Explosive Shaped Projectors for Forming High-Velocity Compact Elements

1,2,3,4Gerasimov, S.I.,1Malyarov, D.V.,2Sirotkina, A.G.,1Kapinos, S.A.,1,4Kalmykov, A.P.,1Knyazev, A.S.
Combustion, Explosion and Shock Waves 56, 486-493 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1134/S0010508220040139]
1All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF), Russian Federal Nuclear Center, Sarov, 607188, Russian Federation
2Sarov State Physics and Technical Institute, Department of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Sarov, 607186, Russian Federation
3Alekseev Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University (NNSTU), Nizhny Novgorod, 603950, Russian Federation
4Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, 603024, Russian Federation

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Formation of hexagonal NaAl3Si3O11 (NAS) phase, the Na end-member of hexagonal CaAl4Si2O11 (CAS) phase, near 23 GPa above 2373 K in the compositions of NaAl3Si3O11 and NaAlSi3O8

1Zhou, Y.,1,2Irifune, T.
Physics Chemistry of Minerals 47, 37 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1007/s00269-020-01106-6]
1Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University, Matsuyama, 790-8577, Japan
2Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan

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Best Fit for Complex Peaks (BFCP) in Matlab® for quantitative analysis of in situ 2D X-Ray diffraction data and Raman spectra

1,2Li, Y.,1,2McCausland, P.J.A.,1,2Flemming, R.L.
Computers and Geoscience 144, 104572 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2020.104572]
1Department of Earth Sciences, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
2Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, Western University, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada

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Evidence for early fragmentation-reassembly of ordinary chondrite (H, L, and LL) parent bodies from REE-in-two-pyroxene thermometry

1Michael P.Lucas,1Nick Dygert,2Jialong Ren,2,3Marc A.Hesse,2Nathaniel R.Miller,1Harry Y.McSween
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.09.010]
1Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, 1621 Cumberland Ave., 602 Strong Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996
2Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 2275 Speedway Stop C9000, Austin, TX 78712
3Oden Institute of Computational Sciences and Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 201 E 24th St., Austin, TX 78712
Copyright Elsevier

Ordinary chondrites (OCs) are variably thermally metamorphosed meteorites thought to originate from at least three different parent bodies (H, L, and LL) in the Main Belt of asteroids. The thermal evolutions of OC parent bodies are frequently explained by the onion shell model; however, a competing hypothesis is the fragmentation-reassembly model. The onion shell model proposes undisrupted, internally heated parent bodies with concentrically stratified thermal structure, and posits that OC petrologic types (i.e., 3 to 6) develop with increasing temperature and burial depth. In this model, petrologic types are inversely correlated with depth in the parent body, and cooling rate. The alternative fragmentation-reassembly model invokes catastrophic collisional disruption of parent bodies that initially possessed onion shell structures, followed by rapid reaccretion of hot fragments, forming rubble pile bodies. Fragmentation would result in fast cooling (quenching) of collisional fragments from the temperature experienced by the parent body at the time of collision. Discrimination between these two models may be possible via investigation of the thermal histories of OCs by application of geothermometry and geospeedometry, which are used to constrain the temperatures and rates through which igneous and metamorphic rock samples cool. Most published cooling rate data for OC parent bodies are based on methods that record rates through low closure temperatures (∼500-200 °C) rather than from peak metamorphic temperatures. Recently, a rare earth element (REE)-in-two-pyroxene thermometer has been shown to establish peak or magmatic temperatures (TREE; Liang et al. [2013]. GCA 102, 246-260) for rocks that cooled at moderate to fast geologic rates. We applied the REE-in-two-pyroxene method to determine peak temperatures for 18 OC samples (mostly type 6), in conjunction with conventional two-pyroxene thermometry (TBKN; Brey and Köhler [1990]. J. Pet. 31, 1353-1378) and Ca-in-olivine thermometry (TCa-Ol; Köhler and Brey [1990]. GCA 54, 2375-2388), to determine closure temperatures and estimate cooling rates for OC parent bodies. Inconsistent with slow cooling rates expected in an onion shell scenario, we obtain fast cooling at rates ≳0.5 °C/y from peak temperatures of ∼900 °C. Corroborating the TREE and TBKN measurements, TCa-Ol suggests that the OCs cooled through TCa-Ol closure temperatures (∼700 to 800 °C) at ∼10-2 to 10-1 °C/y. These cooling rates are three to six orders of magnitude faster than rates determined using methods sensitive to low temperature (≤500 °C) cooling (e.g., metallography, 40Ar–39Ar ages, 244Pu fission track). We developed a novel numerical thermal model that incorporates fragmentation of an initial onion shell body and reassembly into a rubble pile body that reproduces both the fast cooling from high temperatures and the slow cooling through low temperatures observed in chondritic meteorites. We hypothesize that OC parent bodies initially possessed onion shell thermal structures, but later experienced collisional breakup, then reaccreted rapidly to form thermally stable rubble-pile asteroids.

