28块南极陨石的类型研究

本文研究的28块陨石,均为我国第16次南极科学考察队,在南极格罗夫山地区回收。由于样品量有限,每个样品仅有一个光簿片。利用透反两用的偏光显微镜,进行陨石结构,矿物组成等一些现象观察。它们都是石质陨石,有球粒陨石和无球粒陨石。根据球粒发育程度,分为五种类型。用电子探针分析陨石中矿物的化学成份。有两块为无球粒陨石,GRV 99018为钙长辉长无球粒陨石,GRV 99027为橄辉无球粒陨石。利用Dodd(1981)和Wasson(1985)球粒陨石化学群分类原则,将26块普通球粒陨石进行化学群的分类,两者划分的结果基本吻合。前者H群有6块,L群有9块,LL群有8块,另3块陨石近于L群(GRV 99019,GRV 99021,GRV99026)。后者H群有5块,GRV 99010近于L群,它可为H/L,L群有9块,L/LL群有2个,LL群有6块,而GRV 99019,GRV 99021和GRV 99026三块陨石与三个群的数据相差较大,它们属于非平衡球粒陨石,可能是L。26块普通球粒陨石,有5个为非平衡普通球粒陨石,其它21个为平衡球粒陨石。21个平衡普通球粒陨石的岩石类型,主要为4—6。     

Classification of Grove Mountains meteorites and its significance

Meteorites are the extraterrestrial rocks, which provide insights into the origin and evolution of the solar system. During the past half century, a great number of meteorites has been discovered on the Antarctic Ice Sheet, confirming that the Antarctica is the most important meteorite concentration area on the earth. Since the first four Antarctic meteorites were found in Grove Mountains in 1998, a total of 9834 meteorites have been collected by four subsequent expeditions. It opens a new field of meteorite study in China, and also accumulates a great deal of scientific samples for China. Recently, classification of Grove Mountains meteorites has been carried out for 6 years, and made following progresses: (1) 2433 meteorites, which include many special meteorites, e.g. Martian meteorites, ureilites and carbonaceous chondrites, have been classified. (2) the Antarctic meteorite curation and the sample sharing system are set up preliminarily. (3) the classification procedure, the management of meteorite samples, and the application procedure for the Antarctic meteorites are completed after the systematic classification during these years. (4) young generation researchers on meteorite are trained through the cooperation of many universities and institutes on meteorite classification.     

Petrology of ureilites from Grove Mountains, Antarctica：Constraints on the origins

Ureilites are a common group of achondrites with a high abundance of carbon. They probably have a genetic relationship with chondrites, hence provide an insight into origin and evolution of terrestrial planets. A new meteorite-rich region, Grove Mountains (GRV), was found by the Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition, with discovery of 9834 meteorites. Of 2433 meteorites classified, 9 ureilites have been identified. In this paper, we report petrography of 6 of these ureilites. Four ureilites contain graphite and exhibit triangle conjunction and common reduced margins of olivine. GRV 052382 probably experienced heavy shock metamorphism followed by fast cooling, as indicated by mosaic texture or fine-grained granular texture of olivine. GRV 022931 was highly reduced of these ureilites, with olivine as isolated grains in abundant carbonaceous matrix. All 9 ureilites are monomict, and are classified into subtype II (with medium FeO content, Fa15-18) and subtype I (with high FeO content, Fa>18) based on compositions of the cores of olivine. The diverse mineral compositions and petrography of these ureilites suggest that they are not paired and reveal a multi-event history of the parent body. Partial melting of the parent body produced carbon-rich magma, followed by crystallization of graphite and silicates. Later, graphite was partially inverted to diamond by shock events. Reburial of the shocked debris experienced various degree of thermal metamorphism. Finally, these rocks were excavated from the parent asteroid and ejected into Earth-cross orbit by another impact event.     

