ALBERT

Description: Nitrogen and argon isotopes were measured in carbonatites and associated rocks from the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The Kola mantle source, which is thought to be located in the deep mantle, is enriched in heavy nitrogen (+3 per mil relative to air) as compared to Earth's surface (atmosphere and crust, +2 per mil) and the shallow mantle (-4 per mil). Recycling of oceanic crust (+6 per mil) or metal-silicate partitioning may account for the nitrogen isotopic composition of the deep mantle.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dauphas -- Marty -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Dec 24;286(5449):2488-90.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, CNRS UPR 9046, 15 rue Notre-Dame des Pauvres, Boite Postale 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France. Ecole Nationale Superieure de Geologie, rue du doyen Marcel Roubault, Boit.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10617459" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Ion microprobe analyses show that solar wind nitrogen associated with solar wind hydrogen implanted in the first tens of nanometers of lunar regolith grains is depleted in 15N by at least 24% relative to terrestrial atmosphere, whereas a nonsolar component associated with deuterium-rich hydrogen, detected in silicon-bearing coatings at the surface of some ilmenite grains, is enriched in 15N. Systematic enrichment of 15N in terrestrial planets and bulk meteorites relative to the protosolar gas cannot be explained by isotopic fractionation in nebular or planetary environments but requires the contribution of 15N-rich compounds to the total nitrogen in planetary materials. Most of these compounds are possibly of an interstellar origin and never equilibrated with the 15N-depleted protosolar nebula.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hashizume, K -- Chaussidon, M -- Marty, B -- Robert, F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 Nov 10;290(5494):1142-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques-CNRS, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France. kohash@ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11073449" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Carbonatite lavas are highly unusual in that they contain almost no SiO(2) and are 〉50 per cent carbonate minerals. Although carbonatite magmatism has occurred throughout Earth's history, Oldoinyo Lengai, in Tanzania, is the only currently active volcano producing these exotic rocks. Here we show that volcanic gases captured during an eruptive episode at Oldoinyo Lengai are indistinguishable from those emitted along mid-ocean ridges, despite the fact that Oldoinyo Lengai carbonatites occur in a setting far removed from oceanic spreading centres. In contrast to lithophile trace elements, which are highly fractionated by the immiscible phase separation that produces these carbonatites, volatiles (CO(2), He, N(2) and Ar) are little affected by this process. Our results demonstrate that a globally homogenous reservoir exists in the upper mantle and supplies volatiles to both mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts. This argues against an unusually C-rich mantle being responsible for the genesis of Na-rich carbonatite and its nephelinite source magma at Oldoinyo Lengai. Rather, these carbonatites are formed in the shallow crust by immiscibility from silicate magmas (nephelinite), and are stable under eruption conditions as a result of their high Na contents.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fischer, T P -- Burnard, P -- Marty, B -- Hilton, D R -- Furi, E -- Palhol, F -- Sharp, Z D -- Mangasini, F -- England -- Nature. 2009 May 7;459(7243):77-80. doi: 10.1038/nature07977.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, MSC03 2040, 1 University of New Mexico, New Mexico 87131-0001, USA. fischer@unm.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19424154" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Stardust spacecraft collected thousands of particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 and returned them to Earth for laboratory study. The preliminary examination of these samples shows that the nonvolatile portion of the comet is an unequilibrated assortment of materials that have both presolar and solar system origin. The comet contains an abundance of silicate grains that are much larger than predictions of interstellar grain models, and many of these are high-temperature minerals that appear to have formed in the inner regions of the solar nebula. Their presence in a comet proves that the formation of the solar system included mixing on the grandest scales.