Electron petrography of shock-deformed olivine in stony meteorites

We have studied olivine by high-voltage electron microscopy in meteorites showing shock effects, namely the ordinary chondrites Olivenza and Hedjaz, the ureilite Goalpara and the carbonaceous chondrite Allende. The observations are compared with published data on experimentally deformed and annealed olivine.Olivenza and Hedjaz have suffered low-temperature shock, which has produced high densities of [001] screw dislocations and cracks. Arrays of cracks are found to correspond to planar features which can be seen optically and to be responsible for mosaicism. Goalpara has suffered very heavy shock, of which the final result is extensive recrystallization of the olivine, and the new grains have distinctive low-density distributions of dislocations. Allende has not been shocked as a whole, but individual parts have deformational and heating histories dating from before the aggregation of the meteorite.     

Nitrogen abundances and isotopic compositions in stony meteorites

Nitrogen contents range from a few parts per million in ordinary chondrites and achondrites to several hundred parts per million in enstatite chondrites and carbonaceous chondrites. Four major isotopic groups are recognized: (1) C1 and C2 carbonaceous chondrites have δ¹⁵N of+30to+50%.; (2) enstatite chondrites have δ¹⁵N of?30to?40‰; (3) C3 chondrites have low δ¹⁵N with large internal variations; (4) ordinary chondrites have δ¹⁵N of?10to+20‰. The major variations are primary, representing isotopic abundances established at the time of condensation and accretion. Secondary processes, such as spallation reactions, solar wind implantation and metamorphic loss may cause small but observable isotopic variations in particular cases. The large isotopic difference between enstatite chondrites and carbonaceous chondrites cannot be accounted for by equilibrium condensation from a homogeneous nebular gas, and requires either unusually large kinetic effects, or a temporal or spatial variation of isotopic composition of the nebula. Nitrogen isotopic heterogeneity in the nebula due to nuclear processes has not been firmly established, but may be required to account for the large variations found within the Allende and Leoville meteorites. The unique carbonaceous chondrite, Renazzo, has δ¹⁵N of+170%., which is well beyond the range of all other data, and also requires a special source. It is not yet possible, from the meteoritic data, to establish the mode of accretion of nitrogen onto the primitive Earth.     

Genetic relations between iron and stony meteorites

The main group pallasites and the mesosiderites fall within the oxygen isotope group previously determined for the calcium-rich achondrites (eucrites, howardites and diogenites), consistent with derivation from a common source material, and perhaps a common parent body. The group IIE iron meteorites were derived from the same source material as H-group ordinary chondrites. The chondrite-like silicate inclusions in group IAB iron meteorites are not related to the ordinary chondrites, but may be related to the enstatite chondrites. Several meteorites previously considered “anomalous” fall into these groups: Pontlyfni and Winona with the IAB irons, and Netschaëvo possibly with the H chondrites and IIE irons. The unusual pallasites Eagle Station and Itzawisis have remarkable oxygen isotopic compositions, and have more of the ¹⁶O-rich component than any other meteorite. Bencubbin and Weatherford are also unusual in their isotopic compositions, and may bear some relationship to the C2 carbonaceous chondrites. Lodran and Enon are isotopically similar to one another and are close to the achondrite-mesosiderite-pallasite group.     

Mass spectrometric isotope dilution analyses of tin in stony meteorites and standard rocks

The abundance of tin in 21 stony meteorites and 12 standard rocks has been determined by the stable isotope dilution technique. The measurements of the C1 chondrite Orgueil gives a cosmic abundance for tin of 3.7 (with respect to Si= 10⁶ atoms) and thus substantiates the peak in the cosmic abundance curve due to the closed proton shell forZ = 50. The low abundance of tin in ordinary chondrites allows tin to be reassigned to the strongly depleted group of elements in the context of the Larimer-Anders model. Our values for the standard rocks are in reasonable agreement with the presently accepted abundances of tin, except for the diabase W-1 and tonalite T-1 for which significantly lower values were obtained.     

