Re-Os isotopic composition of the Dongling ⅢCD iron meteorite

Re, Os concentrations and Os isotopic compositions of the Dongling ⅢCD iron meteorite were determined by N-TIMS technique. The result was compared with that of the other irons and chondrites. The Re and Os concentrations of the Dongling iron meteorite were plotted on the trends of the group ⅢA and ⅣA irons. The Pt-Os relation of the Dongling iron meteorite is similar to that of the group ⅡA irons. That suggests a higher fractionation for the Dongling iron meteorite.     

Impact-derived features of the Xiuyan meteorite crater

Up to now, 176 meteorite impact craters have been found on the Earth. Among these craters, none of them lies in China. The Xiuyan crater is located in the Liaodong Peninsula of China. This bowl-shaped crater has a diameter of 1.8 km and depth of about 150 m. The impact-derived features include planar deformation features （PDFs） in quartz, shatter cones, impact breccia, and radial valleys on the wall of rim. It is the first confirmed meteorite impact crater in China.     

Grove Mountains （GRV）99027： A new Martian meteorite

We report the petrography, mineral chemistry and oxygen isotopic composition of GRV 99027, a new Martian meteorite recently collected during the 16th Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition. This meteorite consists of two textural regions. The interstitial region is characterized by the presence of plagioclase and phosphate, and higher FeO contents of olivine and orthopyroxene, in comparison with the poikilitic region. All of the observations are similar to the three known Martian lherzolites. We classify GRV 99027 as the fourth sample of Martian lherzolite.     

Racemic amino acids from the ultraviolet photolysis of interstellar ice analogues

The delivery of extraterrestrial organic molecules to Earth by meteorites may have been important for the origin and early evolution of life. Indigenous amino acids have been found in meteorites-over 70 in the Murchison meteorite alone. Although it has been generally accepted that the meteoritic amino acids formed in liquid water on a parent body, the water in the Murchison meteorite is depleted in deuterium relative to the indigenous organic acids. Moreover, the meteoritical evidence for an excess of laevo-rotatory amino acids is hard to understand in the context of liquid-water reactions on meteorite parent bodies. Here we report a laboratory demonstration that glycine, alanine and serine naturally form from ultraviolet photolysis of the analogues of icy interstellar grains. Such amino acids would naturally have a deuterium excess similar to that seen in interstellar molecular clouds, and the formation process could also result in enantiomeric excesses if the incident radiation is circularly polarized. These results suggest that at least some meteoritic amino acids are the result of interstellar photochemistry, rather than formation in liquid water on an early Solar System body.     

Photographic observations of Neuschwanstein,a second meteorite from the orbit of the Príbram chondrite

Photographic observations of meteoroids passing through the atmosphere provide information about the population of interplanetary bodies in the Earth's vicinity in the size range from 0.1 m to several metres. It is extremely rare that any of these meteoroids survives atmospheric entry to be recovered as a meteorite on the ground. Príbram was the first meteorite (an ordinary chondrite) with a photographically determined orbit; it fell on 7 April 1959 (ref. 1). Here we report the fourth meteorite fall to be captured by camera networks. We determined the atmospheric trajectory and pre-atmospheric orbit of the object from the photographic records. One 1.75-kg meteorite--named Neuschwanstein and classified as an enstatite chondrite--was recovered within the predicted impact area. The bolide's heliocentric orbit is exceptional as it is almost identical to the orbit of Príbram, suggesting that we have discovered a 'stream' of meteoritic objects in an Earth-crossing orbit. The chemical classifications and cosmic-ray exposure ages of the two meteorites are quite different, however, which implies a heterogeneous stream.     

Planetary science: Meteor Crater formed by low-velocity impact

Meteor Crater in Arizona was the first terrestrial structure to be widely recognized as a meteorite impact scar and has probably been more intensively studied than any other impact crater on Earth. We have discovered something surprising about its mode of formation--namely that the surface-impact velocity of the iron meteorite that created Meteor Crater was only about 12 km s(-1). This is close to the 9.4 km s(-1) minimum originally proposed but far short of the 15-20 km s(-1) that has been widely assumed--a realization that clears up a long-standing puzzle about why the crater does not contain large volumes of rock melted by the impact.     

