reduced reused and recycled detrital zircons define a maximum age for the eoarchean ca 3750 3780 ma nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt quebec canada abstract a key discovery from the hadean pre 3850 ma detrital zircon record has been that the dichotomy of granitic and basaltic crust was established within about 160 myr of earth s formation harrison 2009 understanding the origin and fate of this primordial crust would greatly add to what we know about the geodynamics of the hadean earth insights emerge from 147 146sm 143 142nd isotope data reported from different eoarchean terranes worldwide including the nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt nsb in northern quebec some ca poor cummingtonite rich amphibolites and granitoid gneisses of the nsb preserve lower 142nd 144nd than bulk silicate earth bse these also show positive correlations against 147sm 144nd that were used by o neil et al 2008 o neil et al 2012 to assign a ca 4400 ma age alternatively the compositions were inherited during the formation of the nsb at around 3800 ma roth et al 2013 guitreau et al 2013 to resolve this discrepancy ion microprobe u pb ages are reported for detrital zircons from nsb meta sediments from within the same supracrustal successions that preserve low 142nd 144nd the youngest detrital zircon cores of igneous derivation define a maximum age for the nsb of ca 3780 ma this age is about 600 myr younger than that obtained from 142nd 144nd vs 147sm 143nd regressions thus just like the variable 142nd 144nd ratios reported for other eoarchean terranes non bse 142nd 144nd values of the nsb were inherited from an older component

revisiting the nd 142 deficits in the 1 48 ga khariar alkaline rocks india the 146sm 142nd system plays a central role in tracing the silicate differentiation of the earth prior to 4 1 ga after this time given its initial abundance the 146sm can be considered to be extinct upadhyay et al 2009 reported unexpected negative 142nd anomalies in 1 48 ga rocks of the khariar nepheline syenite complex india and inferred that an early enriched low sm nd reservoir must have contributed to the mantle source rocks of the khariar complex as 146sm had been effectively extinct for about 2 6 billion years before the crystallisation of the khariar samples this nd signature should have remained isolated from the convective mantle for at least that long it was thus suggested that the source rock of khariar samples had been sequestered in the lithospheric root of the indian craton using a different chemical separation method and a different thermal ionization mass spectrometry tims analysis protocol the present study attempted to replicate these negative 142nd anomalies but none were found to determine which data set is correct we investigated three possible sources of bias between them imperfect cancellation of faraday collector efficiencies during multidynamic tims analysis rapid sample fractionation between the sequential measurement of 146nd 144nd and 142nd 144nd and non exponential law behaviour resulting from so called domain mixing incomplete cancellation of collector efficiencies was found unlikely to cause resolvable biases at the estimated level of variation among collector efficiencies even in the case of highly variable efficiency and resolvable biases there is no reason to suspect that they would reproducibly affect only four rocks out of 10 analysed by upadhyay et al 2009 although domain mixing may explain apparent reverse fractionation trends observed in some tims analyses it cannot be the cause of the apparent negative anomalies in the study of upadhyay et al 2009 it was determined that rapid mass fractionation during the course of a multidynamic tims analysis can bias all measured nd ratios after applying an approximate correction for this effect only one rock from upadhyay et al 2009 retained an apparent negative 142nd anomaly this in conjunction with our new anomaly free data set measured at fractionation rates too low to cause bias leads to the conclusion that the anomalies reported by upadhyay et al 2009 are a subtle and reproducible analytical artefact the absence of negative 142nd anomalies in these rocks relaxes the need for a mechanism other than crust formation that can isolate a nd reservoir from the convective mantle for billions of years

