From:    Ron Dippold
Subject: Re: Moon Dust Argument

ajs9462@sigma.tamu.edu (SIMON, ANTHONY JOE) writes:
>Hopefully, someone will be able to fill in all the details
>and/or correct me where I'm wrong.

From the (a) FAQ

}  - Lunar dust--only 1 to 3 inches, not 54 feet.

The calculation you refer to is given by Henry Morris on pp.
151-153 of _Scientific Creationism_. It is based on a grossly
erroneous figure of 14 million tons of meteoritic dust per
year, quoted by Petterson in 1960.

Morris misinterpreted Petterson's article. Petterson published a
figure of 15 (not 14) million tons per year as an _upper limit_.
In other words, Petterson said that the value is _not more than_
15 million tons per year. He was not able to measure an actual value.

Morris erroneously chose to interpret it to mean it was _equal_
to 14 million tons per year. Accurate values were measured in
the late 1960's. The actual value is -much- lower than 15 million
tons per year.

Dalrymple gives the value of 22,000 tons per year, nearly 700
times smaller than your figure. That changes your 54 foot figure
into about 2 cm, which is quite consistent with the amount of
surface soil the astronauts found on the Moon (it was considerably
more than 1-2 mm).

My copy of "Everyman's Astronomy" indicates that the earth
collects about 9000 kg per day from meteors of visual magnitude
5.0 or brighter.  Assuming a typical rock density of 3 g/cc, this
corresponds to an accumulation rate of one inch per 10 billion
years.

Unfortunately no data is presented for fainter meteors.  I wouldn't
be surprised to find accumulation rate of one inch per 10 billion
years.  Unfortunately no data is presented for fainter meteors.  I
wouldn't be surprised to find that the actual rate is one or two
orders of magnitude higher, but "1 inch in 8000 years" is off by
six orders of magnitude.

A dust accumulation rate of "one inch per 8000 years" should
create a spectacular yearround meteor shower, and cause severe
pitting of the space shuttle windshields in just a single orbit.
My quick estimates give values far higher than have been actually
observed.

