Chapter

2 Meteorites

Underlying every topic in planetary science are two basic properties of the solar system
that are determined from the analysis of meteorites. First, meteorites give us our best
estimate of the age of the solar system. The time at which the solar system formed
provides a time frame for judging the significance of many of the physical processes that
affect the planets. Second, meteorites give us our best estimate of the initial composition of
the solar system. Incredibly, the elemental abundances found in the oldest meteorites, the
chondrites, match point for point with the elemental abundances found spectroscopically in
the Suns photosphere. The study of meteorites, which is quite interdisciplinary, is central
to the study of planetary science as a whole.

2.1 Falls and Finds

A meteoroid is a small rock that is orbiting the Sun. A meteoroid that happens to
fall into Earths atmosphere heats up and becomes an incandescent meteor. If a piece of
a meteoroid reaches the ground it is called a meteorite. A meteorite is described as a
fall or a find depending on whether witnesses saw it enter the atmosphere or not. One of
the oldest preserved falls occurred in 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered the
New World, when a 127 kg stony meteorite landed in a wheat field near the Alsatian (now
French) town of Ensisheim.

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2.1.1 The Allende Fall
An extremely important fall occurred in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1969, when a large
meteor was observed to come into the atmosphere in several pieces. The first piece was
found near a house in the small village of Pueblito de Allende. Following standard practice,
all of the meteorite fragments that were recovered from that fall are collectively named
Allende. The Allende fall occurred just as the Apollo program was swinging into full gear,
and it gave scientists who were preparing for the arrival of moon rocks an opportunity to
practice on an extraterrestrial sample. Because it is such an old meteorite, and because
there is plenty of it to go around, analysis of the Allende meteorite has taught us much
about the early solar system.
Allende is a member of an important class of stony meteorites called chondrites.
They are so named because they contain chondrules (from the Greek word condros,
meaning grain), which are primitive, spherical objects that condensed out of the proto-
planetary nebula before being incorporated into the larger rock. Chondrules are puzzling
features because their existence implies significant heating event in the early solar nebula
( 0 to 10 Ma). The glassy texture of these igneous features implies heating to tempera-
tures in excess of 1500 C to 1900 C, followed by rapid cooling, on a time scale of on the
order of an hour. The mm-size of the chondrules indicates that they were distributed in the
solar nebula, but the rate of cooling required to explain them rules out formation very close
to the sun, where the solar nebula would have been much too warm. Many mechanisms for
this flash heating event have been discussed, often relating the thermal or electromagnetic
emissions from the variable, nascent sun. In the fall of 1999 scientists from the University
of Dublin proposed that chondrules were produced by a gamma ray burst. Gamma ray
bursts are rare and extremely poorly understood phenomena that may be related to ex-
plosive end of life of supermassive stars. Another idea is that shock waves related to the
formation of Jupiter provided the impetus for chondrule formation. It remains to be seen
whether chondrule formation was a consequence of one of these low probability events.

2.1.2 The Tagish Lake Fall

Another important fall occurrred in the Tagish Lake region in western Canada on
January 18, 2000. The meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite and it represents some of
the most primitive soalr system materials ever recovered. Over 10,000 fragments were
recovered, with more than 2000 fragments larger than a gram. Perhaps most importantly,
approximately 0.85 kg was recovered in the days after the fireball by an individual (Jim
Brook) who had the good sense to bag the samples without touching them to minimize
contamination. These samples were also kept frozen which will allow perhaps the best-yet
characterization of volatiles and organics. Analysis of this meteorite is now underway.

2.1.3 Antarctic Finds

Finds are more common than falls. Many meteorites are discovered serendipitously by
hikers and by farmers plowing their fields. In recent years, the best source of meteorites has
been the ice fields of Antarctica. In 1969, a group of Japanese geologists studying glaciers
discovered nine meteorites laying on the bare ice near the Yamato Mountains in Queen

22
Maud Land. Meteorites are dark and easy to spot on ice. It turned out that these nine
specimens were members of four different classes of meteorites. Since that time, thousands
of meteorites have been recovered from Antarctica. The meteorites collect naturally at
locations where the ice sheets, which flow several meters per year under their own weight,
stagnate when they encounter mountain ranges. Wind erosion then ablates the top layers
of the ice and, over time, a concentration of meteorites works its way to the top. Such ice
is bluish in color and is easy to spot from the air, which allows scientists to plan ahead for
the best places to look. A robot designed by Japanese scientists to search autonomously
for meteorites made its first find in January, 2000.

