Pb-Pb dating of individual chondrules from the CBa chondrite Gujba: Assessment of the impact plume formation model

1Jean Bollard, 1James N. Connelly, 1Martin Bizzarro
1Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

The CB chondrites are metal-rich meteorites with characteristics that sharply distinguish them from other chondrite groups. Their unusual chemical and petrologic features and a young formation age of bulk chondrules dated from the CBa chondrite Gujba are interpreted to reflect a single-stage impact origin. Here, we report high-precision internal isochrons for four individual chondrules of the Gujba chondrite to probe the formation history of CB chondrites and evaluate the concordancy of relevant short-lived radionuclide chronometers. All four chondrules define a brief formation interval with a weighted mean age of 4562.49 ± 0.21 Myr, consistent with its origin from the vapor-melt impact plume generated by colliding planetesimals. Formation in a debris disk mostly devoid of nebular gas and dust sets an upper limit for the solar protoplanetary disk lifetime at 4.8 ± 0.3 Myr. Finally, given the well-behaved Pb-Pb systematics of all four chondrules, a precise formation age and the concordancy of the Mn-Cr, Hf-W, and I-Xe short-lived radionuclide relative chronometers, we propose that Gujba may serve as a suitable time anchor for these systems.

Reference
Bollard J, Connelly JN, Bizzarro M (2015) Pb-Pb dating of individual chondrules from the CBa chondrite Gujba: Assessment of the impact plume formation model. Meteoritics&Planetary Science (in Press)
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12461]

Published by arrangement with John Wiley&Sons

The instrumentally recorded fall of the Križevci meteorite, Croatia, February 4, 2011

1J. Borovička et al. (>10)*
1Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ondřejov, Czech Republic

The Križevci H6 meteorite was recovered on the basis of fireball data obtained by the cameras of the Croatian Meteor Network. The fireball, which occurred on February 4, 2011, 23:20:40 UT, was also observed by meteor cameras in Slovenia and by the Autonomous Fireball Observatory in Martinsberg, Austria, which belongs to the European Fireball Network. Here, we present detailed data on fireball trajectory, velocity, deceleration, light curve, and orbit. We also modeled the atmospheric fragmentation of the meteoroid on the basis of the light curve and deceleration. The initial mass of the meteoroid was between 25–100 kg, most probably about 50 kg. Severe fragmentation occurred at heights of approximately 60 and 31 km, under dynamic pressures of 0.1 and 3 MPa, respectively. The peak absolute magnitude of −13.7 was reached during the second severe fragmentation event. The recovered 291 g meteorite was probably the only fragment with a terminal mass exceeding 100 g. The orbit had a low inclination of 0.6 degrees, perihelion distance 0.74 AU, and semimajor axis 1.54 AU. Križevci can be ranked among the 10 best documented meteorite falls.

Reference
Borovička J et al. (2015) The instrumentally recorded fall of the Križevci meteorite, Croatia, February 4, 2011. Meteoritics&Planetary Science (in Press)
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12469]

Published by arrangement with John Wiley and Sons