Evidence against water delivery by impacts within 10 million years of planetesimal formation

The quenched (rapidly-cooled) angrite meteorites, which formed in the inner Solar System, record large-scale planetary mixing in the first few Ma of Solar System history, and therefore, provide a unique opportunity to investigate the role of impacts in terms of water addition to the growing planetesimals. Here we investigate the H isotopic composition and H2O abundance of relict olivine grains that survived impact melting within Asuka (A) 12,209 and compare them with impact melt-produced groundmass fractions using in-situ nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS). These analyses test if the angrite parent body (APB) acquired a CC-like H isotopic composition before early large-scale impact mixing and/or acquired volatiles by subsequent impact(s). Furthermore, we analyse the H isotopic composition and H2O abundance of later-forming plutonic (NWA 4801), intermediate (NWA 10,463) and dunitic (NWA 8535) angrite meteorites to assess the role of impacts, in terms of volatile delivery, during the first 50 Ma of the inner Solar System history. The H isotopic composition of most quenched angrites appears to be affected by degassing. Consequently, we opt to use the weighted average δD of pyroxenes and olivines in the plutonic angrite, NWA 4801, to estimate the original composition of the APB (-235 ± 113 ‰ 1σ, n = 18), in agreement with recent studies on the hydrogen isotopic signatures of mineral-hosted melt inclusions in D'Orbigny and Sahara 99,555. Additionally, we use the H2O abundances of NWA 4801 pyroxene (7.9 ± 1 µg/g 2σ) and olivine (6.1 ± 0.6 µg/g 2σ) to estimate the lower (85 to 110 µg/g) and upper (519 to 1089 µg/g) limits of the primitive APB mantle H2O content, implying that the APB was one of the most hydrated bodies in the early inner Solar System. The similarity of δD/H2O systematics in the relict olivine grains and groundmass olivine within A 12,209 argues against water delivery through impacts in the early inner Solar System. Overall, the non-carbonaceous reservoir in the inner Solar System appears to retain a single source of water, which isotopically resembles either water ice in carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies or fractionated nebula water

Accessory mineral microstructure and chronology reveals no evidence for late heavy bombardment on the asteroid 4-Vesta

A long-standing paradigm in planetary science is that the inner Solar System experienced a period of intense and sustained bombardment between 4.2 and 3.9 Ga. Evidence of this period, termed the Late Heavy Bombardment is provided by the 40Ar/39Ar isotope systematics of returned Apollo samples, lunar meteorites, and asteroidal meteorites. However, it has been largely unsupported by more recent and robust isotopic age data, such as isotopic age data obtained using the U-Pb system. Here we conduct careful microstructural characterisation of baddeleyite, zircon, and apatite in six different eucrites prior to conducting SIMS and LA-ICP-MS measurement of U, Th, and Pb isotopic ratios and radiometric dating. Baddeleyite, displaying complex internal twinning linked to reversion from a high symmetry polymorph in two samples, records the formation of the parent body (4554 ± 3 Ma 2σ; n = 8), while structurally simple zircon records a tight spread of ages representing metamorphism between 4574 ± 14 Ma and 4487 ± 31 Ma (n = 6). Apatite, a more readily reset shock chronometer, records crystallisation ages of ∼4509 Ma (n = 6), with structurally deformed grains (attributed to impact events) yielding U-Pb ages of 4228 Ma (n = 12). In concert, there is no evidence within the measured U-Pb systematics or microstructural record of the eucrites examined in this study to support a period of late heavy bombardment between 4.2 and 3.9 Ga

A reappraisal of the petrogenesis of Apollo 17 lunar dunites 72415-72417: relics of the deep lunar mantle?

Lunar dunite samples 72415-72417, collected by Apollo 17 astronauts from a South Massif boulder in the Taurus-Littrow valley, are crushed breccias composed of several types of olivine- and clinopyroxene-rich clasts, some of which are (or contain) intergrowths of Cr-spinel and pyroxenes or plagioclase. Among the clasts are ellipsoidal symplectites of Cr-spinel and pyroxene, up to 300 μm in diameter, which have bulk compositions consistent with those of olivine+garnet. These symplectites are inferred to originally have been olivine+ Mg-Cr-rich garnet (pyrope-uvarovite) that formed deep in the lunar mantle and were subsequently transported closer to the lunar surface (spinel- or plagioclase-peridotite stability fields), perhaps during gravitationally-driven overturn. Abundant microsymplectite (30 μm diameter) intergrowths of Cr-spinel and pyroxene inside olivine grains, many associated with inclusions of plagioclase and augite, formed during a later decompression event (perhaps excavation to the lunar surface). These inclusions have not previously been recorded in these samples, and could be responsible for earlier reports of igneous zoning in olivine. Electron backscatter diffraction data show evidence of high shock pressures (>50 GPa), which are inferred to have occurred during the impact which excavated the dunites from the shallow anorthite-bearing lunar mantle. Apatite veinlets post-date the shock metamorphism and have been dated to 3983 ± 72 Ma and 3913 ± 118 Ma by the U-Pb method. This age is consistent with that inferred for the Imbrium impact basin, suggesting that the dunite was finally excavated from the mantle during formation of the Imbrium basin