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1.
Abstract– We have examined the relationship between natural thermoluminescence (TL) and 26Al in 120 Antarctic meteorites in order to explore the orbital history and terrestrial ages of these meteorites. Our results confirm the observations of Hasan et al. (1987) which were based on 23 meteorites. For most meteorites there was a positive correlation between natural TL and 26Al, reflecting their similarity in decay rate under Antarctic conditions and thus in terrestrial age. For a small group with low TL and high 26Al a small perihelion was proposed. Within this group, natural TL decreases with terrestrial age as determined by 36Cl measurements, although the rate of TL decay is faster (half‐life approximately 10 ka) and the ages that can be determined are smaller (<200 ka) than for most meteorites. The faster decay rate and lower natural TL levels are a reflection of recent exposure to higher radiation doses and higher temperatures, since this history would populate less stable TL traps with smaller electron densities. We sort the 120 meteorites by perihelion and terrestrial age. The normal perihelion group range up to approximately 1000 ka and the small perihelion group range up to approximately 200 ka. An intermediate perihelion group tends to have short terrestrial ages (20–60 ka). There is acceptable agreement between most (34 out of 43) of our present terrestrial age estimates and those determined by isotopic means, the exceptions reflecting complex irradiation histories, long burial times in the Antarctic, or other issues.  相似文献   

2.
Abstract— We have obtained minimum age estimates for the sand units underlying the two largest meteorite deflation surfaces in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, USA, using thermoluminescence dating techniques. The dates obtained ranged from 53.5 (±5.4) to 95.2 (±9.5) ka, and must be considered lower limits for the terrestrial ages of the meteorites found within these specific deflation surfaces. These ages greatly exceed previous measurements from adjacent meteorite-producing deflation basins. We find that Roosevelt County meteorites are probably terrestrial contemporaries of the meteorites found at most accumulation zones in Antarctica. The apparent high meteorite accumulation rate reported for Roosevelt County by Zolensky et al. (1990) is incorrect, as it used an age of 16 ka for all Roosevelt County recovery surfaces. We conclude that the extreme variability of terrestrial ages of the Roosevelt County deflation surfaces effectively precludes their use for calculations of the meteorite accumulation rate at the Earth's surface.  相似文献   

3.
Abstract We report on a series of 27 14C terrestrial ages of meteorites from four states in the central and southwestern USA. These results were compared to the earlier work of Boeckl (1972). Our results showed that the weathering rate for destruction of meteorites is lower than suggested by Boeckl (1972). We estimated a “half-life” for removal of meteorites of about 10 to 15 ka, similar to that derived for Roosevelt County meteorites. We also studied the weathering of these meteorites compared to terrestrial age. Only a weak correlation was observed, and for these meteorites the degree of weathering can only be taken as a weak indicator of terrestrial residence time. We also measured the δ 13C and 14C and amount of weathering-product carbonates which show some interesting variations with the length of time the meteorites have been exposed to weathering.  相似文献   

4.
Abstract— Evolved gas analysis has been used to study the weathering of ordinary chondrites from Roosevelt County (western United States) and from the Sahara (Daraj, western Libya). An interpretation of the evolved gas analysis curves was possible by comparing the data measured on meteorites with the results of analysis on selected Fe minerals as well as chemically synthesised Fe compounds. The amount of H2O released over the temperature range from 25 °C to 400 °C, and the terrestrial age of the meteorites show a weak correlation. With a higher weathering grade (C,D) that is usually not any longer, H2 is evolved >1300 °C, and O2 is the dominant species in this temperature region. The amount of evolved CO2 and SO2 in different temperature ranges shows significant varieties between specimens from the two desert localities.  相似文献   

