1. |
- Jenniskens, Peter, et al.
(author)
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The Creston, California, meteorite fall and the origin of L chondrites
- 2019
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In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1086-9379 .- 1945-5100. ; 54:4, s. 699-720
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It has been proposed that all L chondrites resulted from an ongoing collisional cascade of fragments that originated from the formation of the ~500 Ma old asteroid family Gefion, located near the 5:2 mean‐motion resonance with Jupiter in the middle Main Belt. If so, L chondrite pre‐atmospheric orbits should be distributed as expected for that source region. Here, we present contradictory results from the orbit and collisional history of the October 24, 2015, L6 ordinary chondrite fall at Creston, CA (here reclassified to L5/6). Creston's short 1.30 ± 0.02 AU semimajor axis orbit would imply a long dynamical evolution if it originated from the middle Main Belt. Indeed, Creston has a high cosmic ray exposure age of 40–50 Ma. However, Creston's small meteoroid size and low 4.23 ± 0.07° inclination indicate a short dynamical lifetime against collisions. This suggests, instead, that Creston originated most likely in the inner asteroid belt and was delivered via the ν6 resonance. The U‐Pb systematics of Creston apatite reveals a Pb‐Pb age of 4,497.1 ± 3.7 Ma, and an upper intercept U‐Pb age of 4,496.7 ± 5.8 Ma (2σ), circa 70 Ma after formation of CAI, as found for other L chondrites. The K‐Ar (age ~4.3 Ga) and U,Th‐He (age ~1 Ga) chronometers were not reset at ~500 Ma, while the lower intercept U‐Pb age is poorly defined as 770 ± 320 Ma. So far, the three known L chondrites that impacted on orbits with semimajor axes a <2.0 AU all have high (>3 Ga) K‐Ar ages. This argues for a source of some of our L chondrites in the inner Main Belt. Not all L chondrites originate in a continuous population of Gefion family debris stretching across the 3:1 mean‐motion resonance.
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2. |
- Meier, Matthias, et al.
(author)
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He and Ne in individual chromite grains from the regolith breccia Ghubara (L5): Exploring the history of the L chondrite parent body regolith
- 2014
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In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science. - : Wiley. - 1086-9379 .- 1945-5100. ; 49:4, s. 576-594
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Abstract We analyzed He and Ne in chromite grains from the regolith breccia Ghubara (L5), to compare it with He and Ne in sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial chromite (SEC) grains from mid-Ordovician sediments. These SEC grains arrived on Earth as micrometeorites in the aftermath of the L chondrite parent body (LCPB) breakup event, 470 Ma ago. A significant fraction of them show prolonged exposure to galactic cosmic rays for up to several 10 Ma. The majority of the cosmogenic noble gases in these grains were probably acquired in the regolith of the LCPB (Meier et al. ). Ghubara, an L chondritic regolith breccia with an Ar-Ar shock age of 470 Ma, is a sample of that regolith. We find cosmic-ray exposure ages of up to several 10 Ma in some Ghubara chromite grains, confirming for the first time that individual chromite grains with such high exposure ages indeed existed in the LCPB regolith, and that the > 10 Ma cosmic-ray exposure ages found in recent micrometeorites are thus not necessarily indicative of an origin in the Kuiper Belt. Some Ghubara chromite grains show much lower concentrations of cosmogenic He and Ne, indicating that the 4 pi (last-stage) exposure age of the Ghubara meteoroid lasted only 4-6 Ma. This exposure age is considerably shorter than the 15-20 Ma suggested before from bulk analyses, indicating that bulk samples have seen regolith pre-exposure as well. The shorter last-stage exposure age probably links Ghubara to a small peak of Ar-40-poor L5 chondrites of the same exposure age. Furthermore, and quite unexpectedly, we find a Ne component similar to presolar Ne-HL in the chromite grains, perhaps indicating that some presolar Ne can be preserved even in meteorites of petrologic type 5.
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3. |
- Schmitz, Birger, et al.
