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1962, Stauffer, On The Production Ratios of Rare Gas Isotopes in Stone Meteorites
1962, Stauffer, On The Production Ratios of Rare Gas Isotopes in Stone Meteorites
1962, Stauffer, On The Production Ratios of Rare Gas Isotopes in Stone Meteorites
See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
JOURNAL
OF GEOPHYSICAL
RESE^RCH VOLVMF,67, NO. $ MAY 19fi2
Abstract. The abundancesand isotopic compositionsof argon, neon, and helium extracted
from eight stone and four stony-iron meteorites were determined, and argon-potassiumages
were calculated.The productionratios of cosmic-ray-produced isotopeswere comparedwith
the chemicalcompositionof the samples.It was found that the ratios Ne•/Ar • may be pre-
dicted with an accuracyof usually better than 20 per cent by the equation
TABLE 1. Description of the Samples concentrationof 0.087 per cent. The small pos-
sible contributions of atmospheric APø were
Weight taken into account in the calculation of the
Re-
Classifi- Date
lower error limits. Since the potassiumconcert-
covered,
Sample cation kg ofFall trationsof the stony-iron
meteorites
are un-
known or very uncertain, the argon-potassium
Admire, agesof thesesamplescould not be determined.
olivine Pallasite 50 Found 1881 The finding that the argon-potassiumagesof
Bruderheim Chondrite 300 1960 the calcium-rich achondrites are considerably
Vavilovka Amphot. 16 1876 smaller than those reported for chondritesis in
chondrite
Pavlovka Howardite 2 1882
general agreementwith the results obtained by
Petersburg Howardite 2 1855 Geiss and Hess [1958] and suggests larger
Pasamonte Howardite 3-4 1933 diffusive losses of radiogenic Ar kø for these
Stannern Eucrite 52 1808 achondrites than for chondrites.
Shergotty Shergottite 5.5 1865
Except for the Weatherford sample,the con-
Nakhla Nakhlite 40 1911
Estherville Mesosiderite 350 centrationsof Ar asgiven in Table 2 are cor-
1879
Weatherford Mesosiderite 2 rectedfor possiblecontributionsof primordialor
1926
Vaca Muerta Mesosiderite 25 Found 1861
atmosphericAras [Stauffer, 1961a] and repre-
sent the amount of cosmic-ray-produced Ar88.
Note. The data are taken from Prior [1953]. The neon isotopic ratios indicate that the ob-
served amounts of Ne •xare of cosmogenicorigin.
The argon isotopicratios indicate that most The same is true for Ite 8, as was indicated by
of the observedAPøis of radiogenicorigin.How- the large I-IeS/Hek ratios. The latter are not
ever,smallcontributions of trappedatmospheric listed in Table 2 becauseof a large uncertainty
Ar kø cannot be excluded. In the Weatherford in the correction for mass discrimination.
sample it is possiblethat all the observedAr kø The Weatherford mesosiderite contains pri-
could be of terrestrial origin. Using the po- mordial argon and neon. This is clearly shown
tassium concentrationspublished by Edwards by the observedisotopic ratios. The ratio of
[1955] for the calcium-rich achondrites,we primordialNe•øto primordialAr8øis about 0.18.
calculated the following argon-potassiumages: This value is close to those observed for car-
bonaceouschondrites [Stauffer, 1961b], and it
Vavilovka 90+ .15 X 109 yr showsthat a similar fractionation betweenpri-
.35
mordial argon and neon has occurred in this
Pasamonte 80+ .23 X 109yr sampleand in carbonaceous chondrites.
.23
Pavlovka 70+ .15 X 109 yr PRODUCTIONRATIOS OF RARE GAs ISOTOPES
.25
The ratios He'AF •. The cosmogenicratios
Stannern 55+ .15 X 109yr
He'/Ar • of eleven stone meteorites are listed in
.20
Table 3 togetherwith the concentrationsof Fe
Petersburg 55+ .15 X 109 yr
and Ca. The small amounts of Ni, Co, Cr, and
.35
Bruderheim
Mn were added to Fe; those of Ti and K were
8o+ .10 X 109yr
.30
added to Ca [Geiss, 1957]. The data on the
Nakhla .10
chemical compositionswere taken from Urey
X 109yr
.30
and Craig [1953], except for Bruderheim and
Admire. A chemical analysis of the Bruderheim
Shergotty 56 + .06 X 109yr
.15
chondritewas publishedby Baadsgaard,Camp-
bell, Folinsbee,and Cumming [1961]. The con-
The ages of Pasamonte and Shergotty were centration of Fe in the Admire olivine was cal-
published by Geiss and Hess [1958]. Their culated by taking a value of 7 for the ratio
argon data agreewithin the limits of error with MgO/FeO [Prior, 1953].
our values. The age of Bruderheim was calcu- The ratio He•/Ar • in the calcium-poorAd-
lated by usingthe averagechondriticpotassium mire olivine is much larger than that in ebon-
21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
RARE GAS ISOTOPESIN METEORITES 2025
Accuracy < 4-5% < 4-3% < 4-3% < 4-2% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7%
Notes. All abundancesare given in units of 10-s cc/g (STP). The abundancesof Arasare correctedfor
possiblecontributionsof atmosphericor primordialArss[Stauffer,1961a].(a) Geissand Hess[1958],
(b) Eberhardt and Hess [1960].
drites. Similarly high values were found in the viouslytoo small//e*/Ar ** ratio? The following
Brenham olivine and in the calcium- and iron- results were obtained:
poor Norton County achondrite [Geiss and
Hess, 1958; Eberhardt and Hess, 1960]. Con- NasC'/Na= 0.98 q- 0.09
versely, the ratios I-Ie*/Ar*s in the calcium-rich NasC•/Nas
" = 16.5q- 2.7
achondrites are much smaller than in chondrites.