sm nd chronology and petrogenesis of mesosiderites we have obtained sm nd data from four mesosiderite silicate clasts including three clasts with a variety of textures from the vaca muerta type 1a mesosiderite and one gabbroic clast from the mt padbury mesosiderite the gabbroic vaca muerta pebble 12 and basaltic pebble 16 yield identical 147 sm 143 nd ages of 4 48 0 19 ae and 4 48 0 09 ae respectively while the highly recrystallized pebble 5 gives an age of 4 42 0 02 ae mt padbury yields an age of 4 52 0 04 ae all clasts show a correlation of 142 nd 144 nd with 147 sm 144 nd and provide unequivocal evidence for the presence of live 146 sm at the time of their formation calculated initial 146 sm 144 sm values range from 0 004 pebble 5 to 0 006 pebbles 12 16 and mt padbury and are generally consistent with the 147 sm 143 nd ages however discordance of whole rock leach and residue data and some disagreement between 146 sm 142 nd relative ages and 147 sm 143 nd absolute ages indicate small but significant disturbances to the sm nd systematics the ranges of ages and initial 146 sm 144 sm and 143 nd 144 nd values suggest that each of these silicate clasts underwent a separate protracted evolution on its parent body prior to mixing with metal textural and trace element criteria indicate that individual clasts from the same mesosiderite often had very different igneous sources and thermal histories prior to their incorporation in the meteorite pebble 12 is extremely lree depleted probably a result of several melt extraction events whereas pebbles 5 and 16 and mt padbury have nearly chondritic sm nd with bulk ree concentrations higher than chondrites by factors of 5 to 15 in general the sm nd systematics of mesosiderite silicates require formation of the silicates on a parent planet which underwent relatively early and extreme differentiation preservation of diverse old ages and the presence of 146 sm imply that metal silicate mixing did not seriously alter the sm nd isotopic memories of these clasts we present a model for metal silicate mixing which combines the cooling history with isotopic reequilibration for the case of thermal blanketing we show that the total amount of isotopic reequilibration in a sample can be related to the initial temperature depth of burial grain size and diffusion parameters application of this model to the silicate clasts measured in this study indicates that if the metal and silicate were thermally equilibrated above the metal solidus temperature during mixing then the clasts must have been buried no deeper than 1 10 m in regolith during the initial high temperature cooling phase in order to prevent the sm nd systems from being extensively reset in order to reconcile these results with the slow cooling rates at lower temperatures determined from studies of exsolution in the metal phase we infer that heat was transferred rapidly from hot metal to cold silicate material during initial metal silicate mixing and that the deeply buried portions of the mixture then cooled slowly after reaching thermal equilibrium at 600 700 c the data from this study point to the following history for the mesosiderite parent body 1 differentiation of a silicate parent body within the first 50 m y of solar system history to form diverse parent magmas 2 emplacement of primitive and differentiated mafic magmas near the planetary surface and extensive differentiation in the near surface environment 3 formation and reworking of regolith breccias through impact gardening at the near surface of the body 4 mixing of molten fe ni metal with the regolith followed by rapid cooling 100 150 m y after the origin of the solar system 5 slow cooling from temperatures of 700 c to produce the observed nickel diffusion profiles in the iron phase 6 mild impact metamorphism and brecciation to obtain the much younger k ar ages and 7 recent collisions or perturbations sending mesosiderite fragments into earth crossing trajectories

rb sr and sm nd isotopic and ree studies of igneous components in the bulk matrix domain of martian breccia northwest africa 7034 the bulk matrix domain of the martian breccia nwa 7034 was examined petrographically and isotopically to better understand the provenance and age of the source material that make up the breccia both 147sm 143nd and 146sm 142nd age results for mineral separates from the bulk matrix portion of breccia nwa 7034 suggest that various lithological components in the breccia probably formed contemporaneously 4 44 ga ago this old age is in excellent agreement with the upper intersection ages 4 35 4 45 ga for u pb discordia and also concordia defined by zircon and baddeleyite grains in matrix and igneous textured clasts consequently we confirm an ancient age for the igneous components that make up the nwa 7034 breccia substantial disturbance in the rb sr system was detected and no age significance could be gleaned from our rb sr data the disturbance to the rb sr system may be due to a thermal event recorded by bulk rock k ar ages of 1 56 ga and u pb ages of phosphates at about 1 35 1 5 ga which suggest partial resetting from an unknown thermal event s possibly accompanying breccia formation the nwa 7034 bulk rock is lree enriched and similar to kreep rich lunar rocks which indicates that the earliest martian crust was geochemically enriched this enrichment supports the idea that the crust is one of the enriched geochemical reservoirs on mars that have been detected in studies of other martian meteorites

a young solidification age for the lunar magma ocean abstract the time at which the lunar magma ocean solidified can be determined from the lu hf isotope systematics of lunar rocks derived from magma sources that formed during crystallization of the lunar magma ocean the final magma ocean crystallization product termed urkreep is enriched in incompatible elements including k ree and p we have determined the initial hf isotopic compositions of four samples two kreep basalts and two mg suite norites the incompatible trace element compositions of these samples are controlled by an urkreep component and therefore the initial hf isotopic compositions of these samples represent the hf isotopic evolution of urkreep in order to correct the effects of neutron irradiation on the hf isotopic compositions of these samples we have developed a model that uses the stable hf and sm isotopic compositions measured on an irradiated sample to determine and correct for the thermal and epithermal neutron fluence that has modified the hf isotopic composition of the sample we use our corrected results to calculate a 176 lu 176 hf urkreep model age of 4353 37 ma and the 176 lu 177 hf of urkreep to be 0 0153 0 0033 the lu hf model age is concordant with the re calculated sm nd urkreep model age of 4389 45 ma and we take the average of these ages 4368 29 ma to represent the time at which urkreep formed this age is concordant with the age of the most reliably dated ferroan noritic anorthosite as well as 142 nd model ages for the formation or re equilibration of mare basalt sources taken together these ages indicate that the moon experienced a widespread large scale magmatic event around 4370 ma most plausibly attributed to solidification of the lunar magma ocean