(author)
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The micrometeorite flux to Earth during the Frasnian–Famennian transition reconstructed in the Coumiac GSSP section, France
- 2019
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In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0012-821X. ; 522, s. 234-243
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have reconstructed the distribution of extraterrestrial chrome spinels in a marine limestone section across the Frasnian–Famennian stratotype section at Coumiac in southern France, providing the first insights on the types of micrometeorites and meteorites that fell on Earth at this time. The data can test whether the small cluster of roughly coeval, large impact structures is related to an asteroid breakup and shower with possible bearings also on the late Devonian biodiversity crisis. A total of ∼180 extraterrestrial spinel grains (>32 μm) were recovered from 957 kg of rock. Noble-gas measurements of individual grains show high solar-wind content, implying an origin from decomposed micrometeorites. Element analyses indicate a marked dominance of ordinary chondritic over achondritic grains, similar to the recent flux. The relation between H, L and LL meteorites is ∼29–58–13%, similar to the late Silurian flux, ∼31–63–6%, but different from the distribution, ∼45–45–10%, in the recent and the Cretaceous flux. Our data show no indication of a generally enhanced late Devonian micrometeorite flux that would accompany an asteroid shower. However, in a single limestone bed that formed immediately before the Upper Kellwasser horizon, that represents the main end-Frasnian species-turnover event, we found an enrichment of ∼10 ordinary chondritic grains (>63 μm) per 100 kg of rock, compared to the ∼1–3 grains per 100 kg that characterise background. The anomalously abundant grains are of mixed H, L and LL types and may be related to an enhanced flux of extraterrestrial dust during postulated minima in both the 405 ka and 2.4 Ma Earth-orbit eccentricity cycles at the onset of the Upper Kellwasser event. In the present solar system the dust accretion at Earth is the highest at eccentricity minima because of the spatial distribution of dust bands of the zodiacal cloud. Besides this small grain anomaly the data here and in previous studies support a stable meteorite flux through the late Silurian and Devonian, in contrast to the mid-Ordovician, when achondritic meteorites that are rare on Earth today were common, followed by the influx of a flood of debris related to the breakup of the L-chondrite parent body. Our accumulated data for six time windows through the Phanerozoic indicate that the ordinary chondrites make up a major fraction in the meteorite flux since at least the mid-Ordovician. We note that the sources in the asteroid belt of the H and L meteorites, the two most common types of meteorites today and through much of the Phanerozoic, remain elusive.
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4. |
- Unsalan, Ozan, et al.
(author)
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The Sariçiçek howardite fall in Turkey : Source crater of HED meteorites on Vesta and impact risk of Vestoids
- 2019
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In: Meteoritics and Planetary Science. - Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons. - 1086-9379 .- 1945-5100. ; 54:5, s. 953-1008
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Sariçiçek howardite meteorite shower consisting of 343 documented stones occurred on September 2, 2015 in Turkey and is the first documented howardite fall. Cosmogenic isotopes show that Sariçiçek experienced a complex cosmic‐ray exposure history, exposed during ~12–14 Ma in a regolith near the surface of a parent asteroid, and that an ~1 m sized meteoroid was launched by an impact 22 ± 2 Ma ago to Earth (as did one‐third of all HED meteorites). SIMS dating of zircon and baddeleyite yielded 4550.4 ± 2.5 Ma and 4553 ± 8.8 Ma crystallization ages for the basaltic magma clasts. The apatite U‐Pb age of 4525 ± 17 Ma, K‐Ar age of ~3.9 Ga, and the U,Th‐He ages of 1.8 ± 0.7 and 2.6 ± 0.3 Ga are interpreted to represent thermal metamorphic and impact‐related resetting ages, respectively. Petrographic; geochemical; and O‐, Cr‐, and Ti‐isotopic studies confirm that Sariçiçek belongs to the normal clan of HED meteorites. Petrographic observations and analysis of organic material indicate a small portion of carbonaceous chondrite material in the Sariçiçek regolith and organic contamination of the meteorite after a few days on soil. Video observations of the fall show an atmospheric entry at 17.3 ± 0.8 km s−1 from NW; fragmentations at 37, 33, 31, and 27 km altitude; and provide a pre‐atmospheric orbit that is the first dynamical link between the normal HED meteorite clan and the inner Main Belt. Spectral data indicate the similarity of Sariçiçek with the Vesta asteroid family (V‐class) spectra, a group of asteroids stretching to delivery resonances, which includes (4) Vesta. Dynamical modeling of meteoroid delivery to Earth shows that the complete disruption of a ~1 km sized Vesta family asteroid or a ~10 km sized impact crater on Vesta is required to provide sufficient meteoroids ≤4 m in size to account for the influx of meteorites from this HED clan. The 16.7 km diameter Antionia impact crater on Vesta was formed on terrain of the same age as given by the 4He retention age of Sariçiçek. Lunar scaling for crater production to crater counts of its ejecta blanket show it was formed ~22 Ma ago.
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