappraisal of the outcrops of the so-called Mottled Zone [brown spots] in the southern Levant. This includes the Hatrurim formation in Israel and the Daba-Siwaqa complex in Jordan. The research is published in American Mineralogist https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2021-7621

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