Beryllium abundance of meteorites determined by “non-destructive” photon activation

The beryllium content of 73 stony and 4 iron meteorites has been determined “non-destructively” by a newly developed sensitive low-level counting device. A fairly widespread beryllium content of stones ranging from 13 to 386 ppb was found. As expected from the lithophilic character of Be the 4 siderites contained < 8 ppb only. The resulting average chondritic abundance of 74 ppb Be is more than one order of magnitude lower than the cosmic abundance value adopted earlier by H.E. Suess and H.C. Urey (1956), but still about a factor of 2 higher than the value chosen by A.G.W. Cameron (1968). 10–15-g samples were taken in order to guarantee a rather good “mean”. For comparison the Be content of the U.S. Geological Survey basalt BCR-1 was determined in the same way to be 1.390 ± 0.006 ppm Be.     

Investigations of cosmic-ray-produced nuclides in iron meteorites, 4. Identification of noble gas abundance anomalies

The literature on cosmic-ray-produced nuclides in iron meteorites occasionally reports unusual (“anomalous”) abundance proportions for the associated noble gases. The anomalies are in some cases ascribed to excesses of⁴He, caused by the presence of primordial or radiogenic components; in other cases to abundance deficiencies of³He, caused by partial loss of cosmogenic tritium. The arguments and data used previously for the recognition, identification and determination of anomalies are, however, imperfect or incorrect. New procedures are here proposed. They are based on more reliable data on the abundance patterns of the cosmogenic component and on a novel system of test correlations which describes these patterns. In most cases in which anomalies are recognised, the system allows an unequivocal identification of the nuclide which is the cause of the anomaly. This is a prerequisite for the quantitative determination of excesses and deficiencies. The procedures are applied to evaluate anomalous noble gas data reported in the literature for about 15 samples of various iron meteorites. In some cases, previous identifications of³He deficiencies and of⁴He excesses prove to be correct. However, guesses that⁴He excesses were present in certain specimens from Arispe, Cranbourne, El Taco, Hoba, Pin?on, Pitts and Sandia Mountains are invalidated by the present investigation.⁴He excesses are more exceptional than heretofore believed.     

The isotopic composition and elemental abundance of lutetium in meteorites and terrestrial samples and the 176Lu cosmochronometer

The isotopic composition of lutetium has been measured in a range of terrestrial and meteoritic materials using solid-source mass spectrometric techniques. The meteoritic and terrestrial isotopic abundances are identical within experimental errors. The absolute ¹⁷⁵Lu/¹⁷⁶Lu ratio as determined in this work is 37.36 ± 0.07 at the 95% confidence level. On the basis of this measurement the atomic weight of lutetium has been calculated to be 174.967 ± 0.002, which is in good agreement with the currently accepted figure of 174.97 ± 0.01.Using the stable isotope dilution technique the abundance of lutetium has been determined in 25 stone, 1 stony-iron and 8 iron meteorites, and in 12 standard rocks, with an accuracy of ±5% at the 95% confidence level. In general, there is good agreement between this work and other published data.The ¹⁷⁶Lu-¹⁷⁶Hf pair has been proposed as an s process nucleocosmochronometer, because of the long half-life of ¹⁷⁶Lu and the unique fact that both are s process isobars. The isotopic and elemental abundances of lutetium as measured in this work have been used with published nuclear data to estimate the mean age of s process nucleosynthesis for this isobaric pair, using the Schramm-Wasserburg formalism. The mean age cannot be accurately determined at the present time because of the lack of 30 keV neutron capture cross-section data for s only process nuclides and an accurate measurement of the branching ratio of ¹⁷⁵Lu + n. However, it is possible to place constraints on the nuclear parameters in this mass region using a reasonable s process chronology based on the decay of ¹⁷⁶Lu.     

The petrophysical classification of meteorites

Summary Petrophysical properties (susceptibility, intensity of the Natural Remanent Magnetisation (NRM) and bulk density) of 489 meteorite samples from 368 meteorites are discussed. The samples, obtained from Finnish meteorite collections, represent all chemical-petrological meteorite classes and their groups. This meteorite petrophysical database has many potential applications in the geophysical studies of extraterrestrial bodies (planets and their moons, asteroids, meteorite parent bodies, etc.). Here we use the database to classify meteorites rapidly and non-destructively by applying the petrophysical classification scheme developed by Kukkonen and Pesonen [10]. For example, the main classes and many groups form distinct clusters in petrophysical relation diagrams such as susceptibility vs. density or NRM vs. susceptibility. The petrophysical classification method was tested on 24 meteorites from Czechoslovak, 3 from Swedish and one from Australian collections. The chemical-mineralogical classifications of these meteorites were previously known. The subjective classification method was also compared with a mathematical cluster analysis. The subjective classification technique was successful in 64% to 93% of the cases whereas the mathematical analysis was successful in 57% to 82% of the cases. The failures can be attributed to (i) non-uniqueness problems (cluster plots overlap) and (ii) effects of porosity, self-demagnetisation, electrical conductivity and frequency on measured values, or to biasing caused by small sample size.     

