Hydrous mineralogy of CM and CI chondrites from infrared spectroscopy and their relationship with low albedo asteroids

IR spectroscopy is one of the few techniques that can directly probe water molecules in rocks. This method has been used to characterize the mineralogy of hydrated/hydrous carbonaceous chondrites, and to link known meteorite families with spectroscopic observations of low albedo asteroids. In this paper, we present measurements of the infrared transmission spectra of matrix chunks from 3 CI and 9 CM chondrites. Spectra were measured at ambient conditions and then at different temperatures along a dehydration path toward high-T (∼300 °C) under primary vacuum. At ambient conditions, the 3-μm spectral range is always dominated by adsorbed atmospheric water molecules. Upon moderate (∼100 °C) and high (∼300 °C) heating under low pressure (P < 10⁻⁴ mbar), adsorbed water and then phyllosilicates interlayer water are removed, revealing a residual absorption band around 3 μm. This band is a characteristic IR feature of the phyllosilicate phases which dominate the mineralogical assemblage of hydrated carbonaceous chondrites. Among the CM chondrites, the high-T spectra reveal a strong variability that appears correlated with the alteration classification scheme of Rubin et al. (2007) and Howard et al. (2009a). The 3-μm band continuously evolves from a broad feature peaking at 3550-3600 cm⁻¹ for the weakly altered CMs (Murchison-type) to a sharp asymmetric peak at ∼3675 cm⁻¹ for the more extensively altered samples (Cold Bokkeveld-type). We attribute this spectral evolution to variations in the chemistry of the phyllosilicate phases from Fe-rich to Mg-rich. On the other hand, the 10-μm spectral region shows a single broad peak which does not compare with known terrestrial serpentine spectra, probably due to high structural disorder of the chondrite phyllosilicate phases. The present work clearly shows that previously published reflectance spectra of chondrites are biased by the presence of adsorbed terrestrial water molecules. Laboratory data collected under dry conditions are needed to reinterpret the chondrite-asteroid connection from the comparison of their 3-μm absorption features.