u pb systematics of the unique achondrite ibitira precise age determination and petrogenetic implications abstract ibitira is an unbrecciated equilibrated vesicular basaltic achondrite that is considered to have originated on a parent body distinct from all other known meteorites we present the first combined high precision u and pb isotopic data for this unique meteorite the 238 u 235 u value of 137 777 0 013 determined for the whole rock is comparable to values determined for bulk chondrites and other basaltic achondrites this value results in corrections of 1 1 ma for pb pb dates calculated using the previously assumed invariant 238 u 235 u value of 137 88 using the determined 238 u 235 u value the 7 most radiogenic pb isotopic analyses for acid leached pyroxene rich and whole rock fractions yield an isochron pb pb age of 4556 75 0 57 ma in excellent agreement with the results of mn cr chronology which give the ages of 4557 4 2 5 ma and 4555 9 3 2 ma using the u corrected pb pb age of d orbigny as a time anchor along with the previously proposed thermal history of ibitira and our closure temperature estimates for pb diffusion the pb pb age is interpreted as the timing of the last chemical equilibration and coarse pyroxene exsolution that occurred during high temperature metamorphism the metamorphism may have been caused by burial of ibitira lava under successive lava flows and if so the pb pb age should post date the crystallization by a short time interval the pb isotopic data for acid leachates suggest partial re equilibration of pb between plagioclase and phosphate perhaps during an impact event at 4 49 ga as recorded by k ar systematics the whole rock 238 u 204 pb indicates that compared to ci chondrites ibitira is less depleted in pb than in some alkali elements despite a lower condensation temperature of pb than the alkali elements the restricted pb depletion may reflect preferential concentration of metals with high fluid melt partition coefficients including pb and zn as a result of fluid exsolution and migration within the parent magma we discuss the implications of the u pb systematics for the origin and differentiation of the parent body

an examination of observatory biases during the magsat and orsted missions abstract using magnetic data from the magsat and orsted satellite missions launched in 1979 and 1999 respectively and data from geomagnetic observatories operating at the same time we compute and compare observatory biases with the view to identifying changes in the crustal field with time where possible similar selections of satellite and observatory data have been used so as to minimise the contamination of the results with ionospheric and magnetospheric fields spherical harmonic models of the core generated field and large scale external field are determined from the satellite data and are compared with the ground based data to give bias values results using observatory annual mean values show changes in the biases over the 20 year period which in some regions appear to have some consistency as contamination by magnetic fields with sources in the ionosphere and magnetosphere is a possible cause of these changes further efforts were made to reduce these effects by using quiet time selections of observatory hourly mean values whilst there remains some indications of regional consistencies in the bias changes it can only be concluded that real changes in the crustal field over the 20 year period may have occurred the possibility of some remaining external field contamination in the analysis cannot be completely discounted

the early differentiation history of mars from 182w 142nd isotope systematics in the snc meteorites we report here the results of an investigation of w and nd isotopes in the snc shergottite nakhlite chassignite martian meteorites we have determined that 182 w values in the nakhlites are uniform within analytical uncertainties and have an average value of 3 also while 182 w values in the shergottites have a limited range from 0 3 0 7 their 142 nd values vary considerably from 0 2 0 9 there appears to be no correlation between 182 w and 142 nd in the nakhlites and shergottites these results shed new light on early differentiation processes on mars particularly on the timing and nature of fraction ation in silicate reservoirs assuming a two stage model the metallic core is estimated to have formed at 12 myr after the beginning of the solar system major silicate differentiation established the nakhlite source reservoir before 4542 ma and the shergottite source reservoirs at 4525 19 ma these ages imply that within the uncertainties afforded by the 182 hf 182 w and 146 sm 142 nd chronometers the silicate differentiation events that established the source reservoirs of the nakhlites and shergottites may have occurred contempo raneously possibly during crystallization of a global magma ocean the distinct 182 w 142 nd isotope systematics in the nakhlites and the shergottites imply the presence of at least three isotopically distinct silicate reservoirs on mars two of which are depleted in incompatible lithophile elements relative to chondrites and the third is enriched the two depleted silicate reservoirs most likely reside in the martian mantle while the enriched reservoir could be either in the crust or the mantle therefore the 182 w 142 nd isotope systematics indicate that the nakhlites and the shergottites originated from distinct source reservoirs and cannot be petrogenetically related a further implication is that the source reservoirs of the nakhlites and shergottites on mars have been isolated since their establishment before 4 5 ga therefore there has been no giant impact or efficient global mantle convection to thoroughly homogenize the martian mantle following the establish ment of the snc source reservoirs copyright 2005 elsevier ltd

chronological evidence that the moon is either young or did not have a global magma ocean a new age determination for a moon rock collected close to the site of the apollo 16 lander has yielded a surprisingly young age of around 4 360 million years this age would require either that the moon solidified some 200 million years after the formation of the solar system significantly later than is assumed by most lunar formation models or that the long held theory that the moon once had a primordial global magma ocean is flawed in the latter case much of the lunar crust could have been produced by non magma ocean processes such as serial magmatism chemical evolution of planetary bodies ranging from asteroids to the large rocky planets is thought to begin with differentiation through solidification of magma oceans many hundreds of kilometres in depth1 2 3 the earth s moon is the archetypical example of this type of differentiation evidence for a lunar magma ocean is derived largely from the widespread distribution compositional and mineralogical characteristics and ancient ages inferred for the ferroan anorthosite fan suite of lunar crustal rocks the fans are considered to be primary lunar flotation cumulate crust that crystallized in the latter stages of magma ocean solidification according to this theory fans represent the oldest lunar crustal rock type2 3 4 attempts to date this rock suite have yielded ambiguous results however because individual isochron measurements are typically incompatible with the geochemical make up of the samples and have not been confirmed by additional isotopic systems5 6 7 8 9 by making improvements to the standard isotopic techniques we report here the age of crystallization of fan 60025 using the 207pb 206pb 147sm 143nd and 146sm 142nd isotopic systems to be 4 360 3 million years this extraordinarily young age requires that either the moon solidified significantly later than most previous estimates or the long held assumption that fans are flotation cumulates of a primordial magma ocean is incorrect if the latter is correct then much of the lunar crust may have been produced by non magma ocean processes such as serial magmatism10