The low-temperature electrical properties of carbonaceous meteorites

Electrical conductivities and dielectric constants have been measured over the temperature range 90–300°K on several carbonaceous chondrites and some terrestrial analogues. The conductivities of meteorites of different petrologic subtypes range over many orders of magnitude and the low-temperature activation energies are typically much smaller than those observed in terrestrial materials at higher temperatures. The electrical properties of carbonaceous chondrites vary systematically with chemical-mineralogical characteristics in that: (1) activation energy at low temperature is greater in the more volatile-rich meteorites containing hydrated silicates, and (2) conductivity is greater in the more reduced meteorites of higher petrologic subtype. These new data on the electrical properties of chondrites hold important implications for both the thermal and magnetic histories of small bodies in the early solar system.     

Antimony in iron meteorites

Antimony concentrations determined by radiochemical neutron activation analysis in 60 iron meteorites range from 0.2 ng/g to 36 μg/g. The meteorites with the highest Sb concentrations are those of the non-magmatic groups IAB and IIICD, while the lowest Sb concentrations are found in groups IVA and IVB, the groups with the lowest concentrations of the other most volatile siderophiles Ge and Ga. In all groups Sb is positively correlated with Ni. In each of the magmatic groups slopes on log Sb vs. log Ni plots decrease with increasing Ni. This decrease may reflect an increasing tendency to avoid schreibersite during the analysis of high-Ni meteorites because Sb partitions strongly into schreibersite.Schreibersite from New Westville is enriched in Cr, Ni, Ge, As, Sb and Au and depleted in Fe, Co and Ir; the content of Sb in schreibersite is 540 × higher than the bulk metal value.The Sb abundances of the iron meteorite groups are as expected from volatility trends with the exception of IAB and IIAB in which abundances appear depleted. The most likely explanation for this and the decreasing slope in the magmatic groups is that one or more Sb-rich phases were not sampled during metal analyses.     

Tungsten in iron meteorites

Tungsten concentrations have been determined by instrumental neutron activation in 104 iron meteorites, and range from 0.07 to 5 μg/g. In individual groups, concentrations vary by factors of between 1.5 and 8, but there are negative W-Ni correlations in 8 groups: IAB, IC, IIAB, IID, IIE, IIIAB, IIICD, and IIIF. The lowest W concentrations are found in groups IAB and IIICD, which also have the smallest slopes on a W-Ni plot. Eighteen anomalous irons have W concentrations between 5 μg/g (Butler) and 0.11 μg/g (Rafrüti). The distribution of W in irons shows similarities to that of other refractory siderophilic elements (except Mo), but is closest to the distribution of Ru and Pt.Assuming that chemical trends in group IIIAB were produced by fractional crystallization, a value of 1.6 can be deduced for the distribution coefficient of W between solid and liquid metal, cf. 0.89 for Mo. Experimental evidence in support of these values is tenuous.     