2.2 Chemical Composition of a Rock

Here we present the most common mineral types. These minerals occur in meteorites
but also compose the crusts and mantles of the terrestrial planets, moons, and asteroids.
Olivine is a silicate mineral rich in iron and magnesium, principally (M g, F e)2 SiO4 .
Here magnesium and iron are in solid solution, which means that either element can
occupy a given location in the cyrstal matrix. Olivine is the primary constituent of the
Earths mantle and is found in igneous and metamorphic rocks.
Pyroxene is any of a group of crystalline mineral silicates common in igneous and
metamorphic rocks and containing two metallic oxides, as of magnesium, iron, calcium, or
sodium. A general formula is (M g, F e)SiO3 , though Ca+2 may also substitute. Pyroxene
is a common mineral in the Earths oceanic crust.
Plagioclase constitutes any of a common rock-forming series of triclinic feldspars,
consisting of mixtures of sodium and calcium aluminum silicates that form a solid solution.
The chemical formula is (K, N a, Ca)Al2 Si2 O8 . Plagioclase feldspar is common in the
oceanic and continental crust of Earth and in addition is the primary constituent of the
lunar highlands.

2.3 Age of a Rock

Rocks provide us with a means of measuring time in billions of years. The detailed
study of the fossil record allows geologists and paleontologists to accurately determine the
relative chronological order of the stratigraphic layers in Earths crust. Absolute ages are
less accurately determined than relative ages, however. But since all rocks contain trace
amounts of radioactive material absolute ages can be found by radiometric dating.

2.3.1 Poisson Probability Distribution and the Rate Equation

Radioactive decay occurs because some of the mass of an atom is held in binding
energy. (Recall that Einstein taught us that energy (E) is equivalent to mass (m) with
the simple and elegant expression E = mc2 , where c is the velocity of light.) If there is
too much binding energy (as determined by quantum mechanics), then the nucleus will
decay spontaneously by radioactive decay or by an induced nuclear reaction (neutron
bombardment) to a lower energy state. Decay can occur by three classes of mechanisms:
- Alpha decay - escape of a He4 nucleus; the strong forces that bind nuclei dictates
that it is difficult to escape from the potential well. particles are not very energetic

23
and cannot jump the potential well but Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle tells us that a
particle can sometimes exist outside the threshold due to uncertainty in position.
- Beta decay - escape of an electron or positron by:
(1) Electron emission ( ): for nuclides over-rich in neutrons
(n p + e + )
(2) Positron emission ( + ): for nuclides depleted in neutrons (p n + e+ + )
(3) Electron capture (ec): an S electron in K shell on an atom has finite probability
of being inside nucleus.
- Gamma decay - emission of gamma radiation that occurs when nuclei are in excited
energy states. Newly-produced nuclei are not in the ground state and produce -rays.
Nuclear binding energies are very large and nuclei are so small (order 1 angstrom =
8
10 cm) that radioactive decay rates are not significantly affected by physical conditions
on Earth such as pressure and temperature. However, half-lives can be changed slightly by
changes in bonding energy. For example, solar wind studies have shown that radioactive
beryllium decays at slightly different rates on the sun and Earth.
Radioactive decay is governed by the Poisson probability distribution. Other
Poisson processes include the number of impact craters that form on a planets surface
over a given time interval, the waiting time for a subway train, the number of typos made
by an experienced typist, or any other process that involves random events that occur
infrequently.
It is useful to review the derivation of the Poisson probability distribution because it
shows where the concept of a half-life in radioactive decay originates. Also, we will be
using the same method for calculating expected values from random processes introduced
here when we study blackbody radiation in Chapter 4.
We start first with the binomial probability distribution. Consider n independent
tries of an experiment whose outcome is either yes or no, but not maybe. If the
probability of yes is p, and the probability of no is 1 p, then the probability Pn (j)
of getting yes j times out of n tries is given by the binomial probability distribution:

n j
Pn (j) = p (1 p)nj , (2.1)
j
n
where j is pronounced n choose j, and is defined to be:

n n!
. (2.2)
j j!(n j)!

For example, the probability that exactly 2 students in a class of 20 were born on August
8 is: 2 18
20! 1 364
P20 (2) = = 0.0014 . (2.3)
2!18! 365 365
The binomial distribution is the discrete analog of the bell-shaped normal distribution
found in experiments with continuous sampling. Notice that (2.1) gives the j-th term of
the binomial expansion of [p + (1 p)]n , which is the source of the distributions name.

24
Since p + (1 p) = 1, summing over all cases yields unity as required for a probability
distribution.
Now consider a group of N radioactive particles. We would like to know the expected
number of particles that will decay in a particular time interval, say in 1 second. This is a
quantum mechanical process, and is therefore random. The probability of decay is small for
a given particle, and so we can always divide up any 1-second time interval into enough n
smaller subintervals such that at most only one particle will decay during each subinterval.
This is where the events that occur infrequently in time or space requirement is used.
The total number of decays per second, j, will then have a binomial distribution. We dont
know p, but we do know that p will decrease as we make the subintervals shorter, and that
p will increase as N increases. After enough subdivisions have been made such that each
bin contains either 0 or 1 event, further doubling of the number of subdivisions will only
reduce by half the probability that one subdivision contains an event. This means that we
can write:
N
p= , (2.4)
n
where is a constant with units of inverse time. Using (2.4) in place of p in (2.1) and
taking the limit n yields the Poisson probability distribution P (j):
j nj
n(n 1) (n j + 1) N N
P (j) = lim Pn (j) = lim 1 ,
n n j! n n
(N )j n n 1
nj+1

N
j
N
n
= lim 1 1 ,
j! n n n n n n
n
(N )j N (N )j N
= lim 1 = e . (2.5)
j! n n j!