5.
Abstract– We have investigated the terrestrial ages, or residence times, of 78 meteorites (representing 73 discrete falls) recovered in Western Australia, and one from South Australia, using both 14C measurements and also 14C/10Be. The samples studied included two ureilites, one CK and one EL chondrite. We have included 10Be measurements from 30 meteorites, including some meteorites for which the 14C terrestrial age was previously determined. We find that the 14C/10Be terrestrial ages are more precise than 14C alone, as we can correct for shielding effects. In general, the two different age determinations age by 14C–10Be are precise to 0.5–1 ka and 14C alone within 1–2 ka. However, measurement of the 14C age alone gives good agreement with the 14C–10Be for most samples. The study of the terrestrial ages of meteorites gives us useful information concerning the storage and weathering of meteorites and the study of fall times and terrestrial age. We have compared the terrestrial ages to weathering, degree of oxidation (estimated from Mössbauer studies) and Δ17O. In this study, we found that weathering is not well correlated with terrestrial age for Nullarbor meteorites. However, there is a good correlation between degree of oxidation and Δ17O. The implications for the study of terrestrial ages and weathering from other desert environments will be discussed.  相似文献   

6.
We describe the geological, geomorphological, and paleoclimatic setting of the Sahara of North Africa in particular, focused on the main meteorite dense collection areas (DCA; Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya). We report on the outcome of several meteorite recovery field expeditions in Morocco and Tunisia since 2008, by car and by foot, that applied systematic search methods. The number of meteorites collected is 41 ordinary chondrites and one brachinite. The statistics of unpaired ordinary chondrites indicates that H chondrites are more abundant (21) than L chondrites (12), while LL chondrites are rare (2). Our meteorite density estimates for Tunisia and Morocco are in the order of magnitude of 1 met km?2. An estimate of the total maximum number of meteorites that could be recovered from the Sahara is 780,000 meteorites. We selected 23 meteorites from Aridal, Bou Kra, Bir Zar, and Tieret DCAs for 14C dating. The results show a wide range of terrestrial ages from 0.4 to more than 40 kyr with a majority of meteorites showing ages between 0.4 and 20 kyr. The weathering degree of these meteorites is ranges from minor (W1) to strong (W4). The highest weathering grades result from repeated oscillations between high and low humidity in the Sahara. However, there appears to be no correlation between weathering grade and terrestrial age of meteorites.  相似文献   

7.
Abstract— Miono et al. (1990) and Miono and Nakanishi (1994) have proposed that the build‐up of natural thermoluminescence (TL) in a drained layer directly below the meteorite fusion crust can be used to determine terrestrial ages of meteorites in the 40 to 200 ka range. We have measured the natural TL of the drained layer of 15 meteorites. The data indicate that this technique could be used to determine terrestrial ages of meteorites with ages <200 ka, after which TL equilibrium is reached. Comparison of TL build‐up with terrestrial ages for a suite of Antarctic meteorites suggests that the meteorites have been exposed to temperatures of 0 to 5 °C. The close correspondence between natural TL levels and surface exposure TL growth curves suggest that Allan Hills meteorites with ages <200 ka have spent a significant portion of their terrestrial history exposed on the ice surface, rather than being buried in the ice sheet. The technique is, however, sensitive to thermal history; and, for Antarctic meteorites with terrestrial ages <200 ka, natural TL of the drained zone largely reflects exposure on the ice surface.  相似文献   

8.
Abstract— The discovery of 154 meteorite fragments within an 11 km2 area of wind-excavated basins in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, permits a new calculation of the accumulation rate of meteorite falls at the Earth's surface. Thermoluminescence dating of the coversand unit comprising the prime recovery surface suggests the maximum terrestrial age of the meteorites to be about 16.0 ka. The 68 meteorite fragments subjected to petrological analyses represent a minimum of 49 individual falls. Collection bias has largely excluded carbonaceous chondrites and achondrites, requiring the accumulation rate derived from the recovered samples to be increased by a factor of 1.25. Terrestrial weathering destroying ordinary chondrites can be modelled as a first-order decay process with an estimated half-life of 3.5 ± 1.9 ka on the semiarid American High Plains. Having accounted for the age of the recovery surface, area of field searches, pairing of finds, collection bias and weathering half-life, we calculate an accumulation rate of 9.4 × 102 falls/a per 106 km2 for falls > 10 g total mass. This figure exceeds the best-constrained previous estimate by more than an order of magnitude. One possible reason for this disparity may be the extraordinary length of the fall record preserved in the surficial geology of Roosevelt County. The high accumulation rate determined for the past 16 ka may point to the existence of periods when the meteorite fall rate was significantly greater than at present.  相似文献   

