We report here an unusually high concentration of iridium in some alkali basalts and alkaline rocks of Deccan region having
an age of about 65Ma, similar to the age of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The alkali basalts of Anjar, in the western
periphery of Deccan province, have iridium concentration as high as 178pg/g whereas the alkaline rocks and basalts associated
with the Amba Dongar carbonatite complex have concentrations ranging between 8 and 80 pg/g. Some of these values are more
than an order of magnitude higher than the concentration in the tholeiitic basalts of Deccan, indicating the significance
of alkaline magmatism in the iridium inventory at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Despite higher concentration, their contribution
to the global inventory of iridium in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary clays remains small. The concentration of iridium in
fluorites from Amba Dongar was found to be <30 pg/g indicating that iridium is not incorporated during their formation in
hydrothermal activity. 相似文献
Changchengite occurs in chromite orebodies in dunite and in platinum placer deposits in chromite orebodies nearby. The mineral occurs as massive aggregates or veinlets on margins of iridisite (IrS2) and replaces it. Opaque. Lustre metallic. Colour steel-black. Streak black. Hm = 3.7. VHN20= 165 kg/ mm2. Isotropic. Cleavage none. Density 11.96 g/ cm3. Seven electron microprobe analyses give the following mean chemical results (wt. %): S 7.2, Cu 0.3, Te 0.4, Ir 41.2, Pt 2.8 and Bi 47.3 with total 99.1. The simplified formula is IrBiS. The strongest X-ray powder diffraction lines (hkl, d, I) are 210, 2.75 (70); 211, 2.51 (60); 311, 1.860 (100); 440. 1.090 (50) and 600, 1.027 (50). The X-ray powder diffraction pattern is similar to that of mayingite. After the diffraction data are indexed the mineral is determined to be cubic. The space group is P213 with a = 0.6164(4) nm, V = 0.2342 nm3 and Z = 4. 相似文献
Meteoric smoke particles (MSPs) form through the vaporization of meteoroids and the subsequent re-condensation of metallic species in the mesosphere. Recently, iridium and platinum enrichments have been identified in Greenland ice layers and attributed to the fallout of MSPs supplying polar latitudes with cosmic matter during the Holocene. However, the MSP fallout to Antarctica during the Earth's climatic history remains essentially unknown.
We have determined iridium and platinum in deep Antarctic ice from Dome C and Vostok dated back to 240 kyrs BP. We find high super-chondritic fluxes during warm periods and low meteoric accretion during glacial times, a pattern that is opposite to any known climatic variation in dust fallout to polar regions. The proposed explanation of this accretion regime is a weaker polar vortex during warm periods, allowing peripheral air masses enriched in volcanic iridium and platinum to penetrate inland to Antarctica. The MSP signal emerges only during cold phases and is four times lower than in the Greenland ice cap where more snow accumulates. This suggests that wet deposition is an important route of cosmic material to the Earth's surface. 相似文献
A stratigraphically consistent <20-cm-thick unit of microkrystite spherule and microtektite-bearing impact fallout ejecta overlying volcanic tuff of the 4th Shale Macroband (DGS4) of the Dales Gorge Member (2.47–2.50 Ga), Brockman Iron Formation, Hamersley Group, Western Australia, displays anomalous platinum group element (PGE) and other trace metal patterns. The unit has high Ir (13 ppb) and Pt (35 ppb), and low Pd (2.7 ppb) and Au (1.55–1.88 ppb). The low Pd/Ir ratios and low Cr/V suggest depletion in volatile PGE and metals relative to refractory PGE and V, contrasted to the ubiquitous high Pd/Ir of most terrestrial rocks. Marked depletion in the volatile Rare Earth Element (REE) abundances in stilpnomelane spherule cores is consistent with this model. The loss of volatile PGE, analogous to relations in 3.24 Ga impact fallout units of the Barberton greenstone belt (S3 and S4), suggests fractionation related to atmospheric spherule condensation. The microkrystite spherule unit locally incorporate fragments and up to meter-scale boulders of banded chert and stromatolite carbonate, suggesting tsunami transport postdating spherule deposition. DGS4 microkrystite spherules are dominated by stilpnomelane mantled by K-feldspar shells, which consist of inward-radiating fibrous feldspar aggregates suggestive of devitrification. The K and REE enrichment of spherule margins are contrasted to flat REE patterns of the stilpnomelane cores, suggesting adsorption of lithophile elements during settling of the spherules through the hydrosphere. K-feldspar shells contain submicron-scale Ni metal, oxide, sulfide and arsenide grains and euhedral needles of feldspar-exsolved ilmenite. Associated magnetite may have high nickel (<1.25% NiO). The generally mafic composition of the spherules and high Ni/Cr and Ni/Co are consistent with a target mafic-ultramafic crust, consistent with the lack of shock-metamorphosed quartz. Mixing calculations suggest a contribution of 2.5–3% projectile component to the impact-generated volatile cloud. Conservative mass balance estimates derived from the Ir and Pt flux, assuming global extent of a 10-cm-thick spherule unit and chondritic projectile composition, suggest an asteroid diameter on the scale of 30 km. Similar estimates are obtained from spherule sizes, which in DGS4 reach a mean diameter of 2.0 mm in aerodynamically elongate spherules. The evidence implies formation of an impact basin on the scale of 400 km in simatic/oceanic regions of the early Proterozoic crust. 相似文献