¹Roger L. Gibson,¹S’lindile S. Wela,^2,3Auriol S. P. Rae,¹Marco A. G. Andreoli
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.14275]
¹School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
²Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
³School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

The 369 m deep M4 drill hole, located ~18 km NNW of the center of the 146 Ma Morokweng impact structure (MIS), intersects shocked Archean granitoid gneisses and subsidiary dolerite intrusions that are cut by faults, cataclasites and mm- to m-wide suevitic and pseudotachylitic breccia dikes. The shock features in quartz in the gneisses and breccia dikes include decorated planar deformation features (PDFs), planar fractures, feather features, and toasting. Other minerals show features that may be shock-related, such as multiple sets of planar features and alternate twin ladder structures in feldspars, kink bands in biotite, and planar features in titanite, apatite, and zircon; however, these are variably annealed and/or overprinted by hydrothermal alteration effects, and confirmation of their origin awaits further study. Universal Stage measurements of PDF sets in quartz from 12 gneissic target rocks and from lithic and mineral clasts in three suevitic and three pseudotachylitic breccia dikes reveal four dominant sets: (0001), {10⁢1¯⁢3}, {10⁢1¯⁢4} and {10⁢1¯⁢2}. Based on these observations, the average peak shock pressure in these rocks is estimated at ≤16 GPa, which supports the original proximity (within one transient cavity radius) of these rocks to the point of impact. No discernible depth-dependent shock attenuation was noted in the core. These shock levels and the elevated structural position of the rocks in the M4 core relative to the impact melt sheet intersected in drill holes closer to the center of the MIS suggest that the M4 lithologies represent part of the parautochthonous peak ring volume that subsequently experienced 1.5–2 km of post-impact erosion before it was buried beneath younger sediments. Numerical modeling using the iSALE-2D code suggests that the original Morokweng crater had a rim-to-rim diameter of between 70 and 80 km, and that the rocks in the M4 core were originally located at a depth of 7–8 km and a radial distance of 8–9 km from the point of impact.

^1,2Jan L. Hellmann, ^3,4Gerrit Budde, ¹Lori N. Willhite, ¹Richard J. Walker
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2024.10.027]
¹Department of Geology, University of Maryland, 8000 Regents Drive, College Park, MD 20742, United States
²Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
³Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, 324 Brook Street, Providence, RI 02912, United States
⁴Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany
Copyright Elsevier

The short-lived 182Hf–182W system is widely used for constraining the chronology of the early Solar System, including the timing of the formation, thermal evolution, and differentiation of planetary bodies. Utilizing the full potential of the Hf–W system requires knowledge of the Hf/W ratio and W isotopic composition of primitive chondritic material. However, metal-silicate heterogeneity among chondritic samples can complicate accurately determining the Hf–W systematics of bulk chondrite parent bodies. Moreover, interpreting Hf–W data for chondrites may be complicated by potential nucleosynthetic W isotope anomalies. To this end, we report Hf/W ratios and W isotope compositions for bulk ordinary and enstatite chondrites, as well as the first such data for Rumuruti chondrites. We find that ordinary and Rumuruti chondrites show no resolvable nucleosynthetic anomalies, whereas resolved ε183W (i.e., 0.01 % deviation in 183W/184W from terrestrial standard) excesses in individual enstatite chondrites suggest the presence of nucleosynthetic W isotope anomalies in bulk meteorite samples originating in the inner Solar System. These anomalies necessitate corrections when accurately quantifying radiogenic 182W variations. Furthermore, several ordinary chondrites deviate in Hf/W ratios and W composition from the parent body compositions previously obtained from internal 182Hf–182W isochrons, indicating variations in the abundance of metal across different chondrite samples. Similarly, the Hf–W systematics of some enstatite chondrites also deviate from the parent body values, which can be attributed to the heterogeneous distribution of Hf carrier phases. The new observations highlight the challenges in obtaining Hf-W data that are representative of the chondrite parent bodies from individual chondrites, especially from metal-rich samples. By contrast, Rumuruti chondrites of variable petrologic types exhibit uniform Hf/W and 182W/184W ratios, suggesting that these samples are representative of their parent body. Whereas their Hf/W ratio is similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites, their W isotope composition is less radiogenic. This indicates that the Rumuruti precursor reservoir most likely had a significantly lower Hf/W ratio than the ratio measured in Rumuruti chondrites today. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the likely variations in Hf-W isotope systematics of iron meteorite parent bodies for accurately determining the timing of core formation.