potassic high silica hadean crust understanding hadean 4 ga earth requires knowledge of its crust the composition of the crust and volatiles migrating through it directly influence the makeup of the atmosphere the composition of seawater and nutrient availability despite its importance there is little known and less agreed upon regarding the nature of the hadean crust by analyzing the 87sr 86sr ratio of apatite inclusions in archean zircons from nuvvuagittuq canada we show that its protolith had formed a high 1 rb sr ratio reservoir by at least 4 2 ga this result implies that the early crust had a broad range of igneous rocks extending from mafic to highly silicic compositions

the elusive hadean enriched reservoir revealed by 142nd deficits in isua archaean rocks the first indisputable evidence for very early differentiation of the silicate earth came from the extinct 146sm 142nd chronometer 142nd excesses measured in 3 7 billion year gyr old rocks from isua1 2 southwest greenland relative to modern terrestrial samples imply their derivation from a depleted mantle formed in the hadean eon about 4 570 4 000 gyr ago as dictated by mass balance the differentiation event responsible for the formation of the isua early depleted reservoir must also have formed a complementary enriched component however considerable efforts to find early enriched mantle components in isua have so far been unsuccessful3 4 5 6 7 here we show that the signature of the hadean enriched reservoir complementary to the depleted reservoir in isua is recorded in 3 4 gyr old mafic dykes intruding into the early archaean rocks five out of seven dykes carry 142nd deficits compared to the terrestrial nd standard with three samples yielding resolvable deficits down to 10 6 parts per million the enriched component that we report here could have been a mantle reservoir that differentiated owing to the crystallization of a magma ocean or could represent a mafic proto crust that separated from the mantle more than 4 47 gyr ago our results testify to the existence of an enriched component in the hadean and may suggest that the southwest greenland mantle preserved early formed heterogeneities until at least 3 4 gyr ago

147 146sm 143 142nd 176lu 176hf and 87rb 87sr systematics in the angrites implications for chronology and processes on the angrite parent body abstract angrites are a group of basaltic achondrites with distinctive mineralogic and geochemical characteristics that have the potential to provide insights into processes occurring on planetesimals in the early solar system these achondrites have been used as anchors linking the relative age information obtained from short lived extinct chronometers e g al mg hf w and mn cr with absolute chronometers e g u pb angrites provide excellent examples of early differentiation processes such as core formation and silicate differentiation on protoplanetary bodies the significant increase in the number of known angrite samples in recent years has offered the opportunity to compare several short and long lived isotopic systems in samples with different petrogenetic histories that formed on the same parent body to this end the 147sm 143nd 146sm 142nd 176lu 176hf and 87rb 87sr isotope systematics have been investigated in a suite of plutonic coarse grained nwa 4590 nwa 4801 and nwa 2999 and quenched fine grained d orbigny angrites the coupled 147 146sm 143 142nd systematics indicate possible isotopic disturbances in two angrites d orbigny and nwa 2999 resulting from post crystallization processes the internal 146sm 142nd isochrons of two coarse grained angrites nwa 4590 and nwa 4801 provide an updated best estimate of the initial solar system 146sm 144sm ratio i e at 4568 ma of 0 0084 0 0003 the 176lu 176hf isotope systematics in these angrites do not provide evidence of a previously proposed intense irradiation event in the early solar system the internal 176lu 176hf isochrons for the nwa 4590 and d orbigny angrites provide an estimate for the solar system initial 176hf 177hf ratio of 0 279775 0 000031 2 that agrees within uncertainty with the value of average chondrites reported by bouvier et al 2008 finally the calculated initial 87sr 86sr ratios based on the measured sr isotopic composition of plagioclase in these angrites yield an estimated initial 87sr 86sr ratio of 0 698980 0 000011 for the angrite parent body this is indistinguishable from a recently determined value for the solar system initial 87sr 86sr based on values measured in calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais after correcting for nucleosynthetic effects in the cais the low initial 87sr 86sr of the angrite parent body implies that it acquired its volatile element depleted characteristic within 1 8 ma of solar system formation likely because it accreted from volatile depleted planetesimals that formed in the hot inner nebula these integrated isotopic systematics suggest a complex history for the angrite parent body not previously inferred from short lived chronometers and provide new estimates for the initial isotopic composition of the early solar system

