¹Carl Palk,¹Rasmus Andreasen,¹Mark Rehkämper,¹Alison Stunt,¹Katharina Kreissig,¹Barry Coles,²Maria Schönbächler,³Caroline Smith
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12989]
¹Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
²Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
³Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, London, UK
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

New Tl, Pb, and Cd concentration and Tl, Pb isotope data are presented for enstatite as well as L- and LL-type ordinary chondrites, with additional Cd stable isotope results for the former. All three chondrite suites have Tl and Cd contents that vary by more than 1–2 orders of magnitude but Pb concentrations are more uniform, as a result of terrestrial Pb contamination. Model calculations based on Pb isotope compositions indicate that for more than half of the samples, more than 50% of the measured Pb contents are due to addition of modern terrestrial Pb. In part, this is responsible for the relatively young and imprecise Pb-Pb ages determined for EH, L, and LL chondrites, which are hence only of limited chronological utility. In contrast, four particularly pristine EL chondrites define a precise Pb-Pb cooling age of 4559 ± 6 Ma. The enstatite chondrites (ECs) have highly variable ε114/110Cd of between about +3 and +70 due to stable isotope fractionation from thermal and shock metamorphism. Furthermore, nearly all enstatite meteorites display ε205Tl values from −3.3 to +0.8, while a single anomalous sample is highly fractionated in both Tl and Cd isotopes. The majority of the ECs thereby define a correlation of ε205Tl with ε114/110Cd, which suggests that at least some of the Tl isotope variability reflects stable isotope fractionation rather than radiogenic ingrowth of 205Tl from 205Pb decay. Considering L chondrites, most ε205Tl values range between −4 and +1, while two outliers with ε205Tl ≤ −10 are indicative of stable isotope fractionation. Considering only those L chondrites which are least likely to feature Pb contamination or stable Tl isotope effects, the results are in accord with the former presence of live 205Pb on the parent body, with an initial 205Pb/204Pb = (1.5 ± 1.4) × 10−4, which suggests late equilibration of the Pb-Tl system 26–113 Ma after carbonaceous chondrites (CCs). The LL chondrites display highly variable ε205Tl values from −12.5 to +14.9, also indicative of stable isotope effects. However, the data for three pristine LL3/LL4 chondrites display an excellent correlation between ε205Tl and 204Pb/203Tl. This defines an initial 205Pb/204Pb of (1.4 ± 0.3) × 10−4, equivalent to a 205Pb-205Tl cooling age of 55 + 12/−24 Ma (31–67 Ma) after CCs.

¹E. A. Pilles,^1,2G. R. Osinski,¹R. A. F. Grieve,³D. A. Smith,³J. M. Bailey
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12986]
¹Department of Earth Sciences/Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
³Wallbridge Mining Company Limited, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Offset dikes are found concentrically around—and extending radially outward from—the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC), which represents an ~3 km thick differentiated impact melt sheet. The dikes are typically composed of an inclusion-rich, so-called quartz diorite (IQD) in the center of the dike, and an inclusion-poor quartz diorite (QD) along the margins of the dike. New exposures of the intersection between the concentric Hess and radial Foy offset dikes provide an excellent opportunity to understand the relationship between the radial and concentric offset dikes and their internal phases. The goal was to constrain the timing of the dike emplacements relative to the impact and formation of the SIC. Results herein suggest that (1) the timing between the emplacement of the QD and IQD melts was geologically short, (2) the Hess and Foy dikes coexisted as melts at the same time and the intersection between them represents a mixture of the two, (3) the Foy dike has a slightly more evolved chemical composition than the Hess dike, and (4) the IQD melt from the Foy dike underwent some degree of chemical fractionation after its initial emplacement.