J.A. Barrat^a,*, A. Jambon^b, L. Ferrière^c, C. Bollinger^d, J.A. Langlade^d, C. Liorzou^a, O. Boudouma^b, M. Fialin^b

^aUniversité de Brest, CNRS UMR 6538 (Domaines Océaniques), I.U.E.M., Place Nicolas Copernic, 29280 Plouzané, France
^bUniversité Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6 ISTeP, CNRS UMR 7193, case 110, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
^cNatural History Museum, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
^dCNRS UMS 3113, I.U.E.M., Place Nicolas Copernic, 29280 Plouzané Cedex, France

We report on the major and trace element geochemistry of the impact melts contained in some shergottite meteorites. It has been previously proposed that some of these impact melts formed from a mixture of the host rock and a Martian soil component (e.g., Rao et al., 1999) or from partially weathered portions of the host rock (Chennaoui Aoudjehane et al., 2012). Our results contradict both of these theories. Trace element abundances of a glass pod from the EETA 79001A meteorite are identical to those of the host lithology, and indicate that no additional component is required in this case. The impact melts in Tissint share the same trace element features as the host rock, and no secondary phases produced by Martian secondary processes are involved. The light rare earth enrichments displayed by two small samples of Tissint (Chennaoui Aoudjehane et al., 2012) are possibly the result of some contamination of small stones on desert soil before the recovery of the meteorites.

Reference
Barrat JA, Jambon A, Ferrière L, Bollinger C, Langlade JA, Liorzou C, Boudouma O and Fialin M (in press) No Martian soil component in shergottite meteorites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
[doi:10.1016/j.gca.2013.09.033]
Copyright Elsevier

Link to Article