samarium neodymium evolution of meteorites we have obtained sm nd data on two differentiated meteorites ibitira a eucrite with distinct basaltic texture and with evidence of crystallization and morristown a group 3a mesosiderite as well as on acapulco an unclassified meteorite with chondritic chemical composition and a highly recrystallized texture we have demonstrated the presence of in situ decay of short lived 146 sm in these meteorites with initial abundance of 146 sm 144 sm from 0 009 to 0 007 for the different meteorites precisely defined 147 sm 143 nd internal isochrons were obtained yielding ages of 4 60 0 03 ae for acapulco 4 47 0 02 ae for morristown and 4 46 0 02 ae for ibitira the corresponding initial 143 nd 144 nd values obtained were 0 2 0 9 2 1 0 7 and 1 6 0 8 u epsilon units detailed consideration of the coupled 147 sm 143 nd and 146 sm 142 nd systematics and of the elevated initial 143 nd 144 nd values indicates the presence of inconsistencies in the data for the two sm nd parent daughter pairs in spite of the precise isochrons we present a model which provides an interpretation of the paired sm nd systematics in terms of an impulsive disturbance the abundance of phosphate with large concentrations of rees controls the ree economy plagioclase with low ree concentrations is assumed to be susceptible to exchange pyroxene is considered to be undisturbed because of the low diffusion coefficients of trace elements the experimental results can be reasonably explained by this model the results indicate that three meteorites studied some with very low ree concentrations including a mesosiderite are relatively ancient objects formed within the first 50 to 100 m y of the solar system by planetary differentiation and impact processes and were subjected to late metamorphism the time of late metamorphism is substantially younger than 4 4 ae and possibly as recent as 3 9 ae this metamorphism has resulted in partial very limited reequilibration between plagioclase and phosphate resulting in the observed shifts in initial 143 nd 144 nd sm nd model ages and the 142 nd 144 nd abundances but preserving the major temporal structures of early original formation and later disturbances these results show the need for care in the interpretation of the parent daughter systematics even when they appear well behaved and the mineral phases are viewed as highly resistant to mild metamorphism

samarium neodymium chronology and rubidium strontium systematics of an allende calcium aluminum rich inclusion with implications for 146sm half life abstract calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais are primitive objects that formed within the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young sun recent pb pb chronologic studies have demonstrated that cais are the oldest solar system solids crystallizing 4567 ma ago amelin et al 2002 connelly et al 2012 the isotope systematics of cais therefore provide critical insight into the earliest history of the solar system although sm nd and rb sr geochronometers are highly effective tools for investigating cosmochemical evolution in the early solar system previous studies of cais have revealed evidence for isotopically disturbed systems here we report new age data for allende cai al3s4 derived from both the long lived 147sm 143nd and short lived 146sm 142nd isotopic systems the 147sm 143nd chronometer yields an age of 4560 34 ma that is concordant with 207pb 206pb ages for cais and indicates that the sm nd system was not significantly disturbed by secondary alteration or nucleosynthetic processes the slope of the 146sm 142nd isochron defines the solar system initial 146sm 144sm of 0 00828 0 00044 this value is significantly different from the value of 0 0094 determined by kinoshita et al 2012 ages recalculated from all published 146sm 142nd isochron data using the traditional 103 ma half life and the initial 146sm 144sm value determined here closely match pb pb and 147sm 143nd ages determined on the same samples in contrast ages recalculated using the 68 ma half life determined by kinoshita et al 2012 and either of the initial 146sm 144sm values are often anomalously old this is particularly true for the youngest samples with 146sm 142nd isochron ages that are most sensitive to the choice of 146sm half life used in the age calculation in contrast to the sm nd isotope system the rb sr system is affected by alteration but yields an apparent isochron with a slope corresponding to a much younger age of 4247 110 ma although the rb sr system in cais appears to be disturbed the initial 87sr 86sr value determined from the isochron is 0 698942 0 000008 and closely approximates estimates of the initial solar system value although this isochron may be a mixing line it might also record alteration on the allende parent body in which rb was added to the al3s4 cai that was initially largely devoid of rb

a highly depleted moon or a non magma ocean origin for the lunar crust abstract coupled 146 147 sm 142 143 nd systematics were analyzed on lunar samples that span the range of source compositions created in the early lunar differentiation event ferroan anorthosites high mg suite norite kreep and low and high ti basalts if fit with a single isochron the data agree with previous suggestions of a 250 ma duration for closure of the sm nd system in the lunar interior the two crustal rocks 60025 and 78236 among oldest samples found on the lunar surface have high initial 142 nd 144 nd ratios e 142 nd 0 24 0 27 relative to o chondrites which indicates that they derive from a source strongly depleted in light rare earth elements lree 147 sm 144 nd 0 23 this result suggests either that the moon formed with a strongly superchondritic sm nd ratio or that the lunar crust formed as a product of a post magma ocean remelting of lree depleted cumulates in the lunar interior the basalt data measured here add support to the idea that the lunar interior evolved with a superchondritic sm nd similar to that of the early earth addition of differentiation steps adds complexity and inherit non uniqueness to the interpretation of the lunar nd isotope data but our preferred model has the first stage of lunar evolution 4 567 to 4 44 ga occurring on an already differentiated earth with the moon forming shortly before 4 45 ga and undergoing rapid magma ocean evolution to form the crust the high sm nd source reservoirs of many mare basalt types and kreep by 4 44 ga continued differentiation of the lunar interior through the increasing depletion of the source of high ti mare basalts then continued until 4320 ma

