We have investigated spatial and spectral associations between mineral species and organic matter in the Tagish Lake meteorite. Synchrotron‐based infrared microspectroscopy allowed us to spatially locate specific organic and inorganic compounds within multiple Tagish Lake grains with high spatial resolution. Generated two‐dimensional infrared maps present strong spatial association between aliphatic C‐H and OH in phyllosilicates in Tagish Lake grains. These observations indicate possible roles of phyllosilicates for the formation, evolution, and preservation of organic matter. Infared spectra of all studied Tagish Lake grains show a strong carbonate band, which also shows a weak but positive correlation with organic matter in some grains. However, intergrain correlation was not observed between carbonates and organics, which is likely due to the difference of carbonate occurrence, e.g., presence of larger grains or intergrowth of carbonates on phyllosilicates. Possible scenarios further explaining the observed associations of organics with phyllosilicates and carbonates are presented.
Synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are applied with submicrometer spatial resolution to multiple grains of Sutter's Mill meteorite, a regolith breccia with CM1 and CM2 lithologies. The Raman and infrared active functional groups reveal the nature and distribution of organic and mineral components and confirm that SM12 reached higher metamorphism temperatures than SM2. The spatial distributions of carbonates and organic matter are negatively correlated. The spatial distributions of aliphatic organic matter and OH relative to the distributions of silicates in SM2 differ from those in SM12, supporting a hypothesis that the parent body of Sutter's Mill is a combination of multiple bodies with different origins. The high aliphatic CH 2 /CH 3 ratios determined from band intensities for SM2 and SM12 grains are similar to those of IDPs and less altered carbonaceous chondrites, and they are significantly higher than those in other CM chondrites and diffuse ISM objects.
compared to CO3.4-CO3.6 (20 C), which may indicate that the graphitization and structural ordering of carbon reach a critical temperature regime around petrologic type CO3.3.
The Saric ßic ßek howardite meteorite shower consisting of 343 documented stones occurred on September 2, 2015 in Turkey and is the first documented howardite fall. Cosmogenic isotopes show that Saric ßic ßek experienced a complex cosmic-ray exposure history, exposed during~12-14 Ma in a regolith near the surface of a parent asteroid, and that añ 1 m sized meteoroid was launched by an impact 22 AE 2 Ma ago to Earth (as did one-third of all HED meteorites). SIMS dating of zircon and baddeleyite yielded 4550.4 AE 2.5 Ma and 4553 AE 8.8 Ma crystallization ages for the basaltic magma clasts. The apatite U-Pb age of 4525 AE 17 Ma, K-Ar age of~3.9 Ga, and the U,Th-He ages of 1.8 AE 0.7 and 2.6 AE 0.3 Ga are interpreted to represent thermal metamorphic and impact-related resetting ages, respectively. Petrographic; geochemical; and O-, Cr-, and Ti-isotopic studies confirm that Saric ßic ßek belongs to the normal clan of HED meteorites. Petrographic observations and analysis of organic material indicate a small portion of carbonaceous chondrite material in the Saric ßic ßek regolith and organic contamination of the meteorite after a few days on soil. Video observations of the fall show an atmospheric entry at 17.3 AE 0.8 km s À1 from NW; fragmentations at 37, 33, 31, and 27 km altitude; and provide a pre-atmospheric orbit that is the first dynamical link between the normal HED meteorite clan and the inner Main Belt. Spectral data indicate the similarity of Saric ßic ßek with the Vesta asteroid family (V-class) spectra, a group of asteroids stretching to delivery resonances, which includes (4) Vesta. Dynamical modeling of meteoroid delivery to Earth shows that the complete disruption of ã 1 km sized Vesta family asteroid or a~10 km sized impact crater on Vesta is required to provide sufficient meteoroids ≤4 m in size to account for the influx of meteorites from this HED clan. The 16.7 km diameter Antionia impact crater on Vesta was formed on terrain of the same age as given by the 4 He retention age of Saric ßic ßek. Lunar scaling for crater production to crater counts of its ejecta blanket show it was formed~22 Ma ago.A field expedition to the area was conducted by the
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