9.
Abstract— A new 2.8 kg meteorite find from the United States, Kansas University, is classified as an L6 (S3) chondrite based on optical microscopy and electron microprobe analysis of mafic minerals. Natural thermo-luminescence (TL) and 14C measurements suggest that the Kansas University meteorite has a short terrestrial age compared to other meteorite finds from this area and is not paired with the other local meteorite finds, Densmore (1879), Lawrence, Kansas and Long Island, Kansas.  相似文献   

10.
Abstract— We determined terrestrial ages of ordinary chondrites from the Lewis Cliff stranding area, East Antarctica, on the basis of the concentrations of cosmogenic 10Be (t½; = 1.51 Ma), 26Al (t½; = 0.705 Ma), and 36Cl (t½; = 0.301 Ma). After an initial 26Al γ-ray survey of 91 meteorites suggested that many have terrestrial ages >0.1 Ma, we selected 62 meteorites for 10Be and 26Al measurements by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and measured 36Cl in twelve of those. Low terrestrial ages (<0.1 Ma) were found for ～60% of the meteorites, whereas all others have ages between 0.1 and 0.5 Ma, except for one exceptional age of >2 Ma (Welten et al., 1997). Our major conclusions are: (1) The Lewis Cliff H-chondrites show similar ages to those from the Allan Hills icefields, but the L-chondrites are about a factor of 2 younger than those from Allan Hills, which indicates that Lewis Cliff is a younger stranding area. (2) The terrestrial age distributions at different parts of the Lewis Cliff stranding area generally agree with simple meteorite concentration models, although differences in weathering rate may also play a role. (3) We confirm that meteorites with natural thermoluminescence (TL) levels >80 krad are associated with low terrestrial ages (Benoit et al., 1992) but conclude that natural TL levels <80 krad can not be used to calculate the terrestrial age of a meteorite. Natural TL levels do seem useful to estimate relative terrestrial ages of large groups of meteorites and to determine differences in the surface exposure age of paired meteorite fragments. (4) Of the 62 meteorites measured with AMS, 31 were assigned to 11 different pairing groups, mainly on the basis of their cosmogenic nuclide record. The meteorites are estimated to represent between 42 and 52 distinct falls.  相似文献   

11.
Abstract— Fifty‐four fragments of ordinary chondrites from 50 finds representing all searched areas in central Oman and all weathering stages were selected to compare the physical, chemical, and mineralogical effect of terrestrial weathering with 14C terrestrial ages. 14C ages range from 2.0 to >49 kyr with a median value of 17.9 kyr. The peak of the age range, which is between 10–20 kyr, falls in an arid climate period. A comparison of the chemical composition of Omani chondrites with literature data for unweathered H and L chondrites demonstrates a strong enrichment in Sr and Ba, and depletion in S during weathering. Water contents in H chondrites increase with terrestrial age, whereas L chondrites show a rapid initial increase followed by nearly constant water content. Correlating Sr, Ba, and H2O with age indicates two absorption trends: i) an initial alteration within the first 20 kyr dominated by H2O uptake, mainly reflecting Fe‐Ni metal alteration, and ii) a second Ba‐and Sr‐dominated stage correlated with slower and less systematic weathering of troilite that starts after H2O reaches ?2 wt%. Sulfur released from troilite partly combines with Ba and Sr to form sulfate minerals. Other parameters correlated with 14C age are degree of weathering, color of powdered meteorites, and the Ni/Fe ratio. Chemical analyses of 145 soils show a high degree of homogeneity over the entire interior Oman Desert, indicating large‐scale mixing by wind. Soil samples collected from beneath meteorite finds typically are enriched in Ni and Co, confirming mobilization from the meteorites. High Cr and Ni concentrations in reference soil samples, which decrease from NE to SW, are due to detrital material from ultramafic rocks of the Oman Mountains.  相似文献   