The last limit follows from:

x n

a = lim ,1+
n n
x x
log a = lim n log 1 + = lim n = x ,
n n n n
a = ex . (2.6)

Since (2.5) gives eN times the j-th term of the Taylor expansion of eN , the sum of all
the terms adds up to unity, as required.
The physical significance of N is found by calculating the average, or expected, value
of j, which we denote by j:

X X
j (N )j N
j P (j) = j e
j=0 j=1
j!
X
N (N )j1
= N e = N . (2.7)
j1=0
(j 1)!

25
Thus N is just the average number of particles that decay per second, and is based on the
probability of a particular decay mechanism operating in an atom of a given element. The
change in the total number N of radioactive particles over the time interval dt is therefore:

dN
= N . (2.8)
dt

Rewriting, we write
dN
= dt
N
Integrating both sides we find
lnN = t + c
where the constant c is found in the limit where t 0 to be lnNo . Taking the exponential
of both sides we may write
N (t) = No et , (2.9)
where No is the initial number of radioactive particles. Equation (2.9) is the rate law of
radioactive decay. The half-life, T1/2 , which represents the time it takes for half of the
number of particles to decay, is found by setting N/No = 1/2 such that

N 1 ln 2 0.69315
= = eT1/2 T1/2 = = . (2.10)
No 2

Note that the half-life represents an alternative way of expressing the decay constant .
In principle, the experimentally-demonstrated accuracy of the simple expression (2.10)
allows for the determination of the absolute ages of billion-year-old rocks. However, in
practice the initial concentration of the radioactive parent element No is very often not
known. We can more easily measure the concentration of the daughter product (D ),
which is simply
D = No N . (2.11)
We may substitute (2.9) for N to find

D = No No et = No 1 et . (2.12)

We want to eliminate No so we divide by (2.9) which gives

D No 1 et 1 et
= = .
N No et et
or
D
= et 1. (2.12)
N
Equation (2.12) can be used directly in the determination of ages if there is no initial
non-radiogenic daughter component, or if that initial component can be estimated. If not,

26
the it is necessary to make an allowance for the non-radiogenic initial daughter product
Do by writing
D = Do + N (et 1). (2.13)

2.3.2 Radiometric Dating

To illustrate the radiometric dating technique, consider the decay of the unstable
isotope of rubidium, 87 Rb, into the stable isotope of strontium, 87 Sr. This system is
particularly simple because the parent element only decays into one type of daughter
element, unlike 40 K, say, which decays into both 40 Ar and 40 Ca. The Rb-Sr system is
useful for dating old rocks because the decay constant and half-life T1/2 for the Rb-Sr
system are well suited for the purpose:

= 1.42 1011 yr1 , T1/2 = 48.8 109 yr .

Only a fraction of the rubidium present in the solar nebula has so far decayed. If t is the
time since some melting event reset the isotope ratios to their high-temperature values,
then by (2.9), the current amount of 87 Rb is reduced from its initial amount 87 Rb0 by:
87
Rb = 87 Rb0 e87 t .

The current amount of strontium, 87 Sr, is therefore increased from its initial amount, 87 Sr0 ,
by:
87
Sr = 87 Sr0 + 87 Rb0 87 Rb
= 87 Sr0 + 87 Rb(e87 t 1) . (2.14)

To proceed with the dating, one uses a mass spectrometer to measure the amounts
of Sr and 87 Rb present in each sample. Since different parts of a rock will contain
87

different concentrations of the unknown quantity 87 Sr0 , we must normalize against another
stable isotope with similar chemistry that occurs in proportional concentrations, like 86 Sr.
Dividing (2.14) by 86 Sr yields:
87
87 87
Sr Sr Rb 87 t
86 Sr
= 86 Sr
+ 86 Sr
(e 1) . (2.15)
0