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Brownlee, Don -- Tsou, Peter -- Aleon, Jerome -- Alexander, Conel M O'd -- Araki, Tohru -- Bajt, Sasa -- Baratta, Giuseppe A -- Bastien, Ron -- Bland, Phil -- Bleuet, Pierre -- Borg, Janet -- Bradley, John P -- Brearley, Adrian -- Brenker, F -- Brennan, Sean -- Bridges, John C -- Browning, Nigel D -- Brucato, John R -- Bullock, E -- Burchell, Mark J -- Busemann, Henner -- Butterworth, Anna -- Chaussidon, Marc -- Cheuvront, Allan -- Chi, Miaofang -- Cintala, Mark J -- Clark, B C -- Clemett, Simon J -- Cody, George -- Colangeli, Luigi -- Cooper, George -- Cordier, Patrick -- Daghlian, C -- Dai, Zurong -- D'Hendecourt, Louis -- Djouadi, Zahia -- Dominguez, Gerardo -- Duxbury, Tom -- Dworkin, Jason P -- Ebel, Denton S -- Economou, Thanasis E -- Fakra, Sirine -- Fairey, Sam A J -- Fallon, Stewart -- Ferrini, Gianluca -- Ferroir, T -- Fleckenstein, Holger -- Floss, Christine -- Flynn, George -- Franchi, Ian A -- Fries, Marc -- Gainsforth, Z -- Gallien, J-P -- Genge, Matt -- Gilles, Mary K -- Gillet, Philipe -- Gilmour, Jamie -- Glavin, Daniel P -- Gounelle, Matthieu -- Grady, Monica M -- Graham, Giles A -- Grant, P G -- Green, Simon F -- Grossemy, Faustine -- Grossman, Lawrence -- Grossman, Jeffrey N -- Guan, Yunbin -- Hagiya, Kenji -- Harvey, Ralph -- Heck, Philipp -- Herzog, Gregory F -- Hoppe, Peter -- Horz, Friedrich -- Huth, Joachim -- Hutcheon, Ian D -- Ignatyev, Konstantin -- Ishii, Hope -- Ito, Motoo -- Jacob, Damien -- Jacobsen, Chris -- Jacobsen, Stein -- Jones, Steven -- Joswiak, David -- Jurewicz, Amy -- Kearsley, Anton T -- Keller, Lindsay P -- Khodja, H -- Kilcoyne, A L David -- Kissel, Jochen -- Krot, Alexander -- Langenhorst, Falko -- Lanzirotti, Antonio -- Le, Loan -- Leshin, Laurie A -- Leitner, J -- Lemelle, L -- Leroux, Hugues -- Liu, Ming-Chang -- Luening, K -- Lyon, Ian -- Macpherson, Glen -- Marcus, Matthew A -- Marhas, Kuljeet -- Marty, Bernard -- Matrajt, Graciela -- McKeegan, Kevin -- Meibom, Anders -- Mennella, Vito -- Messenger, Keiko -- Messenger, Scott -- Mikouchi, Takashi -- Mostefaoui, Smail -- Nakamura, Tomoki -- Nakano, T -- Newville, M -- Nittler, Larry R -- Ohnishi, Ichiro -- Ohsumi, Kazumasa -- Okudaira, Kyoko -- Papanastassiou, Dimitri A -- Palma, Russ -- Palumbo, Maria E -- Pepin, Robert O -- Perkins, David -- Perronnet, Murielle -- Pianetta, P -- Rao, William -- Rietmeijer, Frans J M -- Robert, Francois -- Rost, D -- Rotundi, Alessandra -- Ryan, Robert -- Sandford, Scott A -- Schwandt, Craig S -- See, Thomas H -- Schlutter, Dennis -- Sheffield-Parker, J -- Simionovici, Alexandre -- Simon, Steven -- Sitnitsky, I -- Snead, Christopher J -- Spencer, Maegan K -- Stadermann, Frank J -- Steele, Andrew -- Stephan, Thomas -- Stroud, Rhonda -- Susini, Jean -- Sutton, S R -- Suzuki, Y -- Taheri, Mitra -- Taylor, Susan -- Teslich, Nick -- Tomeoka, Kazu -- Tomioka, Naotaka -- Toppani, Alice -- Trigo-Rodriguez, Josep M -- Troadec, David -- Tsuchiyama, Akira -- Tuzzolino, Anthony J -- Tyliszczak, Tolek -- Uesugi, K -- Velbel, Michael -- Vellenga, Joe -- Vicenzi, E -- Vincze, L -- Warren, Jack -- Weber, Iris -- Weisberg, Mike -- Westphal, Andrew J -- Wirick, Sue -- Wooden, Diane -- Wopenka, Brigitte -- Wozniakiewicz, Penelope -- Wright, Ian -- Yabuta, Hikaru -- Yano, Hajime -- Young, Edward D -- Zare, Richard N -- Zega, Thomas -- Ziegler, Karen -- Zimmerman, Laurent -- Zinner, Ernst -- Zolensky, Michael -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2006 Dec 15;314(5806):1711-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. brownlee@astro.washington.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17170289" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Marty, Bernard -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2006 May 5;312(5774):706-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, 54501 France. bmarty@crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16675689" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Materials trapped and preserved in comets date from the earliest history of the solar system. Particles captured by the Stardust spacecraft from comet 81P/Wild 2 are indisputable cometary matter available for laboratory study. Here we report measurements of noble gases in Stardust material. Neon isotope ratios are within the range observed in "phase Q," a ubiquitous, primitive organic carrier of noble gases in meteorites. Helium displays 3He/4He ratios twice those in phase Q and in Jupiter's atmosphere. Abundances per gram are surprisingly large, suggesting implantation by ion irradiation. The gases are probably carried in high-temperature igneous grains similar to particles found in other Stardust studies. Collectively, the evidence points to gas acquisition in a hot, high ion-flux nebular environment close to the young Sun.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Marty, Bernard -- Palma, Russell L -- Pepin, Robert O -- Zimmermann, Laurent -- Schlutter, Dennis J -- Burnard, Peter G -- Westphal, Andrew J -- Snead, Christopher J -- Bajt, Sasa -- Becker, Richard H -- Simones, Jacob E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Jan 4;319(5859):75-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1148001.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, Nancy Universite, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18174437" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Tissint (Morocco) is the fifth martian meteorite collected after it was witnessed falling to Earth. Our integrated mineralogical, petrological, and geochemical study shows that it is a depleted picritic shergottite similar to EETA79001A. Highly magnesian olivine and abundant glass containing martian atmosphere are present in Tissint. Refractory trace element, sulfur, and fluorine data for the matrix and glass veins in the meteorite indicate the presence of a martian surface component. Thus, the influence of in situ martian weathering can be unambiguously distinguished from terrestrial contamination in this meteorite. Martian weathering features in Tissint are compatible with the results of spacecraft observations of Mars. Tissint has a cosmic-ray exposure age of 0.7 +/- 0.3 million years, consistent with those of many other shergottites, notably EETA79001, suggesting that they were ejected from Mars during the same event.