Question about an alternate abiotic origin of Martian "blueberries"

From: Andrew Diseker (adiseker_at_lexonia.net)
Date: 12/03/04 

Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 10:15:37 -0500

Sorry about the title, I didn't want to be ignored as a crackpot
before someone read my post. Afterwards, you can call me insane! :-)

At any rate, I've been checking the Opportunity site daily looking
at the raws, and something struck me about the "blueberries" in so
many images. I know the accepted wisdom is that they were all formed
by flowing water leaching out hematite and forming the spheres, but
what struck me is that they looked a lot like hailstones after a
storm, scattered all over, especially sitting on top of the rocks.

What I was wondering, has anyone thought that there might be an
atmospheric origin of the blueberries? Could they have been formed
in a thicker, more humid Martian atmosphere via accretion, until
they were too large to remain suspended?

Feel free to obliterate this scenario: Dust in the current Martian
atmosphere can remain suspended for a year or more, at the present
density. There are also clouds of ice crystals present in the
atmosphere, forming under various conditions. What if the atmosphere
temporarily thickens and becomes more humid, maybe due to volcanic
activity, increased solar activity, or impact of a comet? It would
seem that a denser atmosphere could hold dust for a much longer time,
and with more water vapor there would be more ice clouds. Could the
dust clouds of a global storm interact with ice clouds, such that
dust particles coat ice crystals, melting the ice, and attracting
more dust and ice crystals? Since the dust and ice particles are
very small, it would seem that any "mud" that resulted would form
into a very tiny sphere, and would form the basis for further
accretion in a way that retained the spherical shape. Once the spheres
had reached enough mass they could no longer be suspended and would
fall out of the air. If this occurred on a cyclical basis, there
could be layers of these "blueberries" such as we see in the various
rock formations in Endurance. The original spheres could even dry
out from evaporation, as long as they retained the shape for later
particles to accrete to.

Anyway, that's what occurred to me. Please, be polite if not kind
when slamming my idea! Also, if there is a more appropriate group,
please redirect the followups there.

Thank you for your time!

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