^1,2K.R. Bermingham , ^1,2H.A. Tornabene , ²R.J. Walker , ¹L.V. Godfrey , ³B.S. Meyer , ²P. Piccoli , ^4,5,6,7S.J. Mojzsis
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2024.11.005]
¹Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
²Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson NC 29631 USA
⁴HUN-REN, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences (CSsFK), MTA Centre for Excellence, 1121 Budapest, Hungary
⁵Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, UZA 2, Josef-Holaubek-Platz 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
⁶Department of Geosciences, Centre for Planetary Habitability (PHAB), University of Oslo, Postboks 1028 Blindern 0316 Oslo, Norway
⁷Institute for Earth Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller University, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany
Copyright Elsevier

Constraining the origin of Earth’s building blocks requires knowledge of the chemical and isotopic characteristics of the source region(s) where these materials accreted. The siderophile elements Mo and Ru are well suited to investigating the mass-independent nucleosynthetic (i.e., “genetic”) signatures of material that contributed to the latter stages of Earth’s formation. Studies contrasting the Mo and Ru isotopic compositions of the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) to genetic signatures of meteorites, however, have reported conflicting estimates of the proportions of the non-carbonaceous type or NC (presumptive inner Solar System origin) and carbonaceous chondrite type or CC (presumptive outer Solar System origin) materials delivered to Earth during late-stage accretion (likely including the Moon-forming event and onwards). The present study reports new mass-independent isotopic data for Mo, which are presumed to reflect the composition of the BSE. A comparison of the new estimate for the BSE composition with new data for a select suite of NC iron meteorites is used to constrain the genetic characteristics of materials accreted to Earth during late-stage accretion. Results indicate that the final 10 to 20 wt% of Earth’s accretion was dominated by NC materials that were likely sourced from the inner Solar System, although the addition of minor proportions of CC materials, as has been suggested to occur during accretion of the final 0.5 to 1 wt% of Earth’s mass, remains possible. If this interpretation is correct, it brings estimates of the genetic signatures of Mo and Ru during the final 10 to 20 wt% of Earth accretion into concordance.

¹S. Chakraborty, ²B. Raychaudhuri, ³T. Pratim Das, ⁴S. Das, ¹M. Roy
Icarus (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2024.116365]
¹Narula Institute of Technology, West Bengal, India
²Presidency University, West Bengal, India
³Science Program Office, ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore, India
⁴Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, India
Copyright Elsevier

This work reports the spatial and diurnal variations of the number densities of lunar molecular water (H2O), atomic mass unit (amu) 18 and hydroxyl (OH), amu 17 over low (0° to 30°), middle (31° to 60°) and high (61° to 80°) latitudinal regions of the lunar exosphere during the pre-sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight periods using the mass spectrometric data of CHandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) on board Chandrayaan-2, the second lunar mission developed in India. Both H2O and OH exhibit, particularly in the low latitude regions, a trend of increasing number density after the sunrise and up to noon, followed by a decrease till sunset. An overall higher density of H2O is obtained compared to the previous reports. The findings are justified in terms of the polar orbital height of the instrument and the duration of data procurement. The maximum number density for the low, middle and high latitudes reaches 5225 cm−3, 5135 cm−3 and 3747 cm−3, respectively. The corresponding OH abundances are found to be 5079 cm−3, 5565 cm−3 and 5720 cm−3. The diurnal variations of H2O and OH and their comparisons, similar to those of the present report may provide suitable means for tracing the lunar water cycle. The CHACE-2 observations imply that the influence of magnetotail passage on volatiles like water is to be further quantified in future missions with other sensors.