Timescales of shock processes in chondritic and martian meteorites

The accretion of the terrestrial planets from asteroid collisions and the delivery to the Earth of martian and lunar meteorites has been modelled extensively. Meteorites that have experienced shock waves from such collisions can potentially be used to reveal the accretion process at different stages of evolution within the Solar System. Here we have determined the peak pressure experienced and the duration of impact in a chondrite and a martian meteorite, and have combined the data with impact scaling laws to infer the sizes of the impactors and the associated craters on the meteorite parent bodies. The duration of shock events is inferred from trace element distributions between coexisting high-pressure minerals in the shear melt veins of the meteorites. The shock duration and the associated sizes of the impactor are found to be much greater in the chondrite (approximately 1 s and 5 km, respectively) than in the martian meteorite (approximately 10 ms and 100 m). The latter result compares well with numerical modelling studies of cratering on Mars, and we suggest that martian meteorites with similar, recent ejection ages (10(5) to 10(7) years ago) may have originated from the same few square kilometres on Mars.     

Petrography,mineral chemistry and shock metamorphism of Yamato 984028 lherzolitic shergottite

Y984028 is a new lherzolitic shergottite,consisting of poikilitic and non-poikilitic lithologies.The mafic silicates are FeO-poor,and the chromite is TiO 2-poor in the poikilitic lithology compared to the grains in the non-poikilitic lithology.This meteorite shares similarmineral petrography andmineral chemistry with GRV 99027,but is not paired with the latter because of their different shock-induced features.Y984028 was severely shocked and experienced no significant thermal metamorphism after the main impact event.Hence,Y984028 serves as a probe for the study of meteorite impact processes on terrestrial surfaces.The melt veins in Y984028 are characterized by the absence of any high-pressure polymorphs,the presence of abundant smallmineral fragments,and the prevailing granulation textures of olivine and chromite.These features are consistent with adiabatic melting during the release of shock-induced high-pressure and quenching at ambient pressure.     

Amino-acid synthesis in carbonaceous meteorites by aqueous alteration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

It has been suggested that amino acids and other organic compounds found in carbonaceous meteorites formed by aqueous alteration in the meteorite parent bodies. Observations of carbonaceous material in interstellar grains and interplanetary dust particles indicate that condensed organic compounds may have been present in meteorite parent bodies at the time of aqueous alteration. One group of compounds thought to be representative of this carbonaceous material is the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Recently it was proposed that PAHs condense on SiC grains in the molecular envelopes of carbon-rich red-giant stars, which would allow for their subsequent incorporation into meteorite parent bodies during accretion. This incorporation mechanism is supported by the identification of SiC grains in carbonaceous chondrites. The possibility therefore exists that PAHs, and/or other condensed organic compounds, represent the starting material for aqueous alteration which leads to the formation of amino acids and other water-soluble organic compounds. Here we present calculations of the distribution of aqueous organic compounds in metastable equilibrium with representative PAHs as functions of the fugacities of O2, CO2 and NH3. The results reported here for pyrene and fluoranthene, two PAHs with different structures but the same stoichiometry, differ greatly but indicate that the formation of amino and carboxylic acids is energetically favourable at probable parent-body alteration conditions. The actual reaction mechanisms involved could be revealed by consideration of isotope data for PAHs, amino acids, other organic compounds and carbonates in carbonaceous chondrites.     

Palaeomagnetism of the Vredefort meteorite crater and implications for craters on Mars

Magnetic surveys of the martian surface have revealed significantly lower magnetic field intensities over the gigantic impact craters Hellas and Argyre than over surrounding regions. The reduced fields are commonly attributed to pressure demagnetization caused by shock waves generated during meteorite impact, in the absence of a significant ambient magnetic field. Lower than average magnetic field intensities are also observed above the Vredefort meteorite crater in South Africa, yet here we show that the rocks in this crater possess much higher magnetic intensities than equivalent lithologies found elsewhere on Earth. We find that palaeomagnetic directions of these strongly magnetized rocks are randomly oriented, with vector directions changing over centimetre length scales. Moreover, the magnetite grains contributing to the magnetic remanence crystallized during impact, which directly relates the randomization and intensification to the impact event. The strong and randomly oriented magnetization vectors effectively cancel out when summed over the whole crater. Seen from high altitudes, as for martian craters, the magnetic field appears much lower than that of neighbouring terranes, implying that magnetic anomalies of meteorite craters cannot be used as evidence for the absence of the planet's internally generated magnetic field at the time of impact.     

