¹Victoria Froh,¹Maitrayee Bose,^2,3Martin D.Suttle,⁴Jacopo Nava,^2,5Luigi Folco,¹Lynda B.Williams,⁶JulieCastillo-Rogez
Icarus (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115300]
¹School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
²School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
³Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
⁴University of Padova, Department of Geosciences, Via G.Gradenigo 6, 35131 Padova, Italy
⁵CISUP, Centro per l’Integrazione della Strumentazione dell’Università di Pisa, Lungarno Pacinotti 43, 56126 Pisa, Italy
⁶Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
Copyright: Elsevier

Micrometeorites represent a major potential source of volatiles for the early Earth, although often overlooked due to their small sizes and the effects of atmospheric entry. In this study we explore an unusual ~2000 μm, fine-grained unmelted micrometeorite TAM19B-7 derived from a water-rich C-type asteroid. Previous analysis revealed a unique O-isotope composition and intensely aqueously altered geological history. We investigated its carbon isotopic composition using the NanoSIMS and characterized the carbon-bearing carriers using Raman and Near-Infrared spectroscopy. We found that TAM19B-7 has a 13C enriched bulk composition (δ13C = +3 ± 8 ‰), including a domain with 13C depletion (δ13C = −27.1 ‰). Furthermore, a few micro-scale domains show 13C enrichments (δ13C from +12.9 ‰ to +32.7 ‰) suggesting much of the particle’s carbon content was reprocessed into fine-grained carbonates, likely calcite. The heavy bulk C-isotope composition of TAM19B-7 indicates either open system gas loss during aqueous alteration or carbonate formation from isotopically heavy soluble organics. Carbonates have been detected on small body surfaces, including across dwarf planet Ceres, and on the C-type asteroids Bennu and Ryugu. The preservation of both carbonates with 13C enrichments and organic carbon with 13C depletion in TAM19B-7, despite having been flash heated to high temperatures (<1000 °C), demonstrates the importance of cosmic dust as a volatile reservoir.

^1,2Allison Pease,²Jie Li
Earth and Planetary Science Letters 599, 117865 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117865]
¹Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
²Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA
Copyright Elsevier

Mercury has fascinated researchers for decades due to its sizable metallic core and weak magnetic field. The behavior of Fe-S and (Fe, Ni)-S systems provides constraints on core conditions and regimes of solidification to predict magnetic field strength. In this study, we investigate the melting behavior of the (Fe, Ni)-S system, a candidate composition to model the Mercurian core. We observe that the Fe-S liquidus has an inflection point at ∼10 wt.% S at 14 GPa and ∼11.5 wt.% S at 24 GPa, while (Fe, Ni)-S does not. At 24 GPa, Ni may lower the melting point of the Fe-S system by as much as 300 °C, indicating that solidification models and adiabatic calculations must account for the presence of Ni.

^1,2,3Poole, Graeme M.,¹Stumpf, Roland,¹Rehkämper, Mark
Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 37, 783-794 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.1039/d1ja00468a]
¹Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
²School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom
³Imaging and Analysis Centre, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom

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¹Tian, Shengyu,¹Moynier, Frederic,¹Inglis, Edward C.,²Jensen, Ninna K.,²Deng, Zhengbin,²Schiller, Martin,^1,2Bizzarro, Martin
Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 37, 656 – 662 Link to Article [DOI 10.1039/d1ja00418b]
¹Université de Paris, Institut de Physique Du Globe de Paris, CNRS, Paris cedex 05, France
²Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

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^1,2Greber, Nicolas D.,³Van Zuilenc, Kirsten
Chimia 76, 18-25 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.2533/chimia.2022.18]
¹Natural History Museum of Geneva, Route de Malagnou 1, Geneva, CH-1208, Switzerland
²Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1+3, Bern, CH-3012, Switzerland
³Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands

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¹Wieler, Rainer
Chimia 76, 9-17 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.2533/chimia.2022.9]
¹ETH Zürich, Department of Earth Sciences, Clausiusstrasse 25, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland

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^1,2Damanveer S.Grewal,¹Tao Sun,^1,3Sanath Aithala,¹Taylor Hough,¹Rajdeep Dasgupta,^1,4Laurence Y.Yeung,⁵Edwin Schauble
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.10.025]
¹Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS 126, Houston, TX 77005, USA
²Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
³Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
⁴Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS 126, Houston, TX 77005, USA
⁵Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Copyright Elsevier

15N/14N ratios of meteorites are a powerful tool for tracing the journey of life-essential volatiles like nitrogen (N), carbon and water from nebular solids to the present-day rocky planets, including Earth. The utility of 15N/14N ratios of samples originating from differentiated protoplanets (e.g., iron meteorites) and planets (e.g., Earth’s mantle) for tracing this journey could be affected by the fractionation of N isotopes during core-mantle differentiation, which would overprint their primitive compositions. The extent of N isotopic fractionation during core-mantle differentiation and its effect on the 15N/14N ratios of resulting metallic and silicate reservoirs is, however, poorly understood. Using high pressure-temperature experiments, here we show that N isotopic fractionation between metallic and silicate melts (Δ15Nalloy–silicate = δ15Nalloy – δ15Nsilicate = –3.3‰ to –1.0‰) is limited across a wide range of oxygen fugacity and is much smaller than previous estimates. Also, we present ab initio calculations based on the relevant N speciation in metallic and silicate melts confirming both the magnitude and direction of N isotopic fractionation predicted by our experimental results. Limited N isotopic fractionation during core-mantle differentiation suggests that the core and mantle relicts largely preserve the N isotopic compositions of their bulk bodies. Based on the δ15N values of non-carbonaceous iron meteorites (as low as –95‰), we predict that the extent of variations in the N isotopic compositions of inner solar system protoplanets was larger than that recorded by enstatite chondrites (δ15N = –29‰ to –6‰). As most of the Earth grew primarily via the accretion of similar inner solar system protoplanets, a relatively high δ15N value of present-day Earth’s primitive mantle (–5‰) cannot be explained by the accretion of enstatite chondrite-like materials alone and necessitates a significant contribution of 15N-rich materials to the Earth’s interior.

¹Ohara, Satoshi,²Naka, Takashi,³Hashishin, Takeshi
Science Advances 8, eabj2487 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abj2487]
¹Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, 11-1 Mihogaoka, Osaka, Ibaraki, 567-0047, Japan
²National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Ibaraki, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan
³Division of Materials Science and Chemistry, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Division of Surface and Grain Boundary, Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, Kumamoto, 860-8555, Japan

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¹Elkins-Tanton, Linda T. et al. (>10)
Space Science Reviews 218, 17 Open Access Link to Article [DOI 10.1007/s11214-022-00880-9]
¹School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, 86387-2001, AZ, United States

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¹Miles Lindner,^1,2Dominik C. Hezel,^1,2Axel Gerdes,^1,2Horst R. Marschall,^1,3Frank E. Brenker
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13917]
¹Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
²Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe Universität, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
³Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822 USA
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Enriched shergottites contain interstitial Si-rich mesostasis; however, it is unclear whether such mesostasis is formed by impact or magmatic processes. We use laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U–Pb measurements of minerals within the interstitial Si-rich mesostasis and of merrillite within the coarse-grained groundmass of Martian-enriched gabbroic shergottite Northwest Africa (NWA) 6963. The date derived of tranquillityite, Cl-apatite, baddeleyite, and feldspar from the Si-rich mesostasis is 172.4 ± 6.1 Ma, and the derived merrillite date is 178.3 ± 10.6 Ma. We conclude, based on textural observation, that merrillite is a late magmatic phase in NWA 6963, that it was not produced by shock, and that its U–Pb-system was not reset by shock. The indistinguishable dates of the gabbroic merrillite and the minerals within the Si-rich mesostasis in NWA 6963 indicate that the Si-rich mesostasis represents a late-stage differentiated melt produced in the final phase of the magmatic history of the gabbroic rock and not a shock melt. This can likely be transferred to similar Si-rich mesostases in other enriched shergottites and opens the possibility for investigations of Si-rich mesostasis in enriched shergottites to access their magmatic evolution. Our results also provide a crystallization age of 174 ± 6 Ma (weighted average) for NWA 6963.