¹A.Galiano et al. (>10)
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.14315]
¹INAF-IAPS Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, Italy
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

The spectral analysis of CM meteorites can help to constrain the mineralogical composition of their parent body, the C-type asteroids. The CM2 NWA 12184 was spectrally examined employing seven complementary techniques at different spatial resolutions, including VIS-to-MIR reflectance and Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, the effects of space weathering on asteroids can be investigated by performing laboratory simulations on meteorites samples; thus, the meteorite was processed with He+ ions at 200 keV (maximum fluence of 1.0 × 1017 ions cm−2) to simulate the solar wind irradiation on C-type asteroids. We discriminated the mineralogical composition of the NWA 12184 at the millimeter scale and at the micrometer scale, investigating both matrix and chondrules. The ion experiment produced spectral darkening, reddening, shifting of the hydration band, and weakening of the absorption band ascribed to olivine in the VIS-NIR range, as well as the reduction in the olivine’s peak in MIR range, clue of the sample’s amorphization. The study identified the native mineralogy of the meteorite, the products of terrestrial weathering, and the aqueous and thermal alteration experienced by the parent body of the sample.

¹Kakeru Kukihara,¹Masaaki Miyahara,²Akira Yamaguchi,³Yoshio Takahashi,^4,5Yasuo Takeichi,⁶Naotaka Tomioka,⁷Eiji Ohtani
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.14316]
¹Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan
²National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan
³Department of Earth and Planetary, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
⁴Institute of Materials Structure Science, High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan
⁵School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
⁶Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, X-star, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Nankoku, Japan
⁷Department of Earth Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

The petrologic and mineralogical characteristics and alteration processes of the nakhlites NWA 6148 and NWA 10153 were studied. Both consist of augite, olivine, and mesostasis. Based on the characteristics of each volume fraction of the components and the chemical composition of olivine and pyroxene, NWA 6148 correspond to lava units crystallized at 1346–1391 Ma in the nakhlite body. The position of NWA 10153 in the nakhlite body is unclear. Iron oxides/hydroxides, barite, and calcite fill the fractures of NWA 6148, which are terrestrial weathering products. In NWA 10153, olivine grains are replaced by goethite, magnetite, saponite, amorphous silica, jarosite, and siderite. Although it is uncertain whether all of the alteration minerals were formed on the surface of Mars or on the surface of Earth, NWA 10153 records two different alteration environments: reducing, neutral to alkaline, and oxidizing and acidic. As in NWA 6148 and NWA 10153, the assemblage of alteration mineral species in other nakhlites is also heterogeneous even within the same lava unit. The nakhlite body was altered by the oxidizing acidic fluid after a CO32−-bearing reducing neutral to alkaline fluid. The drastic change of alteration environments may have been caused by an impact event.