The presence of initial daughter abundances also requires more than one measurement of
the parent/daughter ratio to obtain an age. Samples that have different 87 Rb/86 Sr ratios
can be plotted versus 87 Sr/86 Sr using (2.15). The 87 Rb/86 Sr ratio varies naturally from
one mineral to another. For example it is typically higher in plagioclase than in pyroxene,
so a spread in the samples is obtained by mineral separation. When plotted, the two ratios
fall on a straight line called an isochron (meaning
87 86equal
time), which by (2.15) has a
slope of (e 1) t and a y-intercept of
t
Sr/ Sr 0 . If the the decay constant of
the radioactive parent is known, the isochron yields the age, t, of the rock.
The most useful decay systems for radiometric dating are Rubidium-Strontium (Rb-
Sr), Samarium-Neodymium (Sm-Nd), Potassium-Argon (K-Ar), Thorium-Lead (Th-Pb),

27
and the two Uranium-Lead (U-Pb) systems. In order for a parent-daughter system to be
useful, a non-radiogenic reference isotope of the daughter must be present for comparison.
In addition, the decay constant of the parent must be accurately known. The accuracy
of radiometric dating also depends on to what extent the rock under study has been a
chemically closed system with respect to the parent and daughter elements. If it has not
been a closed system then the daughter/parent ratio will not be solely due to radioactive
decay, and the time information will be corrupted.
The U-Pb system is especially useful because only measurements of Pb are required,
and Pb tends to be reliable because it is not too mobile in rock. Also, because of decades
of nuclear research the decay constants for uranium are very accurately known. Zircon
crystals are resistant to uranium diffusion and are commonly used for this dating scheme.
There are four isotopes of Pb: 204 Pb, 206 Pb, 207 Pb, 208 Pb. Only 204 Pb does not have a
radioactive progenitor, and the decay schemes for the other three isotopes are:
238
U 206 Pb , 238 = 1.55 1010 yr1 , T1/2 = 4.5 By
235
U 207 Pb , 235 = 9.85 1010 yr1 , T1/2 = 0.7 By
232
Th 208 Pb , 232 = 4.95 1011 yr1 , T1/2 = 14 By .
204
Using (2.13) and referencing to Pb:
206
206
Pb Pb 238
U 238 t
204 Pb
= 204 Pb
+ 204 Pb
e 1 ,
0
207
207
Pb Pb 235
U 235 t
204 Pb
= 204 Pb
+ 204 Pb
e 1 .
0
207 204 206
Now take the ratio of Pb/ Pb to Pb/204 Pb:
207
207
Pb Pb

204 Pb 204 Pb 235
U e235 t 1
206
206
0 = 238 U e238 t 1
,
Pb Pb
204 Pb
204
Pb 0

and rewrite into an isochron equation:

207 206
Pb Pb
204 Pb
=M 204 Pb
+B, (2.16)

where the slope and y-intercept are:

207 206
U e235 t 1
235
Pb Pb
M = 238 = 0.613 , B= M = 4.46 . (2.17)
U e238 t 1 204 Pb
0
204 Pb
0

The age information is contained in the slope, M , using only isotopes of Pb. The value
of 235 U/238 U is 1/137.88, and this ratio is very nearly constant in all natural materials.

28
To determine the initial lead ratios the standard practice is to look to meteorites. Iron
meteorites have virtually no uranium. The least radiogenic lead found anywhere is in the
Canyon Diablo meteorite. This is defined as primordial lead, the best estimate of the
initial lead ratio in the solar nebula.

2.3.3 Age of Earths Rocks

The radiometric dating of rocks from Earths surface indicates that most of the surface
is less than 100 million years old. The oldest rocks that have so far been found on Earth are
slightly older than 4.0 billion years. We know that the Earths surface is young compared
to the age of the solar system, for a number of reasons. For instance, while the absence of
small craters on Earth can be explained by the protection of the surface by the atmosphere,
the lack of many large craters on Earth, as compared to the Moon, tells us that Earths
surface is constantly being renewed.
Erosion is efficient on Earth because of the abundance of liquid water and because of
the presence of a biosphere. Earth also renews its surface continuously through the action
of plate tectonics, where new crustal material comes to the surface at mid-ocean ridges
and old crustal material plunges below the surface at subduction zones. Given the great
activity occurring on Earths surface, it is not surprising that terrestrial rocks are not the
oldest rocks in the solar system. However, it is interesting to note that the Earth and the
meteorites fall on the same lead-lead isochron, which is evidence that the lead and uranium
were isotopically homogeneous in the solar nebula before accretion.