12.
We report on the first meteorite search campaign in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The geology and proximity of our search region suggest that it is the north‐western extension of the Oman meteorite fields. We found 26 ordinary chondrites, bringing the total number of official meteorites from the UAE to 28. The campaign was organized and conducted in close cooperation with the UAE government and the main masses of the meteorites remained in the country where they will become part of an exhibition. The bulk composition of five meteorite and three soil samples indicates an uptake of U, Mo, Sr, Ba, Li, and Pb from the soil into the meteorites during terrestrial weathering. Terrestrial ages determined from 14C decay of 21 meteorites range from recent falls to 24.4 ka, with two meteorites having >37 ka and approximately 39 ka, respectively. Weak correlations between weathering degree, meteorite bulk chemical composition, and terrestrial age suggest highly localized weathering conditions, possibly related to abundant occurrences of sabkhas in the search region.  相似文献   

13.
Abstract— Natural and induced thermoluminescence (TL) data are reported for 12 meteorites recovered from the Allan Hills region of Antarctica by the European field party during the 1988/89 field season. The samples include one with extremely high natural TL, ALH88035, suggestive of exposure to unusually high radiation doses (i.e., low degrees of shielding), and one, ALH88034, whose low natural TL suggests reheating within the last 105 years. The remainder have natural TL values suggestive of terrestrial ages similar to those of other meteorites from Allan Hills. ALH88015 (L6) has induced TL data suggestive of intense shock. TL sensitivities of these meteorites are generally lower than observed falls of their petrologic types, as is also observed for Antarctic meteorites in general. Acid-washing experiments indicate that this is solely the result of terrestrial weathering rather than a nonterrestrial Antarctic—non-Antarctic difference. However, other TL parameters, such as natural TL and induced peak temperature-width, are unchanged by acid washing and are sensitive indicators of a meteorite's metamorphic and recent radiation history.  相似文献   

14.
Abstract— A set of iron meteorites was investigated for Re-Os isotopes and provides a well-defined isochron age of 4.624 ± 0.017 Ba and an initial 187Os/188Os ratio of 0.095636 ± 0.00009. Actual ages may be a few percent lower due to uncertainty on the 187Re decay constant. Within the small sample number presented here, there is no evidence for age differences between classes. A more detailed study of the meteorite Kodaïkanal shows that the metal reservoir of this meteorite formed approximately at the same time as the other iron meteorites, in contrast with the silicate inclusions which display a formation age of 3.67 Ba with all other chronometers. A collisional origin is in agreement with the data on this meteorite. Major secondary events do not affect the Re-Os system at the bulk rock scale in metal as it is the sole significant reservoir of these two elements. A Re-Os and Rb-Sr investigation of meteoritic troilite exhibits disturbed chronometric systems, which we attribute to the terrestrial history of the meteorite.  相似文献   

