Gebel Kamil: The iron meteorite that formed the Kamil crater (Egypt)     

Massimo D’ORAZIO  Luigi FOLCO  Antonio ZEOLI  Carole CORDIER 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2011,46(8):1179-1196

Abstract– The 45 m in diameter Kamil impact crater was formed <5000 yr ago in the eastern Sahara, close to the southern border of modern Egypt. The original features of this structure, including thousands of fragments of the meteorite impactor, are extremely well preserved. With the exception of a single 83 kg regmaglypted individual, all specimens of Gebel Kamil (the iron meteorite that formed the Kamil crater) are explosion fragments weighing from <1 g to 34 kg. Gebel Kamil is an ungrouped Ni‐rich (about 20 wt% Ni) ataxite characterized by high Ge and Ga contents (approximately 120 μg g^?1 and approximately 50 μg g^?1, respectively) and by a very fine‐grained duplex plessite metal matrix. Accessory mineral phases in Gebel Kamil are schreibersite, troilite, daubréelite, and native copper. Meteorite fragments are cross‐cut by curvilinear shear bands formed during the explosive terrestrial impact. A systematic search around the crater revealed that meteorite fragments have a highly asymmetric distribution, with greater concentrations in the southeast sector and a broad maximum in meteorite concentration in the 125–160° N sector at about 200 m from the crater rim. The total mass of shrapnel specimens >10 g, inferred from the density map compiled in this study is 3400 kg. Field data indicate that the iron bolide approached the Earth’s crust from the northwest (305–340° N), travelling along a moderately oblique trajectory. Upon hypervelocity impact, the projectile was disrupted into thousands of fragments. Shattering was accompanied by some melting of the projectile and of the quartz‐arenite target rocks, which also suffered shock metamorphism.  相似文献   

Degassing, crystallization and eruption dynamics at Stromboli: trace element and lithium isotopic evidence from 2003 ashes     

Federica Schiavi  Katsura Kobayashi  Takuya Moriguti  Eizo Nakamura  Massimo Pompilio  Massimo Tiepolo  Riccardo Vannucci 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》2010,159(4):541-561

During its 1800-year-long persistent activity the Stromboli volcano has erupted a highly porphyritic (HP) volatile-poor scoriaceous magma and a low porphyritic (LP) volatile-rich pumiceous magma. The HP magma is erupted during normal Strombolian explosions and lava effusions, while the LP one is related to more energetic paroxysms. During the March–April 2003 explosive activity, Stromboli ejected two typologies of juvenile glassy ashes, namely highly vesicular LP shards and volatile-poor HP shards. Their textural and in situ chemical characteristics are used to unravel mutual relationships between HP and LP magmas, as well as magma dynamics within the shallow plumbing system. The mantle-normalized trace element patterns of both ash types show the typical arc-lava pattern; however, HP glasses possess incompatible element concentrations higher than LP glasses, along with Sr and Eu negative anomalies. HP shards are generally characterized by higher Li contents (to ~20 ppm) and lower δ⁷Li values (+1.2 to −3.8‰) with respect to LP shards (Li contents of 7–14 ppm and δ⁷Li ranging between +4.6 and +0.9‰). Fractional crystallization models based on major and trace element compositions, combined with a degassing model based on open-system Rayleigh distillation and on the assumption that ^melt/fluidD_Li > 1, show that abundant (~30%) plagioclase precipitation and variable degrees of degassing can lead the more primitive LP magma to evolve toward a differentiated (isotopically lighter) HP magma ponding in the upper conduit and undergoing slow continuous degassing-induced crystallization. This study also evidences that in March 2003 Stromboli volcano poured out a small early volume of LP magma that traveled slower within the conduit with respect to later and larger volumes of fast ascending LP magma erupted during the April 5 paroxysm. The different ascent rates and cooling rates of the two LP magma batches (i.e., pre- and post-paroxysm) resulted in small, but detectable, differences in their chemical signatures. Finally, this study highlights the high potential of in situ investigations of juvenile glassy ashes in petrologic and geochemical monitoring the volcanic activity and of Li isotopes as tracers of degassing processes within the shallow plumbing system.  相似文献   

Anatomy of a late Pleistocene clinoformal sedimentary body (Le Castella,Calabria, southern Italy): A case of prograding spit system?     

Massimo Zecchin  Mauro Caffau  Dario Civile  Cesare Roda 《Sedimentary Geology》2010,223(3-4):291-309

The Le Castella marine terrace is the smallest and youngest terrace of the Crotone area (southern Italy), and formed after a rapid marine ingression due to a glacio-eustatic rise outpacing the regional uplift of the area. The most prominent feature of the terrace deposits is a seaward-accreting clinoform about 10 m thick, inferred to be formed during forced regressive conditions. This prograding body is mostly composed of bioclastic material, and shows an internal complexity consisting of alternating oblique and sigmoid elementary units inferred to be produced mainly by changes of accommodation development. Foreset avalancing was due to sediment accumulation by gravity-flow processes, while topsets were characterized by the migration of medium- to large-scale dunes showing a unimodal palaeocurrent pattern, oblique with respect to the dip direction of the large-scale clinoform foresets. The Le Castella clinoform starts to develop from a topographic step on the basement due to tectonics, which also controlled the palaeoshoreline trend.The recognized stratigraphic and facies architectures, the palaeocurrent pattern, and the inferred palaeogeographic setting during deposition, all suggest that the Le Castella clinoform is an example of spit system attached to the mainland and accreted due to longshore transport. The present example contributes to establish criteria allowing the recognition of ancient spit systems, which still are poorly known and rarely documented in the pre-Quaternary geological record.  相似文献   

Constraints on metasomatized mantle under Central South America: evidence from Jurassic alkaline lamprophyre dykes from the Eastern Cordillera, NM Argentina     

Natalia Hauser  Massimo Matteini  Ricardo H. Omarini  Márcio M. Pimentel 《Mineralogy and Petrology》2010,100(3-4):153-184

In the Río Grande Valley, NW Argentina, several porphyritic panidiomorphic, ocelli-bearing dykes and sills intrude the Neoproterozoic to lower Paleozoic basement of the Eastern Cordillera. New petrographical and geochemical data permit us to classify these rocks as ocellar-analcime monchiquites, a feldspar-free variety of alkaline lamprophyre composed of Ti-rich-diopside/augite, Ti-rich biotite/phlogopite, forsteritic olivine, titanian-pargasite and analcime, with abundant ocelli filled with analcime/carbonate. In terms of geochemical compositions they are characterized by LILE and LREE enrichment and lack of Nb-Ta and Eu anomalies. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd initial ratios range between 0.70377 to 0.70781 and 0.512506 and 0.512716 respectively, and T_DM model ages vary between 0.25–0.64 Ga. A K-Ar age of 163?±?9 Ma suggests that these rocks are related to the pre-rifting stage of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic continental Salta Rift in NW Argentina. Partial melting of a heterogeneous enriched metasomatized lithospheric mantle, magma mixing and fractionation are envisaged to explain the petrographic, geochemical and isotope characteristics of these magmas.  相似文献