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Page 20
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6. Control Study (Pau): Spark Mass Spectrometry
The Laboratoire d'Analyses Physiques (LDP) based in Pau specializes in physico-chemical trace analysis applied to mineral and organic materials. The CNES staff has been familiar with this establishment since the days when it performed lunar soil element analysis on behalf of CNES, working from rock samples provided by NASA. LDP uses a spark mass spectrometer and applied this instrument to fragments of the same soil samples that had been provided to the laboratories mentioned above.
The analysis showed that the sample contained common soil with a limestone-clay base. Little difference was found between the reference sample and the sample which contains a visible foreign deposit. The only detectable elements in this deposit are zinc and phosphate. The laboratory offers the hypothesis that this may be due to the rubbing of black paint based on "Carbon Black."
7. Synthesis of the Analysis Results
The various analyses reported above show that the area of ground where the phenomenon is reported to have been observed by Mr. Nicolai has indeed undergone certain alterations of a mechanical and thermal nature, as follows:
- Mechanical effects are exhibited in Figures 14 and 15 where one can see dark and light areas corresponding to curved striations with precise groove-like contours. A piece of silex has been cut and it even appears to have been superficially ground or polished. The dirt gathered at this particular spot is hardened, compacted and it exhibits a crust which contrasts with the reference sample, which is loosely structured.
- Thermal effects produced by friction were noted by the SNEAP laboratory because the sandstone is found to be more compact under the black iron (or iron oxyde) trace than at other locations. In addition, grains of` CO3Ca are not "swarming." Hence they cannot have been heated up to more than 600 degrees C, a process which would have dissociated, then recombined this compound. Furthermore the Rangueil laboratory failed to reproduce the observed microcrystallisation by heating the sample to 1,000 degrees for two hours.
In summary, we find that a strong mechanical pressure, probably due to a shock, was exerted at the surface of the "round." Superficial modification of the structure (striations and erosion) took place. A heating effect which may have been caused by this shock, but which did not exceed 600 degrees, was subsequently observed. Foreign elements consisting in a small quantity of iron (or iron oxyde) over a limestone grain, and a small but detectable amount of phosphate and zinc were deposited at the site.
