TY - JOUR
T1 - Extreme early solar system chemical fractionation recorded by alkali-rich clasts contained in ordinary chondrite breccias
AU - Yokoyama, Tatsunori
AU - Misawa, Keiji
AU - Okano, Osamu
AU - Shih, Chi Yu
AU - Nyquist, Laurence E.
AU - Simon, Justin I.
AU - Tappa, Michael J.
AU - Yoneda, Shigekazu
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the National Institute of Polar Research and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for allocating the meteorite specimens of Yamato-74442 and Bhola (USNM 1806), respectively. We also thank K. Yamashita for supply of the D'Orbigny sample. TY wants to thank H. Minowa and T. Fukuoka for their help during the course of Imaging Plate experiments. Constructive comments from a reviewer improved and clarified the manuscript. This work was partly supported by funds from the JSPS (KAKENHI Grant Number 15H03754 to KM), NIPR Research Program (KP-6), Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and NASA ( 10-LASER10-0077 to JIS). This is LPI contribution 001979.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/1/15
Y1 - 2017/1/15
N2 - New K–Ca and Rb–Sr isotopic analyses have been performed on alkali-rich igneous rock fragments in the Yamato (Y)-74442 and Bhola LL-chondritic breccias to better understand the extent and timing of alkali enrichments in the early solar system. The Y-74442 fragments yield a K–Ca age of 4.41±0.28 Ga for λ(40K) = 0.5543 Ga−1 with an initial 40Ca/44Ca ratio of 47.1618±0.0032. Studying the same fragments with the Rb–Sr isotope system yields an age of 4.420±0.031 Ga for λ(87Rb) = 0.01402 Ga−1 with an initial ratio of 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7203 ± 0.0044. An igneous rock fragment contained in Bhola shows a similar alkali fractionation pattern to those of Y-74442 fragments but does not plot on the K–Ca or Rb–Sr isochron of the Y-74442 fragments. Calcium isotopic compositions of whole-rock samples of angrite and chondrites are primordial, indistinguishable from mantle-derived terrestrial rocks, and here considered to represent the initial composition of bulk silicate Earth. The initial ε40Ca value determined for the source of the alkali clasts in Y-74442 that is ∼0.5 ε-units higher than the solar system value implies an early alkali enrichment. Multi-isotopic studies on these alkali-rich fragments reveal that the source material of Y-74442 fragments had elemental ratios of K/Ca = 0.43 ± 0.18, Rb/Sr = 3.45 ± 0.66 and K/Rb ∼ 170, that may have formed from mixtures of an alkali-rich component (possibly an alkali-enriched gaseous reservoir produced by fractionation of early nebular condensates) and chondritic components that were flash-heated during an impact event on the LL-chondrite parent body ∼4.42 Ga ago. Further enrichments of potassium and rubidium relative to calcium and strontium as well as a mutual alkali-fractionation (K/Rb ∼ 50 and heavier alkali-enrichment) would have likely occurred during subsequent cooling and differentiation of this melt. Alkali fragments in Bhola might have undergone similar solid–vapor fractionation processes to those of Y-74442 fragments but appear to have formed via a distinct impact melting event.
AB - New K–Ca and Rb–Sr isotopic analyses have been performed on alkali-rich igneous rock fragments in the Yamato (Y)-74442 and Bhola LL-chondritic breccias to better understand the extent and timing of alkali enrichments in the early solar system. The Y-74442 fragments yield a K–Ca age of 4.41±0.28 Ga for λ(40K) = 0.5543 Ga−1 with an initial 40Ca/44Ca ratio of 47.1618±0.0032. Studying the same fragments with the Rb–Sr isotope system yields an age of 4.420±0.031 Ga for λ(87Rb) = 0.01402 Ga−1 with an initial ratio of 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7203 ± 0.0044. An igneous rock fragment contained in Bhola shows a similar alkali fractionation pattern to those of Y-74442 fragments but does not plot on the K–Ca or Rb–Sr isochron of the Y-74442 fragments. Calcium isotopic compositions of whole-rock samples of angrite and chondrites are primordial, indistinguishable from mantle-derived terrestrial rocks, and here considered to represent the initial composition of bulk silicate Earth. The initial ε40Ca value determined for the source of the alkali clasts in Y-74442 that is ∼0.5 ε-units higher than the solar system value implies an early alkali enrichment. Multi-isotopic studies on these alkali-rich fragments reveal that the source material of Y-74442 fragments had elemental ratios of K/Ca = 0.43 ± 0.18, Rb/Sr = 3.45 ± 0.66 and K/Rb ∼ 170, that may have formed from mixtures of an alkali-rich component (possibly an alkali-enriched gaseous reservoir produced by fractionation of early nebular condensates) and chondritic components that were flash-heated during an impact event on the LL-chondrite parent body ∼4.42 Ga ago. Further enrichments of potassium and rubidium relative to calcium and strontium as well as a mutual alkali-fractionation (K/Rb ∼ 50 and heavier alkali-enrichment) would have likely occurred during subsequent cooling and differentiation of this melt. Alkali fragments in Bhola might have undergone similar solid–vapor fractionation processes to those of Y-74442 fragments but appear to have formed via a distinct impact melting event.
KW - K–Ca and Rb–Sr dating
KW - chondritic breccias
KW - moderately volatile elements
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U2 - 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.10.037
DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.10.037
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85003671311
SN - 0012-821X
VL - 458
SP - 233
EP - 240
JO - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
JF - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
ER -