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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret
Meredith shifted his attention to Carmen, cocked an eyebrow questioningly. "I
thought you should hear Dr. Harrier's theory as soon as possible," she said.
"It makes a lot of sense, and I was afraid it would be bounced by someone if
he sent it through channels."
Meredith nodded and leaned back in his chair. Listening to all this would at
the very least buy him some time to figure out what to do with Perez. "All
right, Doctor, let's hear it. For starters, how do the Kaf Mountains figure
in?"
"If you examine the rocks there, you find out two interesting things: the
mountains were formed recently, geologically speaking; and they were formed
after the metals were removed from the crust."
"Who said there ever were metals on Astra?" Perez interrupted. "You're arguing
your conclusion."
Hafner gave him an irritated look. "This isn't a freshman logic class. I'm
describing what turns out to be a self-consistent scenario."
"You're welcome to leave if you're not interested," Meredith offered. The
Hispanic sent him an angry glare; Meredith ignored it and looked back at the
geologist. "Why couldn't they have formed earlier?"
"Because most of the rocks in Terran mountains involve reasonably high
percentages of metals aluminum, iron, and sodium in particular and if you
suddenly pulled all those atoms out you'd completely destroy the structural
strength. I haven't had a chance yet to study the satellite photos, but I'd
bet we'll find evidence of collapsed mountains ranges now that we know to look
for them.
The Kafs, on the other hand, are composed almost entirely of
christobalite silicon dioxide and moissanite, a silicon-carbon mineral. In
other words, they're made of the strongest rocks available after the metal was
gone."
"I see." This was starting to make altogether too much sense, and Meredith
didn't like that at all. "You said it had happened several times & ?"
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Zahn, Timothy - Spinneret
Hafner nodded. "Some of the meteor craters have been formed more recently than
that, and they almost certainly brought metals in with them. The fact that
those metals were gone before the Rooshrike surveyed Astra means this happened
at least one more time."
"You keep saying the metal is 'gone,'" Perez said. "Gone where? The center of
the planet? And more importantly, how
? I don't know much chemistry, but I
do know yanking iron atoms out of a solid hammer ought to be impossible."
"Agreed," Hafner shrugged. "So should getting those atoms to slide through the
soil. don't know how it was done, either; but I
I
might know where to look for the answers."
Meredith straightened up in his seat, belatedly touching his terminal's audio
record button. "The Rooshrike base?"
"No, I'm pretty sure they aren't involved in any of this. The source of the
effect is on Astra & and I
think it's a localized source, as well." He hesitated. "I suppose I
should explain my reasoning on that one. Basically, I'm assuming this leeching
effect singles out metals because of their electrical conductivity, which
probably implies the mechanism is electromagnetic in origin. Anyway, it
occurred to me that ions dissolved in water also act somewhat like conductors,
and that whatever force draws the metal atoms might draw those ions, too."
Meredith had a sudden flash of insight. "The offshore mineral deposits.
Right?"
Hafner blinked in obvious surprise. "That's exactly right, Colonel. When the
ions reach shore and come out of solution, their conductivity disappears and
they don't go any farther into the ground."
Meredith tapped some computer keys, and seconds later had a map of the
offshore deposits. "So the reason only this continent is bordered by the
desposits is that the metal is being drawn and deposited here
!"
Perez snorted. "A great theory. With twenty-five million square kilometers to
search for this alleged El Dorado, it would be years before you could be
proved wrong. Except that we already know the metals aren't here."
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"Not necessarily," Meredith countered. "All we really know is that they have
to be deeper than the Rooshrike's half-kilometer range. And as for finding
them, that much metal should be a gigantic mascon. A properly positioned
geosat could pinpoint it in days " He broke off at Hafner's look of strained
patience. "Or do you have an easier way, Doctor?"
"I think so." Hafner leaned over the desk, touched the coastline on both sides
of
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