15.
The gamma‐ray activities of 33 meteorite samples (30 ordinary chondrites, 1 Mars meteorite, 1 iron, 1 howardite) collected during Omani‐Swiss meteorite search campaigns 2001–2008 were nondestructively measured using an ultralow background gamma‐ray detector. The results provide several types of information: Potassium and thorium concentrations were found to range within typical values for the meteorite types. Similar mean 26Al activities in groups of ordinary chondrites with (1) weathering degrees W0‐1 and low 14C terrestrial age and (2) weathering degree W3‐4 and high 14C terrestrial age are mostly consistent with activities observed in recent falls. The older group shows no significant depletion in 26Al. Among the least weathered samples, one meteorite (SaU 424) was found to contain detectable 22Na identifying it as a recent fall close to the year 2000. Based on an estimate of the surface area searched, the corresponding fall rate is ~120 events/106 km2*a, consistent with other estimations. Twelve samples from the large JaH 091 strewn field (total mass ~4.5 t) show significant variations of 26Al activities, including the highest values measured, consistent with a meteoroid radius of ~115 cm. Activities of 238U daughter elements demonstrate terrestrial contamination with 226Ra and possible loss of 222Rn. Recent contamination with small amounts of 137Cs is ubiquitous. We conclude that gamma‐ray spectroscopy of a selection of meteorites with low degrees of weathering is particularly useful to detect recent falls among meteorites collected in hot deserts.  相似文献   

16.
D.W. Sears 《Icarus》1980,44(1):190-206
The observations of G. F. Komovsky [Meteoritika21 (1961), 64–69] and A. Liener and J. Geiss (in Thermoluminescence of Geological Materials, Academic Press, New York, 1968), that the thermoluminescence (TL) sensitivity of meteorites correlates with their KAr age, have been confirmed using a suite of 22 ordinary chondrites. In order to interpret this observation, meteorite samples have been exposed to doses of α, β and γ radiation comparable with those experienced over the lifetime of the meteorites and given a dose of protons comparable to the total dose received from cosmic rays. There was no increase in TL sensitivity after these treatments, suggesting that, contrary to the ideas of earlier workers, the TL mechanism does not involve radiation damage. The TL sensitivity of meteorites is therefore time independent. On the other hand, samples of meteorite annealed in a furnace at temperatures between 450 and 1250°C for 1 hr suffered up to an order-of-magnitude decrease in TL sensitivity. Similarly, samples of meteorite artificially shocked to pressures of the order of 400 kbar suffered a comparable decrease in TL sensitivity. It is concluded that the correlation between TL sensitivity and K-Ar age is entirely a result of the low K-Ar age meteorites being shocked or reheated. Data on the thermal and mechanical histories of these meteorites, based on 40Ar?39Ar, metallographic, and X-ray diffraction studies, seem to be consistent with this finding.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract— Antarctic meteorites are considerably smaller, on average, than those recovered elsewhere in the world, and seem to represent a different portion of the mass distribution of infalling meteorites. When an infall rate appropriate to the size of Antarctic meteorites is used (1000 meteorites 10 grams or larger/km2/106 years), it is found that direct infall can produce the meteorite accumulations found on eight ice fields in the Allan Hills region in times ranging from a few thousand to nearly 200 000 years, with all but the Allan Hills Main and Near Western ice fields requiring less than 30 000 years. Meteorites incorporated into the ice over time are concentrated on the surface when the ice flows into a local area of rapid ablation. The calculated accumulation times, which can be considered the average age of the exposed ice, agree well with terrestrial ages for the meteorites and measured ages of exposed ice. Since vertical concentration of meteorites through removal of ice by ablation is sufficient to explain the observed meteorite accumulations, there is no need to invoke mechanisms to bring meteorites from large areas to the relatively small blue-ice patches where they are found. Once a meteorite is on a bare ice surface, freeze-thaw cycling and wind break down the meteorite and remove it from the ice. The weathering lifetime of a 100-gram meteorite on Antarctic ice is on the order of 10 000 ± 5000 years.  相似文献   

