Magnetostratigraphic dating of Early Miocene deep-sea fossils from the Morozaki Group in central Japan

Early Miocene sediments of the Morozaki Group in central Japan contain deep-sea fossils that have been dated using biostratigraphic and radiometric data. In this study, we utilize magnetostratigraphy to provide a more precise age for mudstones from just below the layer containing the fossils. Rock magnetic experiments suggest that both magnetic iron sulfide and Ti-poor titanomagnetite carry the remanent magnetization of the mudstones. Two different stratigraphic sites have normal polarity directions with a northeastern declination, which can be correlated with Chronozone C5Dn. Given their magnetostratigraphic position near the C5Dn/C5Dr chronozone boundary (17.466 Ma) and a high sedimentation rate, the estimated age for both the sites and the deep-sea fossils is ~17.4 Ma. The northeasterly-directed site-mean directions suggest clockwise tectonic rotation, most likely due to the Early Miocene clockwise rotation of Southwest Japan associated with the back-arc opening of the Japan Sea. The deep-sea fossils, dated at ~17.4 Ma, represent organisms deposited within a submarine structural depression formed by crustal extension during the back-arc opening stage.     

Interior textures,chemical compositions,and noble gas signatures of Antarctic cosmic spherules: Possible sources of spherules with long exposure ages

Abstract– The interior texture and chemical and noble gas composition of 99 cosmic spherules collected from the meteorite ice field around the Yamato Mountains in Antarctica were investigated. Their textures were used to classify the spherules into six different types reflecting the degree of heating: 13 were cryptocrystalline, 40 were barred olivine, 3 were porphyritic A, 24 were porphyritic B, 9 were porphyritic C, and 10 were partially melted spherules. While a correlation exists between the type of spherule and its noble gas content, there is no significant correlation between its chemical composition and noble gas content. Fifteen of the spherules still had detectable amounts of extraterrestrial He, and the majority of them had ³He/⁴He ratios that were close to that of solar wind (SW). The Ne isotopic composition of 28 of the spherules clustered between implantation‐fractionated SW and air. Extraterrestrial Ar, confirmed to be present because it had a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar ratio lower than that of terrestrial atmosphere, was found in 35 of the spherules. An enigmatic spherule, labeled M240410, had an extremely high concentration of cosmogenic nuclides. Assuming 4π exposure to galactic and solar cosmic rays as a micrometeoroid and no exposure on the parent body, the cosmic‐ray exposure (CRE) age of 393 Myr could be computed using cosmogenic ²¹Ne. Under these model assumptions, the inferred age suggests that the particle might have been an Edgeworth‐Kuiper Belt object. Alternatively, if exposure near the surface of its parent body was dominant, the CRE age of 382 Myr can be estimated from the cosmogenic ³⁸Ar using the production rate of the 2π exposure geometry, and implies that the particle may have originated in the mature regolith of an asteroid.