Oxygen isotope study of the Asuka-881020 CH chondrite I: Non-porphyritic chondrule

1,2Daisuke Nakashima,3,4Makoto Kimura,4Kouichi Yamada,5Takaaki Noguchi,2,6Takayuki Ushikubo,2NorikoKita
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.09.003]
1Department of Earth and Planetary Material Sciences, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
2Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
3National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan
4Faculty of Science, Ibaraki University, Mito, Ibaraki, 310-8512, Japan
5Faculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
6Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, JAMSTEC, Monobe-otsu 200, Nankoku, Kochi 783-8502, Japan
Copyright Elsevier

We measured oxygen isotope ratios and major elemental compositions of non-porphyritic chondrules and lithic fragments with various textures and chemical compositions in the Asuka-881020 CH chondrite. The oxygen isotope ratios plot along the primitive chondrule mineral line with Δ17O (= δ17O – 0.52 × δ18O) values from ∼ –21‰ to +5‰. The Δ17O values increase with decreasing Mg# (= molar [MgO]/[MgO+FeO]%) from 99.6 to 58.5, similarly to the Δ17O-Mg# trends for the chondrules in other carbonaceous chondrites.
Most of the measured objects (non-porphyritic chondrules and lithic fragments) including chondrules analyzed in the previous studies are classified into three groups based on the Δ17O values and chemistry; the –2.3‰ group with FeO-poor compositions (the most abundant group), the +1.4‰ group with FeO-rich compositions, and the –6.3‰ group with FeO-poor compositions. Skeletal olivine and magnesian cryptocrystalline (MgCC) chondrules and MgCC chondrule fragments, which are the –2.3‰ group objects, may have formed via fractional condensation in the isotopically uniform gaseous environment with Δ17O of –2.3‰. When silica-normative materials condensed from gas at ∼ 1200 K, 16O-rich refractory solids, similar to Ca-Al-rich inclusions, were incorporated into the environment. The silica-normative materials that condensed onto the 16O-rich refractory solids were reheated at 1743 – 1968 K and formed cristobalite-bearing chondrules with Δ17O of ∼ –6‰. This scenario can explain the absence of silica-bearing chondrules in the –2.3‰ group and refractory element abundances in the cristobalite-bearing chondrules as high as those in the MgCC chondrules.
Refractory element abundances of the +1.4‰ group objects decrease from FeO-Al-rich and ferroan CC (FeCC) chondrules to FeCC chondrule fragments to FeNi metal-bearing to silica-bearing chondrules. This suggests the formation via fractional condensation in the isotopically uniform gaseous environment. The Δ17O values and FeO-rich compositions of this group could be explained by an addition of 16O-poor water ice as an oxidant to the relatively 16O-rich solids with Δ17O of –2.3‰, which may also explain existence of some MgCC chondrules and fragments with intermediate Δ17O values between –2.3‰ and +1.4‰. The immiscibility textures in the silica-bearing chondrules suggest a reheating event at a temperature of > 1968 K after condensation of silica-normative materials. Thus, the non-porphyritic chondrules and fragments in CH and CB chondrites, which are classified into three distinct Δ17O groups, require multiple chondrule-forming environments and heating events. Energy source for the heating events could be either impact plume and/or other dynamical processes in the protoplanetary disk, though a single heating event would not fully explain observed chemical and isotope signatures in these non-porphyritic chondrules.

