Premium
Presolar grains in the CM 2 chondrite Sutter's Mill
Author(s) -
Zhao Xuchao,
Lin Yangting,
Yin QingZhu,
Zhang Jianchao,
Hao Jialong,
Zolensky Michael,
Jenniskens Peter
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/maps.12289
Subject(s) - chondrite , presolar grains , murchison meteorite , chondrule , mineralogy , geology , meteorite , parent body , analytical chemistry (journal) , geochemistry , chemistry , astrobiology , physics , chromatography
The Sutter's Mill ( SM ) carbonaceous chondrite is a regolith breccia, composed predominantly of CM 2 clasts with varying degrees of aqueous alteration and thermal metamorphism. An investigation of presolar grains in four Sutter's Mill sections, SM 43, SM 51, SM 2‐4, and SM 18, was carried out using Nano SIMS ion mapping technique. A total of 37 C‐anomalous grains and one O‐anomalous grain have been identified, indicating an abundance of 63 ppm for presolar C‐anomalous grains and 2 ppm for presolar oxides. Thirty‐one silicon carbide (SiC), five carbonaceous grains, and one Al‐oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) were confirmed based on their elemental compositions determined by C‐N‐Si and O‐Si‐Mg‐Al isotopic measurements. The overall abundance of SiC grains in Sutter's Mill (55 ppm) is consistent with those in other CM chondrites. The absence of presolar silicates in Sutter's Mill suggests that they were destroyed by aqueous alteration on the parent asteroid. Furthermore, SM 2‐4 shows heterogeneous distributions of presolar SiC grains (12–54 ppm) in different matrix areas, indicating that the fine‐grained matrix clasts come from different sources, with various thermal histories, in the solar nebula.