146sm 142nd formation interval for the lunar mantle now extinct 146sm t1 2 103ma was present in the early solar system and lunar basalts might be expected to have inherited small anomalies in 142nd abundances from mantle sources with variable sm nd ratios established during the early global differentiation of the moon 142nd 144nd ratios were measured for several lunar basalts and values of nd142 deviations from terrestrial 142nd 144nd in parts in 104 calculated for them the nd142 values show very small variations attributable to 146sm decay neutron capture near the lunar surface also modified both the samarium and neodymium isotopic compositions of the basalt samples the calculated neutron fluences range from 0 to 7 8 1016 n cm2 both thermal and epithermal neutron fluences were calculated from the sm isotopic compositions of the basalts and used to correct the nd142 values for neutron capture by neodymium well resolved radiogenic enrichments nd142 and 0 17 0 08 2 respectively were measured for lunar meteorite asuka 881757 and apollo 17 basalt 74255 respectively for which the neutron fluences were nil basalts 70135 and 75075 which were exposed to small measureable neutron fluences of 2 5 1015 and 7 7 1015 n cm2 respectively have neutron corrected nd142 values of 0 25 0 15 and 0 29 0 11 respectively the average value of radiogenic nd142 for the three high ti basalts from apollo 17 is 0 22 0 06 neutron capture effects were greater for the other basalts but can be corrected using the measured neutron fluences derived from the samarium isotopic data the neutron corrected nd142 for apollo 12 ilmenite basalt 12056 consistent with its derivation from a highly depleted mantle source also three low ti basalts from apollo 12 and apollo 15 12038 15076 15555 have neutron corrected nd142 which are not resolved from zero and average 0 04 0 06 a fourth low ti basalt 12039 has neutron corrected nd142 but is subject to the largest neutron correction of 0 32 e units kreep basalt 14078 was exposed to only a small neutron fluence of 6 4 1015 n cm2 and has a small deficit of 142nd corresponding to nd142 the average neutron corrected nd142 of three kreep basalts is 0 05 0 04 the nd142 values of the basalts correlate with 147sm 144nd values for their source regions as calculated from their ages and initial nd142 values 147sm 143nd and 146sm 142nd systematics were combined in a three stage model yielding an isochron equation for the lunar mantle formation interval which was calculated to be 238 40 56 ma 2 sm nd ratios for the source regions also are derived from the model and compare favorably with values from conventional geochemical models of mare basalt petrogenesis if the moon were formed by impact of a large mars sized planetesimal with the earth the impact was early enough that the lunar mantle cooled to neodymium isotopic closure by 4 32 ga ago the bulk lunar moon142 evaluated from the mantle isochron at 147sm 144nd chur 0 1967 is 0 01 0 03 2 consistent with derivation of lunar and terrestrial neodymium from a common reservoir

accretion timescale and impact history of mars deduced from the isotopic systematics of martian meteorites abstract high precision sm nd isotopic analyses have been completed on a suite of 11 martian basaltic meteorites in order to better constrain the age of silicate differentiation on mars associated with the formation of their mantle sources these data are used to evaluate the merits and disadvantages of various mathematical approaches that have been employed in previous work on this topic ages determined from the sm nd isotopic systematics of individual samples are strongly dependent on the assumed nd isotopic composition of the bulk planet this assumption is problematic given differences observed between the nd isotopic composition of earth and chondritic meteorites and the fact that these materials are both commonly used to represent bulk planetary nd isotopic compositions ages determined from the slope of 146sm 142nd whole rock isochrons are not dependent on the assumed 142nd 144nd ratio of the planet but require the sample suite to be derived from complementary contemporaneously formed reservoirs in this work we present a mathematical expression that defines the age of formation of the source regions of such a suite of samples that is based solely on the slope of a 143nd 142nd whole rock isochron and is also independent of any a priori assumptions regarding the bulk isotopic composition of the planet this expression is also applicable to mineral isochrons and has been used to successfully calculate 143nd 142nd model crystallization ages of early refractory solids as well as lunar samples this permits ages to be obtained using only nd isotopic measurements without the need for 147sm 144nd isotope dilution determinations when used in conjunction with high precision nd isotopic measurements completed on martian meteorites this expression yields an age of formation of the martian basaltic meteorite source regions of 4504 6 ma because the sm nd model ages for the formation of martian source regions are commonly interpreted to record the age at which large scale mantle reservoirs formed during planetary differentiation associated with magma ocean solidification the age determined here implies that magma ocean solidification occurred several tens of millions of years after the beginning of the solar system recent thermal models however suggest that mars sized bodies cool rapidly in less than 5 ma after accretion ceases even in the presence of a thick atmosphere assuming these models are correct an extended period of accretion is necessary to provide a mechanism to keep portions of the martian mantle partially molten until 4504 ma late accretional heating of mars could either be associated with protracted accretion occurring at a quasi steady state or alternatively be associated with a late giant impact if this scenario is correct then accretion of mars sized bodies takes up to 60 ma and is likely to be contemporaneous with the core formation and possibly the onset of silicate differentiation this further challenges the concept that isotopic equilibrium is attained during primordial evolution of planets and may help to account for geochemical evidence implying addition of material into planetary interiors after core formation was completed

