Publikationen

The 410,000 year terrestrial age of eucrite Río Cuarto 001

Autor(en)
Jonathan Levine, Andres Arazi, Thomas Faestermann, Jorge O. Fernandez Niello, Gunther Korschinek, Ana Maria La Gamma, Augustín Negri, Georg Rugel, Peter Steier, Anton Wallner
Abstrakt

We have measured a surprisingly long terrestrial age of 410,000 ±45,0020,000 yr (410 ±2045ka) for basaltic eucrite Río Cuarto 001 using accelerator mass spectrometry of 26Al, 36Cl, and 41Ca. Though many meteorites are known to have survived for tens or hundreds of ka in Antarctica or hot deserts, the mean annual precipitation of 815 mm in Río Cuarto, Cordoba Province, Argentina, makes the long survival of this meteorite remarkable. We propose two explanations for the exceptional preservation of Río Cuarto 001. First, the meteorite contains only trace amounts of metal, so the weathering and oxidation of metallic Fe, which commonly destroys chondrites, is ineffective in this case. Second, the meteorite was found in a relatively young deflation basin, and may have been exhumed only recently from beneath a protective layer of soil. Insofar as the survival on Earth of Río Cuarto 001 is due to environmental factors, there may be other meteorites with comparably long terrestrial ages still to be discovered in the vicinity.

Organisation(en)
Isotopenphysik
Externe Organisation(en)
University of Chicago, Laboratorio TANDAR Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Technische Universität München
Journal
Meteoritics and Planetary Science
Band
43
Seiten
805-813
Anzahl der Seiten
9
ISSN
1086-9379
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2008.tb00685.x
Publikationsdatum
2008
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
103004 Astrophysik
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-410000-year-terrestrial-age-of-eucrite-rio-cuarto-001(dca99952-69fd-4d60-9286-3b1ad03c18f2).html