¹Aryavart Anand,¹Pascal M. Kruttasch,¹Klaus Mezger
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13916]
¹Institut für Geologie, Universität Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1+3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

The meteorite Erg Chech (EC) 002 is the oldest felsic igneous rock from the solar system analyzed to date and provides a unique opportunity to study the formation of felsic crusts on differentiated protoplanets immediately after metal–silicate equilibration or core formation. The extinct ⁵³Mn-⁵³Cr chronometer provides chronological constraints on the formation of EC 002 by applying the isochron approach using chromite, metal–silicate–sulfide, and whole-rock fractions as well as “leachates” obtained by sequential digestion of a bulk sample. Assuming a chondritic evolution of its parent body, a ⁵³Cr/⁵²Cr model age is also obtained from the chromite fraction. The ⁵³Mn-⁵³Cr isochron age of 1.73 ± 0.96 Ma (anchored to D’Orbigny angrite) and the chromite model age constrained between $$ {1.46}_{-0.68}^{+0.78} $$ and $$ {2.18}_{-1.06}^{+1.32} $$ Ma after the formation of calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions (CAIs) agree with the ²⁶Al-²⁶Mg ages (anchored to CAIs) reported in previous studies. This indicates rapid cooling of EC 002 that allowed near-contemporaneous closure of multiple isotope systems. Additionally, excess in the neutron-rich ⁵⁴Cr (nucleosynthetic anomalies) combined with mass-independent isotope variations of ¹⁷O provides genealogical constraints on the accretion region of the EC 002 parent body. The ⁵⁴Cr and ¹⁷O isotope compositions of EC 002 confirm its origin in the “noncarbonaceous” reservoir and overlap with the vestoid material Northwest Africa 12217 and anomalous eucrite Elephant Moraine 92023. This indicates a common feeding zone during accretion in the protoplanetary disk between the source of EC 002 and vestoids. The enigmatic origin of iron meteorites remains still unresolved as EC 002, which is more like a differentiated crust, has an isotope composition that does not match known iron meteorite groups that were once planetesimal cores.