¹Xiao-Wen Liu, ^1,2Ai-Cheng Zhang, ³Li-Hui Chen, ¹Lang Zhang, ³Xiao-Jun Wang, ^2,4Jia Liu, ^2,4Li-Ping Qin, ⁵Yu Liu, ⁵Qiu-Li Li, ⁵Xiao-Xiao Ling
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2024.11.004]
¹State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
²CAS Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetary, Hefei 230026, China
³State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
⁴CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
⁵State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Copyright Elsevier

Understanding of the diversity and petrogenesis of achondrites is critical for deciphering magmatic processes and the early evolution of planets and asteroids. Here, we report the detailed petrologic, mineralogical, geochemical, and chronological features of the unbrecciated Vestan meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 8326. We found that NWA 8326 is composed of coarse-grained orthopyroxene (∼74 vol%), plagioclase (∼19 vol%), fine-grained augite (∼5 vol%), and many accessory minerals such as chromite, ilmenite, Fe-sulfide, silica phases, K-feldspar, Ca-phosphate phases, zircon, baddeleyite, rutile, and primary Si,Al,K-rich glass, differing from typical howardite-eucrite-diogenite meteorites. Based on textural feature and compositional calculation of pyroxene, we suggest that the coarse-grained orthopyroxene was inverted from primary pigeonite and NWA 8326 should be classified as a pigeonite cumulate eucrite. The oxygen and chromium isotope data (Δ¹⁷O =  − 0.254 ± 0.009 ‰; ε⁵⁴Cr =  − 0.60 ± 0.06) support this classification. A few zircon aggregates are observed in NWA 8326 and the grains therein show a core-mantle zoned texture in cathodoluminescence (CL) images, with the cores being dark and Al-rich while the mantles being bright and Al-poor. We interpret that the CL-dark cores are xenocrystic zircon grains derived from eucrites, whose presence indicates that NWA 8326 should have formed through partial melting of the Vestan mantle, with assimilation of eucritic material. The presence of xenocrystic zircon and primary Si,Al,K-rich glass and the large compositional variation of plagioclase indicate that NWA 8326 is an unequilibrated cumulate eucrite and hence the zircon ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb age of 4559.2 ± 5.2 (2σ) Ma represents the crystallization of NWA 8326. Reconciling the cumulative texture with the presence of the chemically evolved glass, NWA 8326 would be excavated during the late stage of its crystallization and escaped the prevalent crustal thermal metamorphism of the eucrite parent body. The Mg isotopic composition of NWA 8326 is higher than most diogenites, which suggests that the parent magma of such a pigeonite cumulate eucrite was derived from a source region with heavier magnesium isotopic composition (μ²⁵Mg: −90 to − 96 ppm).

¹Chi Ma,²Alexander N. Krot,²Kazuhide Nagashima,³Tasha Dunn
The American Mineralogist 109, 2006-2012 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2023-9283]
¹Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, U.S.A.
²Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A.
³Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, Maine 04901, U.S.A.
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Louisfuchsite (IMA 2022-024), with an end-member formula Ca₂(Mg₄Ti₂)(Al₄Si₂)O₂₀, is a new refractory mineral identified in a Ca-Al-rich inclusion (CAI) from the NWA 4964 CK3.8 carbonaceous chondrite. Louisfuchsite occurs with spinel, perovskite, grossmanite, plus secondary rutile, titanite, and ilmenite in three regions in the CAI. The mean chemical composition of type louisfuchsite by electron probe microanalysis is (wt%) Al₂O₃ 25.48, SiO₂ 18.40, MgO 17.92, TiO₂ 15.36, Ti₂O₃ 3.13, CaO 14.92, FeO 3.30, V₂O₃ 0.67, Cr₂O₃ 0.08, total 99.26, giving rise to an empirical formula of Ca_2.00(Mg_3.44Ti1.494+Fe_0.36Ti0.343+Al_0.24V0.073+Ca_0.06Cr_0.01)_Σ6.01(Al_3.63Si_2.37)_Σ6.00O₂₀. Louisfuchsite has the P1 rhönite structure with a = 10.37(1) Å, b = 10.76(1) Å, c = 8.90(1) Å, α = 106.0(1)°, β = 96.0(1)°, γ = 124.7(1)°, V = 741(2) ų, and Z = 2, as revealed by electron backscatter diffraction. The calculated density using the measured composition is 3.44 g/cm³. Louisfuchsite is a new refractory phase from the solar nebula, crystallized from an ¹⁶O-rich (Δ¹⁷O ~ −24 ± 2‰) refractory melt with the initial ²⁶Al/²⁷Al ratio of (5.09 ± 0.58) × 10⁻⁵ under reduced conditions. The mineral name is in honor of Louis Fuchs (1915−1991), a mineralogist at Argonne National Laboratory, for his many contributions to mineralogical research on meteorites.