Experiments quantifying elemental and isotopic fractionations during evaporation of CAI-like melts in low-pressure hydrogen and in vacuum: Constraints on thermal processing of CAI in the protoplanetary disk

1Ruslan A.Mendybaev,2,3Michiru Kamibayashi,4Fang-Zhen Teng,5Paul S.Savage,6R.Bastian Georg,1Frank M.Richter,2,3,7ShogoTachibana
Geochimica et Cosmochimca Acta (inPress) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.09.005]
1Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
2Department of Natural History Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
3Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
4Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
5School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9AL, Scotland
6Water Quality Center, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9L0G2, Canada
7Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, Tokyo 252-0222, Japan
Copyright Elsevier

It is widely believed that the precursors of coarse-grained CAIs in chondrites are solar nebula condensates that were later reheated and melted to a high degree. Such melting under low-pressure conditions is expected to result in evaporation of moderately volatile magnesium and silicon and their mass-dependent isotopic fractionation. The evaporation of silicate melts has been extensively studied in vacuum laboratory experiments and a large experimental database on chemical and isotopic fractionations now exists. Nevertheless, it remains unclear if vacuum evaporation of CAI-like melts adequately describes the evaporation in the hydrogen-rich gas of the solar nebula. Here we report the results of a detailed experimental study on evaporation of a such melt at 1600°C in both vacuum and low-pressure hydrogen gas, using 1.5- and 2.5-mm diameter samples. The experiments show that although at 2×10−4 bar H2 magnesium and silicon evaporate ∼2.8 times faster than at 2×10−5 bar H2 and ∼45 times faster than in vacuum, their relative evaporation rates and isotopic fractionation factors remain the same. This means that the chemical and isotopic evolutions of all evaporation residues plot along a single evaporation trajectory regardless of experimental conditions (vacuum or low-PH2) and sample size. The independence of chemical and isotopic evaporation trajectories on PH2 of the surrounding gas imply that the existing extensive experimental database on vacuum evaporation of CAI-like materials can be safely used to model the evaporation under solar nebula conditions, taking into account the dependence of evaporation kinetics on PH2.
The experimental data suggest that it would take less than 25 minutes at 1600°C to evaporate 15–50% of magnesium and 5–20% of silicon from a 2.5-mm diameter sample in a solar nebula with PH2∼2×10−4 bar and to enrich the residual melt in heavy magnesium and silicon isotopes up to δ25Mg ∼ 5–10‰ and δ29Si ∼ 2–4‰. The expected chemical and isotopic features are compatible to those typically observed in coarse-grained Type A and B CAIs. Evaporation for ∼1 hour will produce δ25Mg ∼30–35‰ and δ29Si ∼10–15‰, close to the values in highly fractionated Type F and FUN CAIs. These very short timescales suggest melting and evaporation of CAI precursors in very short dynamic heating events. The experimental results reported here provide a stringent test of proposed astrophysical models for the origin and evolution of CAIs.