old sm nd ages for cumulate eucrites and redetermination of the solar system initial 146sm 144sm ratio article i nfo sm 142 nd systematics short lived 146 sm 142 nd and long lived 147 sm 143 nd chronometers have been measured in three cumulate eucrites binda moore county and moama the two major mineral phases plagioclase and pyroxene present in these achondrites are characterized by a wide range of sm nd ratios that allows well resolved sm nd isochrons this group of meteorites thus is suitable to better constrain the initial 146 sm 144 sm ratio of the solar system binda and moore county give concordant ages of 4544 88 and 4542 85 ma respectively with initial 143 nd 144 nd ratios slightly higher to within error of chondritic these ages are in agreement with most of the radiometric ages determined on basaltic eucrites a best estimate for the solar system initial 146 sm 144 sm ratio is obtained using the five point regression line determined for binda the 146 sm 144

chronologic implications for slow cooling of troctolite 76535 and temporal relationships between the mg suite and the ferroan anorthosite suite abstract ages have been obtained using the 87 rb 87 sr 147 sm 143 nd and 146 sm 142 nd isotopic systems for one of the most slowly cooled lunar rocks apollo 17 mg suite troctolite 76535 the 147 sm 143 nd 146 sm 142 nd and rb sr ages derived from plagioclase olivine and pyroxene mineral isochrons yield concordant ages of 4307 11 ma 4299 29 35 ma and 4279 52 ma respectively these ages are slightly younger than the age determined on ferroan anorthosite suite fas rock 60025 and are therefore consistent with the traditional magma ocean model of lunar differentiation in which the mg suite is intruded into the anorthositic crust however the sm nd ages record when the rock passed below the closing temperature of the sm nd system in this rock at 825 c whereas the rb sr age likely records the closure temperature of 650 c a cooling rate of 3 9 c ma is determined using the ages reported here and in the literature and calculated closure temperatures for the ar ar pb pb rb sr and sm nd systems this cooling rate is in good agreement with cooling rates estimated from petrographic observations slow cooling can lower apparent sm nd crystallization ages by up to 80 ma in the slowest cooled rocks like 76535 and likely accounts for some of the variation of ages reported for lunar crustal rocks nevertheless slow cooling cannot account for the overlap in fas and mg suite rock ages instead this overlap appears to reflect the concordance of mg suite and fas magmatism in the lunar crust as indicated by ages calculated for the solidus temperature of 76535 and 60025 of 4384 24 ma and 4383 17 respectively not only are the solidus ages of 76535 and 60025 nearly concordant but the sm nd isotopic systematics suggest they are derived from reservoirs that were minimally differentiated prior to 4 38 ga although the sr isotopic composition of 60025 indicates its source was minimally differentiated the sr isotopic composition of 76535 indicates it underwent fractionation just prior to solidification of the 76535 these observations are consistent with both a magma ocean or a serial magmatism model of lunar differentiation in either model differentiation of lunar source regions must occur near the solidification age of thee samples perhaps the best estimate for the formation age of lunar source regions is the rb sr model age of the 76535 source region age of 4401 32 ma this is in good agreement with sm nd model ages for the formation of ur kreep and suggests that differentiation of a least part of the moon could not have occurred prior to 4 43 ga

a shorter 146sm half life measured and implications for 146sm 142nd chronology in the solar system radiometric dating relies on measuring the abundance of long lived radionuclides relative to the abundance of their radiogenic decay products a process determined by the original radionuclide s half life for primordial radionuclides that decay slowly such as 146sm decaying to 142nd this method provides the timing of some of the earliest processes in solar system history using accelerator mass spectrometry kinoshita et al p 1614 1 provide a revised estimate for the 146sm half life of 68 7 million years which is 30 shorter than the previously accepted value this shorter half life suggests that reductions need to be made in the estimated ages for differentiation of earth s mantle and the solidification of the moon s magma ocean and for other more recent processes 1 lookup doi 10 1126 science 1215510

