I have noticed something about deposits of iron ore across the world that I cannot find documented anywhere. Iron is quite plentiful in the Solar System and these deposits of iron ore came from asteroids that crashed into the earth long ago. On resource maps of the world, deposits of iron ore most often consist of two or more somewhat parallel elongated veins in close proximity to one another.
I have concluded that the reason for this is the fact that the earth is the source of both gravity and magnetism. But the earth's gravity is continuous in scope while it's magnetism is concentrated at the two magnetic poles. When an asteroid containing a significant amount of iron falls under the earth's gravitational influence and begins orbiting the earth, this creates a form of tidal tension on the asteroid as the forces of gravity and magnetism on it vary in direction and strength with regard to one another. This often causes the asteroid to break apart before it crashes into the earth, resulting in the fragmented deposits of iron as we find them today.
Around the provincial boundary between Quebec and Labrador, the deposit of iron ore forms several elongated streaks on a map running from northwest to southeast. Very clearly, this is from an iron asteroid moving in the direction of the alignment that broke apart before reaching the surface of the earth. In the area of Kingston-Ottawa-Montreal are several small deposits of iron that, while not as elongated in form, seem certain to have originated from a single asteroid that broke apart.
In the U.S. are several areas with iron ore deposits. All consist of several scattered pockets of ore in close proximity to one another. These are in the Mojave Desert area of southeastern California, in New Mexico northwest of El Paso and, in northern Minnesota and Michigan. I am certain that each of these three areas of deposit is the result of an iron asteroid that broke apart.
Sweden is famous as a source of iron ore. It's iron came from two separate asteroids. In south central Sweden west of Stockholm is one large area of deposit with smaller areas around it. There is also an area of scattered small areas of iron deposit in northern Sweden.
Britain had enough iron to supply the launch of the Industrial Revolution. It's iron is from one large asteroid from which numerous smaller pieces broke off before it hit the earth. The major deposit is in the east central part of the country around Peterborough with a line of smaller deposits going to the north and another line from the large deposit to the southwest. The last one in the southwest line landed in what would become my native Forest of Dean.
In western France between Caen and Nantes, there are several elongated streaks of iron ore all aligned virtually parallel to each other from east north east to west south west. In southern Spain east of Granada, there are several streaks of iron ore all aligned west south west to east north east. The scattered small deposits of iron in Germany do not seem to be elongated or aligned but I consider it probable that they all originated from the same asteroid, possibly including the large contiguous deposit across the border of France and Luxembourg. In south central Poland south of Lodz are two long streaks of iron ore with smaller deposits all around. These are most certainly from the same iron asteroid.
There are also scattered small deposits of iron ore across Iran with no apparent alignment but I believe that these came from the same asteroid. The iron ore deposits in India are very interesting. There is a small area of deposit in the south of the country near the coast south of Madras. Much further north, there are two parallel elongated deposits west of Calcutta. These form a straight line with the deposit south of Madras. This makes it seem certain that part of the asteroid broke off and struck the earth before the rest of the asteroid broke in two and then also struck the earth.
China appears to have absorbed three iron asteroids that broke apart first. There is a group of scattered deposits in the southwestern part of the country, these came from one asteroid. There are two small elongated areas of iron deposit that form a straight line in the southeastern part of China, these came from the second asteroid. Finally, there is a scattering of iron deposits close together in China near the border with North Korea. In Korea itself, there is a scattering of deposits across North and South Korea that could possibly have come from the same asteroid as the one across the Chinese border.
There are exceptions to this fragmentation. Not all iron asteroids that struck the earth appear to have fragmented beforehand. There is a large unbroken area of iron ore southwest of Belem in Brazil. There is the other such area along the border of France and Luxembourg that may or may not have come from the same asteroid as the small deposits across Germany. There is another large unbroken area of iron that is clearly elongated, showing the direction of the asteroid before impact, in northwestern Australia, northwest of the city of Newman. Finally, in addition to the three iron asteroids that struck China after fragmenting, there is another that did not fragment and it resulted in the large area of iron ore extending southwestward from Nanjing.
But the general rule is that asteroids containing a significant amount of iron are likely to fragment before reaching the earth due to the tidal tension created by the fact that the earth is a source of both gravitational force and magnetism. The gravity is nearly continuous as the asteroid orbits the earth but the magnetism is not because it is concentrated from the two magnetic poles of the earth. This leads to the tension that causes the asteroid to break apart.
A detailed resource map of the world reveals clearly that other deposits from asteroids that are not magnetic, such as aluminum, copper or, mercury do not tend toward fragmentation before impact. I find that such a resource map gives us a look at the early Solar System with asteroids coming at the earth from all direction in space.
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