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by ck2 660 days ago
What I want to see is the Theia collision rendered in realistic 3D

(and if there was enough gas around for sound to carry, that too!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)

I guess this is close but not like the Hollywood blockbuster it should be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlhlCWplqk

https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/collision-may-have-formed-...

1 comments

Watching the Nasa sim, and others I've seen multiple times before, thought occurs that by re-liquifying much of the Earth after its initial formation, heavier elements which had otherwise been trapped in the crust / upper mantle might have re-mobilised and sunk deeper into the core.

I'm not sure of relative abundance of elements in the crusts of other rocky worlds, though at least generally Mars seems to have a greater prevalence of iron, and fewer of the lighter metals, in its own crust.

See: <https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/20711>

Citing:

Arya Udry, Esteban Gazel, and Harry Y. McSween Jr., "Formation of Evolved Rocks at Gale Crater by Crystal Fractionation and Implications for Mars Crustal Composition", Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets 123 (2018), Issue 6, pp. 1525-1540. <https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JE005602>

Harry Y. McSween Jr.1,G. Jeffrey Taylor, and Michael B. Wyatt, "Elemental Composition of the Martian Crust", Science 324 (2009), Issue 5928, pp. 736-739. <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/324/5928/736>

(The fact that we now have geological studies of multiple specific regions of Mars delights me.)