2.3.4 Age of Lunar Rocks

The Moon has no flowing water, air, or biosphere to cause erosion, and no plate
tectonics to continuously fold the crustal rocks back into the interior. We can therefore
expect that lunar rocks will be older than terrestrial rocks.
As discussed in Chapter 5, there is a marked difference in the number of craters on
the Moons highlands and maria, the highlands being much more heavily cratered. This
implies that a significant period of time separated the end of the heavy bombardment of
the highlands and the later emplacement of the maria by volcanic processes. It is possible
to sort out these relative ages in detail from telescopic and spacecraft images, but it is not
possible to determine absolute ages from counting craters on a surface.
The absolute ages of lunar rocks have been determined from the ground truth
obtained by dating returned lunar samples. The total lunar rock and soil collection from
the 6 manned Apollo missions and 3 unmanned Soviet missions is 382 kg. Basalts from
lunar mare plains are dated at 3.1 to 3.8 billion years old, although some small fragments
are 4.3 billion years old. The lunar landscape was found to be so pulverized by impact
events that no traces of the original outer crust were observed. What was found instead
were breccias, which are rocks composed of cemented fragments of previous rocks, and
impact melts, which are rocks that show clear evidence of complete melting during an
impact event. The lunar highlands breccias and impact melts are dated at 3.8 to 4.0
billion years old. This relatively short span of time came as a surprise to researchers.
It could mean that there was an increase in cratering just before the end of the heavy
bombardment, or simply that during the heavy bombardment rocks only lasted about 0.2

29
billion years before they were pulverized. Lunar rocks are indeed older than terrestrial
rocks, but they are still not the oldest rocks in the solar system.

2.4 Chondrites

2.4.1 Meteorite Classifications

Chondrites are meteorites that are chemically similar to the Sun. A comparison of
elemental abundance in a chondrite versus elemental abundance in the Suns photosphere,
as determined by spectroscopy, yields an astonishing one-to-one correspondence. The
only elements that dont match well are the most volatile elements, which tend to escape
incorporation into a meteorite as it cools, and lithium, which is depleted in the Sun due
to destructive nuclear reactions. The name chondrite has come to refer more broadly to
any meteorite with a chemical composition that is similar to that of the Sun. Chondrites
fall into several sub-classes:
- ordinary chondrites - the most abundant meteorite class
- enstatite chondrites - chondrites that formed under reducing environment
- carbonaceous chondrites - chondrites rich in volatiles, including organic material.
A stony meteorite that deviates from solar composition is called an achondrite.
The chemical and mineralogical information contained in the various types of mete-
orites yields some of our most important clues about the nature of the early solar system.
In order to make inferences about the early solar system from analysis of meteorites, sev-
eral assumptions must be made, and it is important to be aware of these assumptions.
The first question to come to mind is one of origin. Most meteoriticists agree that mete-
orites are fragments of asteroids that have collided relatively recently in the asteroid belt.
Two complications that have for some time prevented acceptance of this idea are: i) it
is not obvious at first what dynamical mechanisms can explain the observed mass flux
and orbits of meteorites, and ii) spectrophotometric data indicate that the most common
type of asteroid is not mineralogically similar to the most common type of meteorite, the
ordinary chondrites. Work by Jack Wisdom of MIT, has shown that resonant dynamical
processes can explain the first problem of mass flux and orbits. And according to Richard
Binzel of MIT, the second problem of mineralogical mismatch may be explained by space
weathering. Another origin issue is the nature of the parent body or bodies that are the
source of meteorites. How many different kinds of parent bodies, and how many of each
kind, are required to account for the various classes of meteorites? The diversity seen in
meteorites is partially explained by the idea that the parent bodies were large enough to
have differentiated. Then, the less dense meteorites can be traced back to the crust of the
parent, and the more dense meteorites can be traced back to the core of the parent.
Meteorites are classified in many ways, according to composition, textures, etc. A
useful classification metric uses oxygen isotopes, thanks to pioneering geochemical work
by Robert Clayton. Oxygen has three isotopes, the most common being 16 O and the others
being 17 O and 18 O. The approach is to plot 17 O/16 O vs. 18 O/16 O and to look for varia-
tions, using terrestrial seawater as a standard (standard mean ocean water, aka SMOW).
Plotted in this manner, most chondrite classes appear as distinct clumps, thought to reflect
various meteorite parent bodies that accreted in different parts of the asteroid belt. Rocks

210
from Earth, the Moon and Mars plot along straight lines with the same slope (=-1/2).
This is expected, and reflects one and two extra neutrons, respectively for 17 O and 18 O
compared to 16 O. The straight lines reflect the partitioning of oxygen isotopes into silicate
rocks during melting and crystallization. Terrestrial and lunar rocks plot along the same
straight line indicating that they formed in the same part of the solar system. The Martian
meteorites form a line that parallels the Earth-Moon line. Achondrites also form a line that
parallels the Earth-Moon line, consistent with their supposed history of igneous processes.
The carbonaceous chondrites form a pseudo-line, but it does not have the same slope as
for the igneous planetary and asteroidal bodies. The slope is steeper, which suggests that
some process injected 16 O into the solar nebula, lowering the 17 O/16 O and 18 O/16 O ratios
at the same rate. The process that caused this 16 O infusion isnt known.