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Aoudjehane, H Chennaoui -- Avice, G -- Barrat, J-A -- Boudouma, O -- Chen, G -- Duke, M J M -- Franchi, I A -- Gattacceca, J -- Grady, M M -- Greenwood, R C -- Herd, C D K -- Hewins, R -- Jambon, A -- Marty, B -- Rochette, P -- Smith, C L -- Sautter, V -- Verchovsky, A -- Weber, P -- Zanda, B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2012 Nov 9;338(6108):785-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1224514. Epub 2012 Oct 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Hassan II University Casablanca, Faculty of Sciences, Geosciences Appliquees a l'Ingenierie et l'Amenagement (GAIA) Laboratory, BP 5366 Maarif, Casablanca, Morocco. chennaoui_h@yahoo.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23065902" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Understanding the atmosphere's composition during the Archean eon is fundamental to unraveling ancient environmental conditions. We show from the analysis of nitrogen and argon isotopes in fluid inclusions trapped in 3.0- to 3.5-billion-year-old hydrothermal quartz that the partial pressure of N2 of the Archean atmosphere was lower than 1.1 bar, possibly as low as 0.5 bar, and had a nitrogen isotopic composition comparable to the present-day one. These results imply that dinitrogen did not play a significant role in the thermal budget of the ancient Earth and that the Archean partial pressure of CO2 was probably lower than 0.7 bar.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Marty, Bernard -- Zimmermann, Laurent -- Pujol, Magali -- Burgess, Ray -- Philippot, Pascal -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Oct 4;342(6154):101-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1240971. Epub 2013 Sep 19.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques-CNRS, Universite de Lorraine, 15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France. bmarty@crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24051244" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Archean rocks may provide a record of early Earth environments. However, such rocks have often been metamorphosed by high pressure and temperature, which can overprint the signatures of their original formation. Here, we show that the early Archean banded rocks from Isua, Akilia, and Innersuartuut, Greenland, are enriched in heavy iron isotopes by 0.1 to 0.5 per mil per atomic mass unit relative to igneous rocks worldwide. The observed enrichments are compatible with the transport, oxidation, and subsequent precipitation of ferrous iron emanating from hydrothermal vents and thus suggest that the original rocks were banded iron formations (BIFs). These variations therefore support a sedimentary origin for the Akilia banded rocks, which represent one of the oldest known occurrences of water-laid deposits on Earth.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dauphas, Nicolas -- van Zuilen, Mark -- Wadhwa, Meenakshi -- Davis, Andrew M -- Marty, Bernard -- Janney, Philip E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Dec 17;306(5704):2077-80.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Origins Laboratory, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. dauphas@uchicago.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15604404" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Understanding the growth rate of the continental crust through time is a fundamental issue in Earth sciences. The isotopic signatures of noble gases in the silicate Earth (mantle, crust) and in the atmosphere afford exceptional insight into the evolution through time of these geochemical reservoirs. However, no data for the compositions of these reservoirs exists for the distant past, and temporal exchange rates between Earth's interior and its surface are severely under-constrained owing to a lack of samples preserving the original signature of the atmosphere at the time of their formation. Here, we report the analysis of argon in Archaean (3.5-billion-year-old) hydrothermal quartz. Noble gases are hosted in primary fluid inclusions containing a mixture of Archaean freshwater and hydrothermal fluid. Our analysis reveals Archaean atmospheric argon with a (40)Ar/(36)Ar value of 143 +/- 24, lower than the present-day value of 298.6 (for which (40)Ar has been produced by the radioactive decay of the potassium isotope (40)K, with a half-life of 1.25 billion years; (36)Ar is primordial in origin). This ratio is consistent with an early development of the felsic crust, which might have had an important role in climate variability during the first half of Earth's history.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pujol, Magali -- Marty, Bernard -- Burgess, Ray -- Turner, Grenville -- Philippot, Pascal -- England -- Nature. 2013 Jun 6;498(7452):87-90. doi: 10.1038/nature12152.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉CRPG-CNRS, Universite de Lorraine, 15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23739427" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