The rate of productionof Ar • in stone me-
Nas•/Na = 0.059q- 0.008
teoritesis approximatelygiven by The errors given representthe 68 per cent con-
fidencelimits (standarderrors). The production
= Nf[Ca] + (1) rates are given in units of 10-• cc/g (STP) of
target elementand per unit time.
[Ca] and [Fe] are the concentrations of Ca The value of 16.5 _ 2.7 for the production
and Fe, respectively. N• c' and N• •* are the pro- ratio N•O'/N• •' is about 5 times larger than
duction rates of Ar• from Ca and Fe, respec- the value estimatedby Geiss [1957] from nu-
tively. Sincefor stonemeteoritesthe production clear emulsiondata. Eberhardt and Hess [1960]
rate of I-Ie*, N•, is virtually independentof the have pointed out that this ratio is strongly
chemicalcomposition,we obtain energy dependent.AF • is producedfrom iron
mostly by high-energyparticles, from calcium
Nas Nasc• Nas•'
- [Ca] + [re] (2) by low-energysecondaries. The small error ob-
Na Na Na tained by the method of multiple regressionin-
If no diffusivelossesof rare gaseshave occurred, dicates that the energy spectra of irradiation
the abundanceratio Ar•/I-Ie • is equal to the at the site of the sampledid not differ markedly
productionratio N•/N•, averagedover the time for the different samples.The differencesin
of exposure. shieldingwere small and did not strongly affect
From the data given in Table 3 the average the productionratios N•C•/N• TM.
values for the ratios N•O'/N, and N•r'/N, were
calculated by using the statistical method of •The small value for the He•/Ar • ratio in
Stannern is due most probably to a preferred dif-
multipleregression.
The Admire samplewasdis- fusive loss of I-Ie•. Also the I-Ie*/Ne = ratio is too
carded because of the uncertain chemical com-
small, whereas the Ne=/AF s ratio fits well into
position,the Stannernsamplebecauseof an ob- the general picture (see Table 5).
21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
2026 HEINZ STAUFFER
The ratios HeS/Ne". The cosmogenicratios The magnesium-rich Admire olivine has the
Hea/Ne• are listed in Table 4 togetherwith the smallestHe3/Ne2•ratio.
concentrationsof Mg, A1, and Si. The small Correspondingto equation 2 we obtain for
amountsof S and P were addedto Si, those of the productionratio Na/N8
Na to Mg. The Hea/Ne• ratios are larger in the
magnesium-poor achondritesthan in chondrites. N2! N21Mg N21AI N21si
Ns- Ns [Mg]
-]- Ns"
[A1]
-]- Ns[Si]
TABLE 3. Comparisonof He•/Ar38 Ratios
with Concentrations of Ca and Fe
N• •, N• •l, and N• s* are the productionrates
Fe of Ne• from Mg, A1, and Si, respectively.In
(•-Ni q- Co Ca He3 principle, the three unknown production ratios
+ Cr+ Mn), (+K+ Ti), in (3) can be calculatedfrom the data given in
Sample weight % weight %
Ar•S Table
4.Large
errors
areintroduced
bythispro-
cedure,however,and a different approachwas
Admire,
used.Estimatesbasedon spallationsystematics
.•r•'olivine 10 Traces? 206
Bjurboele 21.9 1.38 41 (seelater) indicatethat the production
ratio
St. Michel 24.2 1.27 40 N•I/N• s•is approximately1.35.With this value
Bruderheim 24.7 1.40 36 (3) can be modified:
Vavilovka 21.9 1.38 33
Pavlovka 13.8 4.71
27 /V2• N21Mg N• si
Shergotty 17.0 7.59 14 -- [Mg] •-
Petersburg 16.4 6.49 13 Na Na Na
Pasamonte 16.5 7.40 8.9
Nakhla 16.5 11.10 8.8 ß{[Si]-•- 1.35[A1]} (4)
Stannern 16.3 7.71
6.2 The two unknownprbductionratios
and N•/N• were determined from the data
Notes. The ratios HeS/Arssare accurateto 10 per given in Table 4 by using the method of multi-
cent. For the samples Bjurboele and St. ple regression.Again, the two samplesAdmire
Michel the rare gas data are taken from
Geiss and Hess [1958] and Eberhardt and
Hess [1960]. Correctionsfor possiblecontri- TABLE 5. Comparisonof the Measured Ratios
butions of primordial or atmosphericArSS Ne•-•/Ar•s with Those Predicted from Equation 5
are made.
Differ-
TABLE 4. Comparisonof He•/Ne •'•Ratios Ne •l/Ar •, Ne •/Ar •, ence,
with Concentrationsof Mg, A1, and Si Sample measured predicted %
and Stannernwere discarded.The followingre- from the target nucleiAo,N(A, Ao), is givenby
sults were obtained:
Acknowledgments. I wish to thank Dr. Harold Geiss, J., H. Oeschger,and U. Schwarz, The his-
C. Urey, Dr. R. Bieri, Dr. J. Geiss, and Dr. U. tory of cosmic radiation as revealed by isotopic
Schwarzfor many helpful and stimulating discus- changes in the meteorites and on the earth,
sions. Proc. Varenna Summer Course on Cosmic Rays,
This researchwas supported by the U.S. Atomic 1961.
Energy Commission under contract AT( 11-1)-34. Metropolis, N., R. Bivins, M. Storm, J. M. Miller,
and G. Friedlander, Phys. Rev., 110, 185 and
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