Impact features of enstatite-rich meteorites

Enstatite-rich meteorites include EH and EL chondrites, rare ungrouped enstatite chondrites, aubrites, a few metal-rich meteorites (possibly derived from the mantle of the aubrite parent body), various impact-melt breccias and impact-melt rocks, and a few samples that may be partial-melt residues ultimately derived from enstatite chondrites. Members of these sets of rocks exhibit a wide range of impact features including mineral-lattice deformation, whole-rock brecciation, petrofabrics, opaque veins, rare high-pressure phases, silicate darkening, silicate-rich melt veins and melt pockets, shock-produced diamonds, euhedral enstatite grains, nucleation of enstatite on relict grains and chondrules, low MnO in enstatite, high Mn in troilite and oldhamite, grains of keilite, abundant silica, euhedral graphite, euhedral sinoite, F-rich amphibole and mica, and impact-melt globules and spherules. No single meteorite possesses all of these features, although many possess several. Impacts can also cause bulk REE fractionations due to melting and loss of oldhamite (CaS) – the main REE carrier in enstatite meteorites. The Shallowater aubrite can be modeled as an impact-melt rock derived from a large cratering event on a porous enstatite chondritic asteroid; it may have been shock melted at depth, slowly cooled and then excavated and quenched. Mount Egerton may share a broadly similar shock and thermal history; it could be from the same parent body as Shallowater. Many aubrites contain large pyroxene grains that exhibit weak mosaic extinction, consistent with shock-stage S4; in contrast, small olivine grains in some of these same aubrites have sharp or undulose extinction, consistent with shock stage S1 to S2. Because elemental diffusion is much faster in olivine than pyroxene, it seems likely that these aubrites experienced mild post-shock annealing, perhaps due to relatively shallow burial after an energetic impact event. There are correlations among EH and EL chondrites between petrologic type and the degree of shock, consistent with the hypothesis that collisional heating is mainly responsible for enstatite-chondrite thermal metamorphism. Nevertheless, the apparent shock stages of EL6 and EH6 chondrites tend to be lower than EL3-5 and EH3-5 chondrites, suggesting that the type-6 enstatite chondrites (many of which possess impact-produced features) were shocked and annealed. The relatively young Ar–Ar ages of enstatite chondrites record heating events that occurred long after any ²⁶Al that may have been present initially had decayed away. Impacts remain the only plausible heat source at these late dates. Some enstatite meteorites accreted to other celestial bodies: Hadley Rille (EH) was partly melted when it struck the Moon; Galim (b), also an EH chondrite, was shocked and partly oxidized when it accreted to the LL parent asteroid. EH, EL and aubrite-like clasts also occur in the polymict breccias Kaidun (a carbonaceous chondrite) and Almahata Sitta (an anomalous ureilite). The EH and EL clasts in Kaidun appear unshocked; some clasts in Almahata Sitta may have been extensively shocked on their parent bodies prior to being incorporated into the Almahata Sitta host.     

Asteroid (4) Vesta: I. The howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) clan of meteorites

The howardite, eucrite and diogenite (HED) clan of meteorites are ultramafic and mafic igneous rocks and impact-engendered fragmental debris derived from a thoroughly differentiated asteroid. Earth-based telescopic observation and data returned from vestan orbit by the Dawn spacecraft make a compelling case that the asteroid (4) Vesta is the parent asteroid of HEDs, although this is not universally accepted. Diogenites are petrologically diverse and include dunitic, harzburgitic and noritic lithologic types in addition to the traditional orthopyroxenites. Diogenites form the lower crust of Vesta. Cumulate eucrites are gabbroic rocks formed by accumulation of pigeonite and plagioclase from a mafic magma at depth within the crust, while basaltic eucrites are melt compositions that likely represent shallow-level dikes and sills, and flows. Some basaltic eucrites are richer in incompatible trace elements compared to most eucrites, and these may represent mixed melts contaminated by partial melts of the mafic crust. Differentiation occurred within a few Myr of formation of the earliest solids in the Solar System. Evidence from oxygen isotope compositions and siderophile element contents favor a model of extensive melting of Vesta forming a global magma ocean that rapidly (period of a few Myr) segregated and crystallized to yield a metallic core, olivine-rich mantle, orthopyroxene-rich lower crust and basaltic upper crust. The igneous lithologies were subjected to post-crystallization thermal processing, and most eucrites show textural and mineral-compositional evidence for metamorphism. The cause of this common metamorphism is unclear, but may have resulted from rapid burial of early basalts by later flows caused by high effusion rates on Vesta. The observed surface of Vesta is covered by fragmental debris resulting from impacts, and most HEDs are brecciated. Many eucrites and diogenites are monomict breccias indicating a lack of mixing. However, many HEDs are polymict breccias. Howardites are the most thoroughly mixed polymict breccias, yet only some of them contain evidence for residence in the true regolith. Based on the numbers of meteorites, compositions of howardites, and models of magma ocean solidification, cumulate eucrites and their residual ferroan mafic melts are minor components of the vestan crust.     

南极格罗夫山陨石的分类及其研究意义

陨石是来自地球之外的岩石样品,是研究太阳系的起源与演化的重要窗口。半个多世纪以来,国际上在南极冰盖上发现了大量陨石样品,证实了南极是地球上最重要的陨石富集区。1998年中国首次在格罗夫山地区发现南极陨石,经过4次南极考察,共收集陨石样品9834块。这不但填补了中国在该领域的空白,也为中国积累了大量珍贵的科学样品。目前,中国先后6年开展了陨石分类研究工作,并取得了显著进展:(1)完成了684块陨石的分类命名,其中发现了许多特殊类型陨石,如火星陨石、橄辉无球粒陨石、碳质球粒陨石等;(2)初步建立了陨石库和资源共享网络平台;(3)通过南极系统分类研究,建立了南极陨石分类程序、样品管理和申请程序;(4)通过国内陨石分类合作研究,培养了一批年轻专业人才。