¹Janice L. Bishop,²Peter Schiffman,³Enver Murad,⁴Randal J. Southard,¹Lukas Gruendler,^5,6M. Darby Dyar,⁷Melissa D. Lane
American Mineralogist 109, 1871-1887 Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2023-9153]
¹SETI Institute, Mountain View, California 94043, U.S.A.
²Department of Geology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, U.S.A.
³Bavarian Geologic Survey, Marktredwitz, Germany
⁴Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, California 95616, U.S.A.
⁵Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona 85719, U.S.A.
⁶Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts 01075, U.S.A.
⁷Fibernetics, Lititz, Pennsylvania 17543, U.S.A.
Copyright The Mineralogical Society of America

Solfataric alteration at the South Sulfur Bank of the former Kilauea caldera produced opal, Mg- and Fe-rich smectites, gypsum, and jarosite through silica replacement of pyroclastic Keanakako’i ash and leaching of basaltic lavas. This site on the island of Hawaii serves as an analog for formation of several minerals found in altered deposits on Mars. Two distinct alteration environments were characterized in this study, including a light-toned, high-silica, friable outcrop adjacent to the vents and a bedded outcrop containing alternating orange/tan layers composed of smectite, gypsum, jarosite, hydrated silica, and poorly crystalline ferric oxide phases. This banded unit likely represents the deposition of pyroclastic material with variations in chemistry over time that was subsequently altered via moderate hydrothermal and pedogenic processes and leaching of basaltic caprock to enhance the Si, Al, Mg, Fe, and Ca in the altered layers. In the light-toned, friable materials closest to the vents along the base of the outcrop, glassy fragments were extensively altered to opal-A plus anatase.

Lab measurements of samples returned from the field were conducted to replicate recent instruments at Mars and provide further characterization of the samples. These include elemental analyses, sample texture, XRD, SEM, VNIR/mid-IR reflectance spectroscopy, TIR emittance spectroscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Variations in the chemistry and mineralogy of these samples are consistent with alteration through hydrothermal processes as well as brines that may have formed through rain interacting with sulfuric fumes. Silica is present in all altered samples, and the friable pyroclastic ash material with the strongest alteration contains up to 80 wt% SiO₂.

Sulfate mineralization occurred at the South Sulfur Bank through fumarolic action from vents and likely included solfataric alteration from sulfuric gases and steam, as well as oxidation of sulfides in the basaltic caprock. Gypsum and jarosite are typically present in different layers of the altered wall, likely because they require different cations and pH regimes. The presence of both jarosite and gypsum in some samples implies high-sulfate concentrations and the availability of both Ca²⁺ and Fe³⁺ cations in a brine percolating through the altered ash. Pedogenic conditions are more consistent with the observed Mg-smectites and gypsum in the tan layers, while jarosite and nontronite likely formed under more acidic conditions in the darker orange layers. Assemblages of smectite, Ca-sulfates, and jarosite similar to the banded orange/tan unit in our study are observed on Mars at Gale crater, Noctis Labyrinthus, and Mawrth Vallis, while high-silica outcrops have been identified in parts of Gusev crater, Gale crater, and Nili Patera on Mars.

^1,2,3Sheng Gou et al. (>10)
Earth and Planetary Science Letters 648, 119091 Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.119091]
¹Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
²State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
³State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, 999078, China
Copyright Elsevier

