¹G.J. MacPherson, ^1,2E.S. Bullock, ^3,4T.J. Tenner, ^3,5D. Nakashima, ³N.T. Kita, ^1,6M.A. Ivanova, ⁷A.N. Krot, ⁸M.I. Petaev, ⁸S.B. Jacobsen
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.12.006]
¹Dept. of Mineral Sciences, Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA, 20560
²Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory, 5251 Broad Branch Rd., N.W., Washington, DC 20015
³WiscSIMS, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
⁴Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545
⁵Tohoku University, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
⁶Vernadsky Institute, Moscow, Kosygin St. 119991, Russia
⁷University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822, USA
⁸Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
Copyright Elsevier

In order to further elucidate possible temporal relationships between different varieties of calcium-, aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), we measured the aluminum-magnesium isotopic systematics of seven examples of the rare type known as forsterite-bearing Type B (FoB) inclusions from four different CV3 carbonaceous chondrites: Allende, Efremovka, NWA 3118, and Vigarano. The primary phases (forsterite, Al-Ti-rich diopside, spinel, melilite, and anorthite) in each inclusion were analyzed in situ using high-precision secondary ion mass-spectrometry (SIMS). In all cases, minerals with low Al/Mg ratios (all except anorthite) yield well-defined internal Al-Mg isochrons, with a range of initial 26Al/27Al ratios [(26Al/27Al)0] ranging from (5.30±0.22)×10−5 down to (4.17±0.43)×10−5. Anorthite in all cases is significantly disturbed relative to the isochrons defined by the other phases in the same CAIs, and in several cases contains no resolved excesses of radiogenic 26Mg (δ26Mg∗) even at 27Al/24Mg ratios greater than 1000. The fact that some FoBs preserve (26Al/27Al)0 of ∼ 5.2×10−5, close to the canonical value of (5.23±0.13)×10−5 inferred from bulk magnesium-isotope measurements of CV CAIs (Jacobsen et al., 2008), demonstrates that FoBs began forming very early, contemporaneous with other more-refractory CAIs. The range of (26Al/27Al)0 values further shows that FoBs continued to be reprocessed over ∼200,000 years of nebular history, consistent with results obtained for other types of igneous CAIs in CV chondrites. The absence of any correlation between of CAI+FoB formation or reprocessing times with bulk composition or CAI type means that there is no temporal evolutionary sequence between the diverse CAI types. The initial δ26Mg∗ value in the most primitive FoB (SJ101) is significantly lower than the canonical solar system value of −0.040±0.029‰.

^1,2Michelle S. Thompson,¹Thomas J. Zega,^3,4Jane Y. Howe
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12798]
¹Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
²NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
³Hitachi High-Technologies Canada Inc., Rexdale, Ontario, Canada
⁴Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

We report the results of the first dynamic, in situ heating of lunar soils to simulate micrometeorite impacts on the lunar surface. We performed slow- and rapid-heating experiments inside the transmission electron microscope to understand the chemical and microstructural changes in surface soils resulting from space-weathering processes. Our slow-heating experiments show that the formation of Fe nanoparticles begins at ~575 °C. These nanoparticles also form as a result of rapid-heating experiments, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy measurements indicate the Fe nanoparticles are composed entirely of Fe0, suggesting this simulation accurately mimics micrometeorite space-weathering processes occurring on airless body surfaces. In addition to Fe nanoparticles, rapid-heating experiments also formed vesiculated textures in the samples. Several grains were subjected to repeated thermal shocks, and the measured size distribution and number of Fe nanoparticles evolved with each subsequent heating event. These results provide insight into the formation and growth mechanisms for Fe nanoparticles in space-weathered soils and could provide a new methodology for relative age dating of individual soil grains from within a sample population.