Solute transport scales in an unsaturated stony soil

Solute transport parameters are known to be scale-dependent due mainly to the increasing scale of heterogeneities with transport distance and with the lateral extent of the transport field examined. Based on a transect solute transport experiment, in this paper we studied this scale dependence by distinguishing three different scales with different homogeneity degrees of the porous medium: the observation scale, transport scale and transect scale. The main objective was to extend the approach proposed by van Wesenbeeck and Kachanoski to evaluating the role of textural heterogeneities on the transition from the observation scale to the transport scale. The approach is based on the scale dependence of transport moments estimated from solute concentrations distributions. In our study, these moments were calculated starting from time normalized resident concentrations measured by time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes at three depths in 37 soil sites 1 m apart along a transect during a steady state transport experiment. The Generalized Transfer Function (GTF) was used to describe the evolution of apparent solute spreading along the soil profile at each observation site by analyzing the propagation of the moments of the concentration distributions. Spectral analysis was used to quantify the relationship between the solid phase heterogeneities (namely, texture and stones) and the scale dependence of the solute transport parameters. Coupling the two approaches allowed us to identify two different transport scales (around 4-5 m and 20 m, respectively) mainly induced by the spatial pattern of soil textural properties. The analysis showed that the larger transport scale is mainly determined by the skeleton pattern of variability. Our analysis showed that the organization in hierarchical levels of soil variability may have major effects on the differences between solute transport behavior at transport scale and transect scale, as the transect scale parameters will include information from different scales of heterogeneities.     

Nickel isotopic studies in meteorites

We have analyzed the nickel isotopic composition of meteoritic materials by high-precision mass spectrometry. The samples analyzed include almost all meteorite types for which large isotopic anomalies have been reported for oxygen, silver, magnesium and titanium. These samples are C₁, C₃, L, LL, H and E chondrites, IVB irons, Eagle Station pallasite and inclusion, matrix and “whole rock” samples of the Allende meteorite. The result is that we have not found any anomaly for nickel isotopic compositions within our accuracy of 0.7‰ for⁶¹Ni/⁶⁰Ni, 0.4-0.08‰ for⁶²Ni/⁶⁰Ni and 1–1.5‰ for⁶⁴Ni/⁶⁰Ni.     

Zirconium and hafnium in meteorites

The abundances of zirconium and hafnium have been determined in nine stony meteorites by a new, precise neutron-activation technique. The Zr/Hf abundance ratios for the chondrites vary in a rather narrow range, consistent with previously published observations from our group. Replicate analyses of new, carefully selected clean interior samples of the C1 chondrite Orgueil yield mean zirconium and hafnium abundances of 5.2 and 0.10 ppm, respectively. These abundances are lower than we reported earlier for two C1 chondrite samples which we now suspect may have suffered contamination. The new C1 zirconium and hafnium abundances are in closer agreement with predictions based on theories of nucleosynthesis than the earlier data.     

The pre-terrestrial history of group IV A iron meteorites

A number of group IVA iron meteorites show metallographic features suggesting that a shock annealing event intervened during the formation of the Widmanstatten structure. This could complicate the estimation of cooling rates based on diffusion profile methods but would have less influence on methods based upon macroscopic measurements of kamacite band widths.     

Organic matter in ancient meteorites

Fragments of ancient meteorites are cosmic time capsules, holding records of the first chemical steps towards life. Mark A Sephton explains what they have revealed so far and discusses what secrets they may yet still hold.     

Total nitrogen in iron meteorites

Total nitrogen contents have been measured by RNA of 30 iron and 4 stony-iron meteorites. Wide variations in N concentrations are noted (0.5 ppm to about 200 ppm). As a group, the IA irons have the highest nitrogen. This element is positively correlated with C, Ga, and Ge. Samples of meteorites that have been exposed to shock do not show any abnormal N distribution.     

Lithification of gas-rich meteorites

High-voltage electron microscopy has been used to study the fine structure of four gas-rich meteorites, with particular reference to the cementation and compaction processes that have affected the fine-grained matrix. The observed features are compared with similar effects in lunar breccias. Lithification is attributed to the passage of shock waves through porous aggregates, causing deformation whose intensity varied spatially on a small scale, the most intense deformation and heating effects being concentrated at the edges of large grains and in the matrix between them. It is inferred that relatively mild shocks have produced amorphous cement between matrix grains in the achondrite Khor Temiki and the chondrite Weston. Relatively intense shock is inferred for specimens of the chondrites St. Mesmin and Pantar. These have non-porous, completely crystalline matrices, and fine-grained black veins which fill cracks in relatively large deformed grains. Recrystallization of some deformed material is attributed to shock-heating, which was not sustained long enough to erase the irradiation record from all the relatively large grains. Matrix recrystallization without extensive melting constitutes a metamorphic event, and the observations indicate that shock was responsible for the metamorphism experienced by these chondrites at relatively late stages of the evolution of their parent bodies.