Abstract-By dissolving 30-400 kg of marine limestone in HCl and HF acid, our group has previously recovered common relict chromite grains (approximately 63-250 lm) from ordinary chondritic micrometeorites that fell on ancient sea floors, up to 500 Myr old. Here, we evaluate if CM group carbonaceous chondritic material, which makes up an important fraction of the micrometeorite flux today, contains analogous grains that can be searched for in acid residues. We dissolved 8 g of CM2 meteorite Acfer 331 in HF, which yielded a characteristic assemblage of both transparent Mg-Al-and opaque Cr-spinels >28 lm. We find on average 4.6 and 130 Mg-Al-spinel grains per gram in the 63-250 and 28-63 lm size fractions, respectively. These grains are mostly pink or colorless, and often characterized by heterogeneous Cr-content. Black, opaque Cr-spinel grains are absent from the >63 lm fraction, but in the 28-63 lm fraction we find approximately 65 such grains per gram meteorite. The individual grains have a characteristic composition, with heterogeneous major element compositions (e.g., 44.4-61.7 wt% Cr 2 O 3 ), but narrow ranges for maximum TiO 2 (0.6-1.6 wt%) and V 2 O 3 (0.5-1.0 wt%) concentrations. The content of spinel grains in the 28-63 lm fraction of CM meteorites appears comparable at the order of magnitude level with the content of >63 lm sized chromite grains in fossil L-chondrites from Ordovician limestone. Our approach of recovering meteoritic spinel from sediment may thus be extended to include CM meteorites, but the smaller size fraction of the acid residues should be searched.
Magmatic Ni-Cu sulphide deposits are commonly associated with mafic rocks within the marginal areas of Archean or Proterozoic cratons. The Kleva Ni-Cu sulphide deposit in southeast Sweden is hosted by gabbro-diorite rocks and is sandwiched between two Palaeoproterozoic magmatic arcs: the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt (TIB) and the Oskarshamn-Jönköping Belt (OJB). Major and trace element data corroborate an arc origin for the Kleva intrusive complex. The variety of rocks and geochemical signatures suggest that it formed from several magmatic pulses. Despite the occurrence of supracrustal xenoliths, there is a lack of trace element evidence for significant assimilation. Mafic intrusions are abundant in southeast Sweden and are generally inferred to be synchronous with the TIB. Of these, Kleva is the only known Ni-Cu deposit, and it is unclear if it is associated with the OJB or TIB. Here, we present zircon and baddeleyite U-Pb dates of 1788^4 Ma, 1788^5 Ma and 1792^3 Ma. We interpret a 1790 Ma date to be the best estimate of the crystallisation age of the Kleva intrusive complex, indicating that the emplacement of mafic magma is coeval with the voluminous arc-related TIB magmatism in the area.
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