2.4.2 Age of the Solar System

Any object with such a chondritic or solar composition is assumed to have changed
very little since the solar system formed, and the age of chondrites gives us our best
determination of the age of the solar system. In particular, the calcium, aluminum-rich
inclusions, of the carbonaceous chondrites, like Allende, yield the most accurately
determined age of the solar system:

age(solar system) = age(CAI0 s) = 4.559 0.004 109 yrs . (2.18)

2.4.3 Secondary processing

If we want to use chondrites and other meteorites as a probe of the early solar system,
we need to have a good idea of the types of processes that may have clouded or corrupted
the information contained in these meteorites. Igneous meteorites, like the howardite-
eucrite-diogenite suite (HED), have obviously undergone secondary processing. These
meteorites provide unique information about the evolution of planetary objects, includ-
ing basalt generation and core formation. Chondrites may be the least altered class of
meteorites, but they too have undergone secondary processing. Most chondrites have ex-
perienced thermal metamorphism. The result is changes in texture and mineralogy, and
possibly chemical composition. The temperatures necessary to cause metamorphism are
in the 400 to 1000 C range for the relatively low pressures encountered in small parent
bodies. Possibly important heat sources are the decay of short-lived radionuclides, electro-
magnetic induction, and accretion of material. The least metamorphosed type 3 chondrites
probably carry the most information about the early solar system, but even these have
been effected somewhat by secondary thermal processing. Along with heat, the chemical
reactivity of water has played an important role in the secondary processing of some of
the most compositionally primitive meteorites. This process, called aqueous alteration,
tends to replace the pre-accretionary lithology with new mineralizations, although the bulk
chemistry is apparently preserved.
Along with internal processing, meteorites can be changed by exogenic processes like
collisions. Violent impacts produce shock metamorphism of individual mineral grains,
and also produce rocks called breccias that contain mixtures of different previous rocks,

211
just like the breccias found on the lunar highlands. The study of breccias has provided
information on the accretional growth and processing of parent bodies. The effects of shock
metamorphism have been seen in all major groups of meteorites. It appears that collision-
induced high speed impacts took place before, during, and after the initial accretion and
differentiation of the parent bodies.
Meteorites contain information related to their long exposures to galactic cosmic rays,
solar radiation and the solar wind. It is possible to determine how long a meteorite existed
free of its parent body before it impacted Earth by examining the cosmic ray damage.
Noble gases are the most volatile elements in meteorites, but they are nonetheless present
in measurable quantities in virtually all meteorites. Trapped noble gases are either solar
or planetary. The solar noble gases are actually implanted solar-wind or solar-flare
material, and provide relatively direct information about the sun. The planetary noble
gases have elemental abundances similar to those found in Earths atmosphere.

2.5 Achondrites
Eucrites, Diogenites and Howardites. These are igneous meteorites that lack
water-bearing (hydrous) or oxidized minerals. It is believed that these meteorites formed
in a chondritic parent body that underwent partial melting. We will consider the possible
heat source later in this chapter.
Ureilites. These meteorites contain olivine and pigeonite (a calcium-rich pyroxene),
and the matrix contains graphite or diamond. The carbon content suggests a that these
meteorites are re-processed carbonaceous chondrites.
Meteorites from the Moon. Some meteorites have breccias with white clasts in
darker matrix, like lunar rocks. The lunar origin of some meteorites was established with-
out contention because there exist many lunar samples which provided close geochemical
and petrological matches to the meteorite samples. The identification of lunar meteorites
opened the door to dynamical studies that subsequently established the possibility that
meteorites can viably be deposited at Earth from Mars.
Shergottites are named after a meteorite that fell in 1865 in Shergotty, which is
located in the northeastern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal. Unlike the eu-
crites, their pyroxene and plagioclase mineralogy is strikingly similar to terrestrial basalts.
They also have small amounts of the hydrous mineral amphibole kaersutite, whereas eu-
crites show no evidence of water in their minerals, and they have some magnetite, which
contains iron in oxided form (Fe+3 ), whereas eucrites contain only reduced iron. Their
pyroxene crystals are elongated and arranged horizontally the way such crystals would ac-
cumulate after settling to the bottom of a magma chamber. Such igneous rocks are called
cumulates, and they can only occur in bodies with a large enough gravity field to allow
gravitational settling. Two other types of cumulate meteorites have hydrous and oxided
minerals like the shergottites, these are the nakhlites, which contain the dark-green to
black pyroxene mineral augite, and a unique meteorite that fell in Chassigny, France called
chassignite, which contains mostly olivine. These three types of meteorites had for nearly
two decades been referred to as the SNC (pronounced snick) meteorites.
The SNC meteorites have been dated by radioactive methods and most, though not all,
have igneous crystallization ages of 1 BY. Thus these rocks formed on a body in which

