Publication Date:
2019-06-28
Description:
Improved exposure ages are derived for 201 H, 203 L, and 38 LL chondrites in an effort to understand the characteristics of the chondrite parent body. The Ne-21 exposure ages were calculated from literature values taking into account shielding differences, a trapped component and radiogenic He. The exposure age distributions show clear peaks at 4.5 and 20 million years for the H chondrites, while the Ls and LLs appear more as a continuous series of intermediate peaks which may be modeled by at least six peaks between 1 and 35 million years in the case of L chondrites. The observations that every petrological type occurs in each large peak and contain solar wind gases suggest that the parent bodies have been fragmented and reassembled into a megabreccia. The H meteorites are proposed to represent the surface layer of a body with a substantial, active regolith as indicated by the relatively high abundances of solar gases. The L chondrites, on the other hand, are attributed to a parent body that was fragmented by collision about 500 million years ago.
Keywords:
LUNAR AND PLANETARY EXPLORATION
Type:
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; 45; Nov. 198
Format:
text
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