Determination of soil moisture content at bukit bunuh meteorite impacted area using resistivity method and laboratory test

1Mohammed, M.A.,2Saad, R.,2Ismail, N.A.,3Muhammad, S.B.,2Yusoh, R.,4Mokhtar, S.
Journal of the Earth and Space Physics 45, 77-87 Link to Article [DOI: 10.22059/jesphys.2019.266387.1007041]
1Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Federal University, Lafia, Nigeria
2Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Physics, University Sains Malaysia, Pinang, Malaysia
3Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Nigeria
4Centre for Global Archeological Research, University Sains Malaysia, Pinang, Malaysia

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Best Practices for Determination of Initial 10Be/9Be in Early Solar System Materials by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

1Emilie T. Dunham,1Meenakshi Wadhwa,1Steven J. Desch,1Richard L. Hervig
Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/ggr.12329]
1School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ, 85287 USA

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Bidirectional reflectance spectroscopy 8. The angular width of the opposition effect in regolith-like media

1Bruce Hapke
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114105]
1Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Copyright Elsevier

The opposition effect is the sharp, narrow surge observed in the reflectance of a scattering medium near zero phase angle. Numerous observations and experiments have shown that the primary cause of the phenomenon in particulate media is coherent backscattering, in which wavelets traveling in opposite directions along chains of scatterers interfere constructively and generate the peak. A broader opposition surge caused by shadow hiding and preferential escape is also present, but is entangled with the incoherent continuum reflectance on which the coherent peak is superposed, making it difficult to identify and isolate. Theoretical models of media of independent scatterers predict that the angular width and shape of the coherent backscatter peak depend on the wavelength, porosity and particle size. It was hoped that remote measurements of the opposition effect would give information on the latter two quantities in planetary regoliths. However, observations and laboratory studies of media of large particles in contact with one another find little dependence on any of these quantities. Instead, these studies imply that the opposition effect in regolith-like media comes from reflection by short chains only a few scatterers long located on the surfaces of the particles of the medium, and that the lengths of these chains are proportional to the wavelength. Since the angular width of the peak is controlled by the ratio of the wavelength to the mean scattering chain length, the width is independent of wavelength. Because the wavelets never enter a particle, low albedo media can exhibit a strong coherent backscatter peak. Opposition effect peaks less than a degree wide on solar system bodies can imply an immature regolith; peaks several degrees wide imply a mature regolith.

Detecting Ce3+ as a biosignature mimicker using UV time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy: Implications for planetary missions

1,2,3S.Shkolyar,4E.Lalla,4,5M.Konstantindis,6K.Cote,4M.G.Daly,7A.Steele
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114093]
1Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD 21046, USA
2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
3Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA 98154, USA
4Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto M3J 1P3, ON, Canada
5Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto M3J 1P3, ON, Canada
6Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 1A7, ON, Canada
7Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C 20015, USA
Copyright Elsevier

Combined UV Raman and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy instruments will soon be launched onboard missions to planetary surfaces, including Mars, to search for biosignatures. However, the rare earth element Ce3+, found in many common and Mars-relevant minerals, can produce fluorescence features within the spectral window usually attributed to organic compounds in a LIF spectrum. This study explored the detection of Ce3+ as a biosignature mimicker using UV Raman-LIF mission instruments. We assessed how LIF spectra of a suite of synthetic CePO4 samples compare with those of organics, how varying concentrations of both Ce3+ and organics in Martian regolith simulant affect this comparison, and whether two additional data sets obtainable by combined UV Raman-LIF instruments, including time-resolved fluorescence decay lifetimes and Raman spectra, can distinguish Ce3+-containing samples from organics. Results showed that the dominant LIF features of Ce3+ (320 and 338 nm) are similar to those of the aromatic amino acid tryptophan (325 and 340 nm), even when Ce3+ samples were mixed in a Martian regolith simulant at a range of concentrations. Lifetimes were revealed to be 2–9 ns in Ce3+-containing samples, typical for organic fluorophores. These results support the erroneous interpretation that LIF spectra and lifetime values obtained on these samples constitute potential organic signatures. Raman spectroscopy results suggested that with UV laser excitation, Raman is unlikely to identify Ce-bearing samples due to strong absorption of Raman scattered energy by Ce3+. We conclude that biosignature searches using UV LIF and Raman spectroscopy instrumentation may encounter challenges with unambiguously distinguishing spectra of organic compounds from Ce-bearing compounds.