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igneous volcanism occurred over 3 BY after the age of the solar system, which suggests a
rather large (read: planet-sized) body. Since it is difficult to move material away from the
sun, planets beyond Earth were the most likely candidates. By process of elimination Mars
was originally hypothesized as the parent body for the SNC meteorites. Originally there
was a great deal of skepticism about the possibility of transporting material from Mars to
Earth, but it has now been shown to be dynamically possible. However, many workers have
rightly asked why the source planet could not be Earth itself. In other words, rocks blasted
off Earth into space by impacts that eventually re-impacted after some time in space. The
smoking gun in the Martian origin of SNCs came from analysis of gas inclusions in some
of these rocks. Noble gas ratios are diagnostic of source regions because these gases do
not readily combine and fractionate. Noble gas abundances of the SNCs were shown to
be much different than the Earths atmosphere but identical to the atmosphere of Mars as
determined by the Viking landers.
Recently, many more examples of putative Martian meteorites have been discovered
that have a range of characteristics that do not make them easily classifiable under the SNC
designation. The meteorites are more now more generally referred to as simply Martian
meteorites. It is now understood that these rocks can be ejected from Mars during the
impact process without being strongly shocked or heated.
The martian meteorite ALH84001, discovered in Antarctica, was originally not des-
ignated as originating from Mars because it has a crystallization age of 4 BY, much older
than most SNCs. The Martian origin of this rock was estabilshed on the basis of its oxygen
isotope signature, which matched that of other Martian meteorites and was much different
that that of terrestrial rocks. ALH84001 gained a great deal of attention because it was
proposed to contain evidence of ancient Martian life by David McKay and his colleagues.
The evidence included the presence of nano-features reminiscent of bacteria, but many
times smaller, the presence of organic material called polyachromatic hydrocarbons, and
the presence of magnetite of a form that is often deposited by biogenic processes. There
has been a great deal of controversy about whether these features do indeed represent evi-
dence for past life on Mars. Research continues on this and other Martian meteorites that
contain such features, with a careful eye towards understanding the potential for terrestrial
contamination.

2.6 Irons and Stony-Irons

Iron and stony iron meteorites make up several percent of the meteorite population.
They constitute 4% of the meteorites that fall to Earth but are the most common find
since they look so much different than the Earths crustal rocks.
Stony iron meteorites consist of roughly equal parts of rock and iron, with the rock
component consisting of olivine, the most common mantle material, and minor amounts of
other silicate phases. Stony irons make up only about 1% of meteorites that fall to Earth.
Pallasites, composed of metal and the silicate mineral olivine, are meteorites that are
believed to have crystallized at the core-mantle boundaries of differentiated parent bodies.
Mesosiderites are composed of iron and achondrite material, and are believed to have
formed when already-differentiated parent bodies collided.
The metallic component of these meteorites is predominantly iron with nickel in solid

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solution averaging usually about 10% but sometimes up to 20%. There are also smaller
amounts of sulfide, graphite and occasionally silicate inclusions.
Within the iron there are two metal phases:
- the body-centered cubic () form kamacite (5.5% nickel)
- the face-centered cubic () taenite (variable, but usually > 27% nickel)
These phases occur because iron and nickel form a solid solution when mixed and are
not completely miscible as they begin to cool. The iron and nickel are structurally similar
but not identical. At high temperatures they exchange freely because the crystal lattice is
expanded. But when cooling sets in their slight differences produce lattices with slightly
different structures. At a point the total energy of the system is minimized by segregating
the elements into 2 separate lattices: one rich in iron and the other poor. To minimize the
mismatch where the lattices connect, newly formed lattices form in preferred orientations
called exsolution lamellae.
Approximately 75% of iron meteorites exhibit a crystal pattern called Widmanstat-
ten structure, which is the term used for these exsolution lamellae. The pattern is
observed by taking a meteorite that is cut and polished and dipping it in acid. Because
this pattern forms when an iron-nickel alloy crystallizes, it is an indication that some as-
teroids were at least partially melted after they formed. In fact, the details of the pattern
tell the cooling history of the meteorite parent body from which it was derived. From the
iron-nickel phase diagram we can see the evolution of the relative amounts of iron and
nickel that crystallized as the iron cooled. And from the variations in composition across
Widmanstatten structure boundaries it is possible to constrain the rate of cooling.

2.6.1 Iron meteorites and planetary cores

In the iron-nickel system, equilibrium is maintained at temperatures above 650 C.