China’s Chang’e-6 (CE6) sample return mission targeted the southern part of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the lunar farside. The spectrally peculiar mare basalts in the CE6 landing area had undergone complex evolution: (1) At least three mare floodings with low- to intermediate-titanium (Ti) contents and a total volume of > 798 km3 occurred during the Imbrian and Eratosthenian periods; (2) The scales of basalt eruption decreased with time, and nine wrinkle ridges (WRs) formed during different stages of floodings; (3) Exotic non-mare materials at the CE6 sampling site might be chiefly from noritic Chaffee S crater (∼16.6 cm-thick) and anorthositic Vavilov crater (∼1.7 cm-thick). (4) Impact gardening would mix local low/intermediate-Ti basalts and exotic non-mare materials. After analyzing the local basalt-dominant samples collected by the CE6 probe with sophisticated instruments in the terrestrial laboratories, a series of lunar scientific problems would be addressed definitely, for example, the ages and compositions of the mare basalts, the evolution of the low- and intermediate-Ti basalts, and the effects of solar wind on the lunar regolith. In addition, if the returned samples contain exotic impact melts and ejecta of both the Apollo and SPA basins, analyses on these non-mare materials would help to constrain the timing of the Apollo and SPA impact events, the extent and composition of the proposed (differentiated) SPA melt pool, and even the compositions of the lunar lower crust/upper mantle. Addressing these fundamental problems would be a significant contribution to the lunar science community.

¹Nadja Drabon,¹Andrew H. Knoll,²Donald R. Lowe,³Stefano M. Bernasconi, ¹Alec R. Brenner,²David A. Mucciarone
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America (PNAS) 121, e2408721121 Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2408721121]
¹Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
²Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
³Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich 8092, Switzerland

Large meteorite impacts must have strongly affected the habitability of the early Earth. Rocks of the Archean Eon record at least 16 major impact events, involving bolides larger than 10 km in diameter. These impacts probably had severe, albeit temporary, consequences for surface environments. However, their effect on early life is not well understood. Here, we analyze the sedimentology, petrography, and carbon isotope geochemistry of sedimentary rocks across the S2 impact event (37 to 58 km carbonaceous chondrite) forming part of the 3.26 Ga Fig Tree Group, South Africa, to evaluate its environmental effects and biological consequences. The impact initiated 1) a giant tsunami that mixed Fe2+-rich deep waters into the Fe2+-poor shallow waters and washed debris into coastal areas, 2) heating that caused partial evaporation of surface ocean waters and likely a short-term increase in weathering and erosion on land, and 3) injection of P from vaporization of the S2 bolide. Strata immediately above the S2 impact event contain abundant siderites, which are associated with organic matter and exhibit light and variable δ13Ccarb values. This is consistent with microbial iron cycling in the wake of the impact event. Thus, the S2 impact likely had regional, if not global, positive and negative effects on life. The tsunami, atmospheric heating, and darkness would likely have decimated phototrophic microbes in the shallow water column. However, the biosphere likely recovered rapidly, and, in the medium term, the increase in nutrients and iron likely facilitated microbial blooms, especially of iron-cycling microbes.

¹Derek W. G. Sears,¹Alexander Sehlke,²Harrison H. Schmitt, the ANGSA Science Team
Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets) Open Access Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JE008358]
¹NASA Ames Research Center/Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Moffett Field, CA, USA
²Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

By placing Apollo 17 regolith samples in a freezer, and storing an equivalent set at room temperature, NASA effectively performed a 50-year experiment in the kinetics of natural thermoluminescence (TL) of the lunar regolith. We have performed a detailed analysis of the TL characteristics of four regolith samples: a sunlit sample near the landing site (70180), a sample 3 m deep near the landing site (70001), a sample partially shaded by a boulder (72320), and a sample completely shaded by a boulder (76240). We find evidence for a total of eight discrete TL peaks, five apparent in curves for samples in the natural state and seven in samples irradiated in the laboratory at room temperature. For each peak, we suggest values for peak temperatures and the kinetic parameters E (activation energy, i.e. “trap depth,” eV) and s (Arrhenius factor, s−1). The lowest natural TL peak in the continuously shaded sample 76240 dropped in intensity by 60 ± 10% (1976 vs. present room temperature samples) and 43 ± 8% (freezer vs. room temperature samples) over the 50-year storage period, while sunlit and partially shaded samples (70001, 70180, 72321, 72320) showed no change. These results are consistent with the E and s parameters we determined. The large number of peaks, and the appearance of additional peaks after irradiation at room temperature, and literature data, suggest that glow curve peaks are present in lunar regolith at ∼100 K and their intensity can be used to determine temperature and storage time. Thus, a TL instrument on the Moon could be used to prospect for micro-cold traps capable of the storage of water and other volatiles.