Compositional differences between meteorites and near-Earth asteroids

Understanding the nature and origin of the asteroid population in Earth's vicinity (near-Earth asteroids, and its subset of potentially hazardous asteroids) is a matter of both scientific interest and practical importance. It is generally expected that the compositions of the asteroids that are most likely to hit Earth should reflect those of the most common meteorites. Here we report that most near-Earth asteroids (including the potentially hazardous subset) have spectral properties quantitatively similar to the class of meteorites known as LL chondrites. The prominent Flora family in the inner part of the asteroid belt shares the same spectral properties, suggesting that it is a dominant source of near-Earth asteroids. The observed similarity of near-Earth asteroids to LL chondrites is, however, surprising, as this meteorite class is relatively rare ( approximately 8 per cent of all meteorite falls). One possible explanation is the role of a size-dependent process, such as the Yarkovsky effect, in transporting material from the main belt.     

Hydrogen isotope geochemistry of lherzolitic shergottite in Martian meteorite GRV99027 from the Grove Mountains in Antarctica

Whether life vestige existed in Martian meteorites or not has provoked a hot tide toward Mars exploration. Among the other things, whether water existed in Marsor not again becomes a hot point of contemporary sci- entific exploration. Analyzing the hydrog…     

Carbon isotope composition of individual amino acids in the Murchison meteorite

A significant portion of prebiotic organic matter on the early Earth may have been introduced by carbonaceous asteroids and comets. The distribution and stable-isotope composition of individual organic compounds in carbonaceous meteorites, which are thought to be derived from asteroidal parent bodies, may therefore provide important information concerning mechanistic pathways for prebiotic synthesis and the composition of organic matter on Earth before living systems developed. Previous studies have shown that meteorite amino acids are enriched in 13C relative to their terrestrial counterparts, but individual species were not distinguished. Here we report the 13C contents of individual amino acids in the Murchison meteorite. The amino acids are enriched in 13C, indicating an extraterrestrial origin. Alanine is not racemic, and the 13C enrichment of its D- and L-enantiomers implies that the excess of the L-enantiomer is indigenous rather than terrestrial contamination, suggesting that optically active materials were present in the early Solar System before life began.     

Organic analysis of the Pueblito de Allende meteorite

It appears unlikely that the organic material detected in the meteorite that fell in Mexico last year can have been introduced by contamination.     

Pleonaste in Boxian meteorite

There are three kinds of occurrence of pleonaste, a rare meteoritic mineral, totally found in Boxian meteorite. They are as the following: (ⅰ) occurring in the inner circle of the chondrule edge, of which a circle texture is composed; (ⅱ) occurring in the state of inclusions, included in an olivine chondrule, with close paragenesis of wadsleyite; (ⅲ) occurring in the state of porphyry. The chondrule in the first occurrence belongs to CA chondrules. The chemical compositions of pleonaste are heterogeneity except for the atomic ratios of Fe/(Mg+Fe), which can be attributed to the following reasons: (ⅰ) they are congenetic minerals; (ⅱ) the heterogeneity of the compositions of the solar clouds in the early states; (ⅲ) the chondrites are the multiple-stage evolution; (ⅳ) the further proof of Boxian meteorite is an unequilibrium common chondrite.     

An age-colour relationship for main-belt S-complex asteroids

Asteroid collisions in the main belt eject fragments that may eventually land on Earth as meteorites. It has therefore been a long-standing puzzle in planetary science that laboratory spectra of the most populous class of meteorite (ordinary chondrites, OC) do not match the remotely observed surface spectra of their presumed (S-complex) asteroidal parent bodies. One of the proposed solutions to this perplexing observation is that 'space weathering' modifies the exposed planetary surfaces over time through a variety of processes (such as solar and cosmic ray bombardment, micro-meteorite bombardment, and so on). Space weathering has been observed on lunar samples, in Earth-based laboratory experiments, and there is good evidence from spacecraft data that the process is active on asteroid surfaces. Here, we present a measurement of the rate of space weathering on S-complex main-belt asteroids using a relationship between the ages of asteroid families and their colours. Extrapolating this age-colour relationship to very young ages yields a good match to the colour of freshly cut OC meteorite samples, lending strong support to a genetic relationship between them and the S-complex asteroids.     

