Nine years of continuous collection of black, magnetic spherules from the atmosphere

Abstract

Data on the deposition of black, magnetic spherules from the atmosphere, at two stations in central New Mexico, have accumulated for the 9‐year period 1956–1964. These spherules, which appear to be similar to those which I have recovered from various sedimentary rocks and to those recovered by others from ice in Antarctica and Greenland and from Paleozoic salts, are believed to be of extraterrestrial origin. The 9‐year average of the annual rate of mass accretion to the earth, for spherules in the diameter range of 5 to 60 μ, was approximately 1.04×1011 grams. The period included 2 years in which the annual infall was nearly 2.5×1011 grams, however, and therefore the long‐term average remains somewhat uncertain. The size distributions show fluctuations but, in general, are similar to those previously reported. The rate of deposition decreased from 1956 to 1962, and high peaks occasionally occurred. Interesting seasonal and biennial patterns appear in the rate of deposition, and there seems to be a degree of correlation between the spherule rates and radar meteor rates, the spherule rates leading the radar rates by about 6 weeks. In 1963, high rates of spherule deposition coincided with unusually high radar meteor rates.

Triboelectrification: A review of experimental and mechanistic modeling approaches with a special focus on pharmaceutical powders

“…Presence of multiple size fractions can trigger inter-particle charge transfer in identical materials, and the magnitude of charge has been reported to increase with the concomitant increase in particle size ranges 86,87 . Bipolar charging in identical materials has been perceived in multiple fields including pharmaceutical unit operations such as fluidized bed drying 88 and pneumatic conveying 89 , dust storms [90][91][92][93] , volcanic plumes 94 and aerosols such as found in DPIs 95 . Although most reports suggested this phenomenon resulting in the larger particle fractions to acquire positive charges and smaller particles charging negatively, a contradictory pattern have also been observed at times 88 .…”

Accumulation of impact markers in desert wetlands and implications for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

“…Those that survive do so as either intact meteorites or are ablated along the way and eventually settle to the ground as micrometeorites or dust, which can include spherules. Magnetic spherules have been documented in a wide range of depositional settings, including Arctic and Antarctic ice (34,35), deep-sea sediments (36), lake sediments (37), alluvial sediment (38), and peat bogs (39,40), and have even been collected directly from the atmosphere (41). Thus, some of the magnetic spherules present in our samples may have a cosmic origin.…”

Cosmic dust in the stratosphere

“…This result is in sharp contrast to those of some other recent and older studies [Crozier, 1966;Hemenway and Soberman, 1962;Parkin and Hunter, 1962]. In these studies, spherules and large metallic flakes were collected in the atmosphere, and their concentration was ob- The work was generally supported by NASA grants NsG-734 and NsG-321.…”