18.
We describe the geological, morphological, and climatic settings of two new meteorite collections from Atacama (Chile). The “El Médano collection” was recovered by systematic on‐foot search in El Médano and Caleta el Cobre dense collection areas and is composed of 213 meteorites before pairing, 142 after pairing. The “private collection” has been recovered by car by three private hunters and consists of 213 meteorites. Similar to other hot desert finds, and contrary to the falls and Antarctica finds, both collections show an overabundance of H chondrites. A recovery density can be calculated only for the El Médano collection and gives 251 and 168 meteorites larger than 10 g km?2, before and after pairing, respectively. It is by far the densest collection area described in hot deserts. The Atacama Desert is known to have been hyperarid for a long period of time and, based on cosmic‐ray exposure ages on the order of 1–10 Ma, to have been stable over a period of time of several million years. Such a high meteorite concentration might be explained invoking either a yet unclear concentration mechanism (possibly related to downslope creeping) or a previously underestimated meteorite flux in previous studies or an average terrestrial age over 2 Myr. This last hypothesis is supported by the high weathering grade of meteorites and by the common terrestrial fragmentation (with fragments scattered over a few meters) of recovered meteorites.  相似文献   

19.
It has been argued that the decay rates of several radioactive nuclides are slightly lower at Earth’s aphelion than at perihelion, and that this effect might depend on heliocentric distance. It might then be expected that nuclear decay rates be considerably lower at larger distances from the sun, e.g., in the asteroid belt at 2–3 AU from where most meteorites originate. If so, ages of meteorites obtained by analyses of radioactive nuclides and their stable daughter isotopes might be in error, since these ages are based on decay rates determined on Earth. Here we evaluate whether the large data base on nuclear cosmochronology offers any hint for discrepancies which might be due to radially variable decay rates. Chlorine-36 (t1/2 = 301,000 a) is produced in meteorites by interactions with cosmic rays and is the nuclide for which a decay rate dependence from heliocentric distance has been proposed, which, in principle, can be tested with our approach and the current data base. We show that compilations of 36Cl concentrations measured in meteorites offer no support for a spatially variable 36Cl decay rate. For very short-lived cosmic-ray produced radionuclides (half-lives < 10–100 days), the concentration should be different for meteorites hitting the Earth on the incoming vs. outgoing part of their orbit. However, the current data base of very short-lived radionuclides in freshly fallen meteorites is far from sufficient to deduce solid constraints. Constraints on the age of the Earth and the oldest meteorite phases obtained by the U–Pb dating technique give no hints for radially variable decay rates of the α-decaying nuclides 235U or 238U. Similarly, some of the oldest phases in meteorites have U–Pb ages whose differences agree almost perfectly with respective age differences obtained with “short-lived” radionuclides present in the early solar system, again indicating no variability of uranium decay rates in different meteorite parent bodies in the asteroid belt. Moreover, the oldest U–Pb ages of meteorites agree with the main-sequence age of the sun derived from helioseismology within the formal ∼1% uncertainty of the latter. Meteorite ages also provide no evidence for a decrease of decay rates with heliocentric distance for nuclides such as 87Rb (decay mode β−) 40K (β− and electron capture), and 147Sm (α).  相似文献   

20.
We have investigated 128 14C‐dated ordinary chondrites from Oman for macroscopically visible weathering parameters, for thin section‐based weathering degrees, and for chemical weathering parameters as analyzed with handheld X‐ray fluorescence. These 128 14C‐dated meteorites show an abundance maximum of terrestrial age at 19.9 ka, with a mean of 21.0 ka and a pronounced lack of samples between 0 and 10 ka. The weathering degree is evaluated in thin section using a refined weathering scale based on the current W0 to W6 classification of Wlotzka (1993), with five newly included intermediate steps resulting in a total of nine (formerly six) steps. We find significant correlations between terrestrial ages and several macroscopic weathering parameters. The correlation of various chemical parameters including Sr and Ba with terrestrial age is not very pronounced. The microscopic weathering degree of metal and sulfides with newly added intermediate steps shows the best correlation with 14C terrestrial ages, demonstrating the significance of the newly defined weathering steps. We demonstrate that the observed 14C terrestrial age distribution can be modeled from the abundance of meteorites with different weathering degrees, allowing the evaluation of an age‐frequency distribution for the whole meteorite population.  相似文献   

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