Below 350 C crystal structures are frozen in. So the Widmanstatten structures yield the
cooling rate in this temperature range. In the meteorites wide diffusion boundaries cor-
respond to slow cooling and narrow diffusion boundaries correspond to rapid cooling. In
the meteorites there are iron-nickel crystals that grown with lengths of up to several cen-
timeters, which correspond to rates of 0.4 40 /MY. So the Widmanstatten structures
yield cooling rates of many millions of years. For a cooling periods in this range radii of
meteorite parent bodies in the range 100200 km are implied.
Identification of a significant metallic group within the meteorites made it the natural
presumed component of dense planetary cores. It is known from the masses of the planets
that the interiors are (in most cases), after correcting for the effect of self-compression,
denser than rock. An iron-nickel alloy with approximate meteoritic proportions is the
leading candidate for the dense component. Shock wave experiments indicate that seis-
mic wave velocities in the Earths deep interior are consistent with a predominantly iron
composition and thus support the contention.
The other piece of evidence for iron planetary cores comes from the process of nucle-
osynthesis. Iron has the highest binding energy for nucleon and is thus highly stable and
produced in abundance in stellar evolution. The equilibrium process (also known as
e-process) in stellar thermonuclear reactions breaks apart silicon atoms and re-arranges

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them to convert silicon to heavier and more stable nuclei. The most stable and thus most
abundant element produced in the e-process is iron.

2.7 Radioactivity as a heat source

The second important role of radioactive nuclides besides age dating is as a source of
heat in planetary interiors. The important heat-producing radionuclides form two classes:
long-lived nuclides and short-lived nuclides.
The long-lived radionuclides, of which the most important are 238 U, 235 U, 232 Th,
and 40 K, are a primary source of heat over the span of planetary history. They provide heat
which drives present-day mantle convection on the Earth and they likely fueled in large part
the global resurfacing event on Venus during the last billion years. Long-lived radioactive
elements have combinations of valence states and ionic radius that prevent them from being
easily accommodated into the crystal lattices of the most common silicate rocks. They are
examples of lithophile elements, which preferentially concentrate in the liquid phase; the
majority of them are incorporated into the first few percent of a melt. For this reason, a
significant fraction of the Earths radioactivity is concentrated in the continental crust.
The short-lived radionuclides may have been an important source of heat respon-
sible for the early melting of meteorites. They may also have provided an early heat source
for planets, depending on the time between nucleosynthesis and planetary accretion. The
most abundant of the short-lived radionuclides is 26 Al, which decays with a half-life of
720,000 years to 26 Mg. The evidence for 26 Al being an important source of heat in the
early history of the solar system comes from excess amounts of 26 Mg found in CAIs in the
Allende meteorite. The isotope 26 Mg was enriched relative to the most common isotope
24
Mg compared to solar abundance. The heat-producing ability of this isotope is such that
solid objects a few km or greater would have been heated to melting if they formed with
the ratio of 26 Al/27 Al implied to have been present in Allende.
A major question is: how could 26 Al be incorporated fast enough into early solar
system objects to melt them? With such a short half-life, radioactive decay begins to
produce heat after a cosmically short period of time. 26 Mg is only produced by decay of
26
Al, and 26 Al is only produced in supernovae. This suggests that our solar system might
have formed close to a supernova. Another piece of information in support of the supernova
hypothesis is the fact that very small diamonds have been found in some meteorites. On
Earth diamond forms at great depths due to very high pressures which contract carbon
to the closely-packed state, characterized by all covalent bonds. In space the pressures
required to form diamond can only be achieved in a supernova. One way around the
supernova explanation is that experiments have recently shown that diamonds can form
from a gas phase outside the stability field. If the solar system did form near a supernova
it would solve the problem of the mechanism that caused the proto-solar cloud to collapse,
as the shock waves that emanate from supernovae would provide a natural mechanism
for compression. However, supernovae are rare events and if it is necessary to invoke the
participation of one it would imply that the formation of our solar system was a chance
event. Given the number of other planetary systems that are being identified this is an
unsatisfying explanation.

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Problems

1. Most of the meteorites that have been found on Earth are irons but most meteoroids
in Earth-crossing orbits are rocky. (a) How do we know this? (b) Why are rocky meteorites
under-represented in the terrestrial record?

2. Show that for atoms of a radioactive species with decay constant , the mean life
1
is . Start off by writing an expression for the number of atoms that decay in the time
period from t to t + t. Then integrate over all time to get the mean life.

3. Consider the cooling and crystallization of an iron-nickel meteorite with a bulk

composition of 95% iron and 5% nickel. Use the phase diagram on the attached sheet to
answer the following questions: (a) What phase crystallizes first? What are the percentages
of iron and nickel in the first-formed crystals? (b) At what temperature does the second
phase begin to exsolve? What is its composition? (c) What are the compositions of each
of the phases at 570 C? What is the bulk composition of the system at this temperature?
Show your work on the phase diagram.

4. Prepare a report on Martian meteorites that examines critically the evidence that
they come from Mars [see McSween, 1994]. Can this evidence bear the weight of the
suggestion by McKay etal. [1996] that ALH84001 contains evidence of biology?

References

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McKay, D.S, E.K. Gibson Jr., K.L. Thomas-Keprta, H. Vali, C.S. Romanek, S.J. Clemett,
X.D.F. Chillier, C.R. Maechling, R.N. Zare, Search for past life on Mars: possible
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York, 1985.

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