下寒武统黑色页岩金属富集机理与小行星撞击

扬子地台寒武系下统存在富含V、Ni、Mo和铂族元素(platinum group element, PGE)等的黑色页岩,局部地区有U或者Ba、Hg、As等的富集,研究这些元素富集机理有利于寻找相关矿产或者探究地质事件。6 500万年前的小行星撞击地球产生了高PGE含量的地层或者化石,依据这一事实和陨石的特征及其他地质地球化学证据,推断下寒武统黑色页岩中Ni-Mo-PGE富集是陨石撞击结果,PGE中的Ir、Os富集最明显是因为二者最抗淋滤。U在康滇地轴东侧黑色页岩中最高可达480×10^-6,因康滇地轴本身就存在混合型铀矿,推测黑色页岩中U来自它的风化。据V和Ba-Hg-As等的地化特性,认为V富集是受生物活动影响,但因V易于在热泉水中富集,故寒武纪早期泛非运动的构造-热事件可导致V富集成矿,Ba、Hg、As也因该事件产生构造裂隙后,它们优先随热液沿裂隙上升富集,并在海底局部成矿。此外,5.65亿年前的埃迪卡拉动物群发生地基本上就是5.8亿年前小行星撞击地点,提出此次行星撞击可能与埃迪卡拉生物群出现存在因果关系。由于在中国存在寒武纪澄江生物群大爆发事件,推测该次生物...     

Interplanetary dust from the explosive dispersal of hydrated asteroids by impacts

The Earth accretes about 30,000 tons of dust particles per year, with sizes in the range of 20-400 microm (refs 1, 2). Those particles collected at the Earth's surface--termed micrometeorites--are similar in chemistry and mineralogy to hydrated, porous meteorites, but such meteorites comprise only 2.8% of recovered falls. This large difference in relative abundances has been attributed to 'filtering' by the Earth's atmosphere, that is, the porous meteorites are considered to be so friable that they do not survive the impact with the atmosphere. Here we report shock-recovery experiments on two porous meteorites, one of which is hydrated and the other is anhydrous. The application of shock to the hydrated meteorite reduces it to minute particles and explosive expansion results upon release of the pressure, through a much broader range of pressures than for the anhydrous meteorite. Our results indicate that hydrated asteroids will produce dust particles during collisions at a much higher rate than anhydrous asteroids, which explains the different relative abundances of the hydrated material in micrometeorites and meteorites: the abundances are established before contact with the Earth's atmosphere.     

山西省临县紫金山地区U、Th、K三种放射性元素特征分析

为了研究山西临县紫金山地区放射性矿产铀、钍、钾元素异常分布规律、含量、赋存状态,通过运用地面伽马能谱和显微镜镜下分析二者相结合的方法研究了研究区内的岩石,得到紫金山地区岩石的铀、钍、钾放射性参数和铀、钍、钾异常对应岩石的镜下分析结果。结果表明:山西临县紫金山地区铀、钍元素异常主要分布在黑云辉石岩、霞石正长岩中,它是由于这二种岩石中分布的磷灰石和榍石所以引起的,榍石和磷灰石占黑云辉石岩总量的7%～11%,榍石在霞石正长岩中的含量占总量的1%～5%;钾异常主要分布在黑云母辉石正长岩中,钾元素异常是由黑云母辉石正长岩中的正长石引起的,黑云母辉石正长岩中的正长石占整体的85%～90%。可见通过地面伽马能谱和显微镜镜下分析二者相结合的方法可以解释山西省紫金山地区放射性矿产铀、钍、钾异常分布规律、含量、赋存状态。综上,黑云辉石岩、霞石正长岩、黑云母辉石正长岩为今后放射性矿产突破所在,建议在区部署地面伽玛能谱扫面工作,再对扫面工作的异常区进行槽探及钻探工程验证。     

Widespread magma oceans on asteroidal bodies in the early Solar System

Immediately following the formation of the Solar System, small planetary bodies accreted, some of which melted to produce igneous rocks. Over a longer timescale (15-33 Myr), the inner planets grew by incorporation of these smaller objects through collisions. Processes operating on such asteroids strongly influenced the final composition of these planets, including Earth. Currently there is little agreement about the nature of asteroidal igneous activity: proposals range from small-scale melting, to near total fusion and the formation of deep magma oceans. Here we report a study of oxygen isotopes in two basaltic meteorite suites, the HEDs (howardites, eucrites and diogenites, which are thought to sample the asteroid 4 Vesta) and the angrites (from an unidentified asteroidal source). Our results demonstrate that these meteorite suites formed during early, global-scale melting (> or = 50 per cent) events. We show that magma oceans were present on all the differentiated Solar System bodies so far sampled. Magma oceans produced compositionally layered planetesimals; the modification of such bodies before incorporation into larger objects can explain some anomalous planetary features, such as Earth's high Mg/Si ratio.