eoarchean to neoarchean evolution of the nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt new insights from u pb zircon geochronology the nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt in northern quebec is a rare 9 km2 fragment of the earth9s early crust the belt contains a metamorphosed volcano sedimentary sequence that is at least eoarchean in age including amphibolites of the ujaraaluk unit that may have protoliths as ancient as 4400 million years old ma o9neil and others 2012 upper amphibolite facies metamorphism and high strain deformation have obscured many primary field relationships and disturbed whole rock isotope systematics leading to debate over the interpretation of previous geochronological data we report new shrimp u pb isotopic analyses of zircons from key meta igneous and newly identified metasedimentary units of the belt the analyzed samples fall into four categories a felsic gneisses including sheets interlayered with the supracrustal assemblage and a tonalitic orthogneiss at the margin of the belt b a newly identified metasedimentary unit c fuchsite bearing quartz rich layers d mafic gneisses including a garnet biotite amphibolite from the ujaraaluk unit and a meta gabbro the felsic lithologies place constraints on the minimum age of the supracrustal assemblage oscillatory zoned zircons separated from a felsic orthogneiss sheet form a discordant array with an upper intercept age of 3774 32 ma and the tonalitic orthogneiss yielded oscillatory zoned zircons with an upper intercept age of 3781 11 ma a metasedimentary unit dominated by quartz albite and clinozoisite has been identified within a lower strain domain interfolded with amphibolites of the ujaraaluk unit a sample of this unit yielded zircons with highly variable cl structures and near concordant ages of between 3390 and 3780 ma zircons from a fuchsite bearing quartz layer have oscillatory zonation similar to the orthogneiss grains and define an upper intercept age of 3794 16 ma petrologic observations and geochemical data suggest that this lithology is a metasomatically altered felsic orthogneiss band rather than a meta sedimentary rock belonging to the supracrustal package electron microscopy of polished thin sections was used to locate zircons within 6 samples of the ujaraaluk unit amphibolites and two samples of meta gabbro large 500 m zircons separated from a garnet biotite amphibolite together with grains from a meta gabbro are sector zoned and yield ages of 2700 to 2640 ma recording the timing of pervasive high temperature metamorphism in the region the new zircon u pb data add important new detail to the geological history of the nuvvuagittuq belt the volcano sedimentary sequence and mafic ultramafic intrusive rocks were formed prior to 3800 million years ago subsequent geological evolution included extensive and protracted early archean ttg magmatism and crustal re melting paleo to mesoarchean uplift and sedimentation and neoarchean high grade metamorphism and regional magmatism during consolidation of the superior craton

wind forced seiche events on great slave lake hydrologic implications for the slave river delta nwt canada a limited amount of research has focused on northern lacustrine deltas and the impacts of basin processes prevalent at these deltas wind forced seiche events have received little focus in deltaic studies the slave river delta located on the south shore of great slave lake gsl nwt is an ideal environment to study the prevalence of wind forced seiche events and the impact of seiche events on the hydrodynamics of the delta this paper presents an historical analysis of seiche activity on gsl and the effect of seiches on water levels of the slave river delta the seasonality frequency and magnitude of seiche events on the lake are quantified a description of the wind characteristics that force these events is included the radial distributary pattern of the delta suggests that water level response to seiche events within the delta may be particularly complex hydrologic data from delta distributaries illustrate the temporal and spatial dynamics of seiche response during the open water season seiche response in the delta is affected by the seasonal hydrograph of the slave river and wind conditions spatially the slope of delta distributaries governs seiche response responses are most similar among zones in the delta rather than among different distributaries copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

isotopic evidence for a young lunar magma ocean abstract mare basalt sources and ferroan anorthosite suite cumulates define a linear array on a 146sm 144nd versus 142nd 144nd isochron plot demonstrating these materials were derived from a common reservoir at 4336 31 32 ma the minimum proportion of the moon that was in isotopic equilibrium at this time is estimated to be 1 3 of its entire volume based on the geographic extent from which the analyzed samples were collected and the calculated depths from which the samples were derived scenarios in which large portions of the moon were molten to depths of many hundreds of kilometers are required to produce the observed sm nd isotopic equilibrium between the mantle and crustal rocks at 4 34 ga this is a consequence of the fact that limited heating of a solid moon above the blocking temperature of the sm nd isotopic system is insufficient to diffusively homogenize radiogenic nd throughout the mantle and crust there are three scenarios that might account for global scale isotopic equilibrium on the moon relatively late in solar system history including 1 sm nd re equilibration of a solid moon resulting from widespread melting in response to mantle overturn or a very large impact 2 early accretion of the moon followed by delayed cooling due to the presence of an additional heat source that kept a large portion of the moon molten until 4 34 ga or 3 late accretion of the moon followed by rapid cooling of the magma ocean late in solar system history neither density driven overturn of the mantle nor a large impact are likely to homogenize the mantle and crust to the extent required by the sm nd isochron likewise secondary heating mechanisms such as tidal heating or radioactive decay are not efficient enough to keep the moon molten to the depth of the mare basalt source regions for many tens to hundreds of millions of years instead the age of equilibrium between such a compositionally diverse set of rocks produced on a global scale likely records the time of primordial solidification of the moon from a magma ocean this scenario accounts for both the petrogenetic characteristics of lunar rock suites as well as their sm nd isotopic systematics it is supported by the preponderance of 4 35 ga ages obtained for other hypothetical magma ocean crystallization products such as ferroan anorthosite suite rocks and k ree and p enriched cumulates that are thought to represent flotation cumulates of the magma ocean and the last vestiges of magma ocean solidification respectively

re evaluating 142nd 144nd in lunar mare basalts with implications for the early evolution and bulk sm nd of the moon abstract the moon likely accreted from melt and vapor ejected during a cataclysmic collision between proto earth and a mars sized impactor very early in solar system history the identical w o k and cr isotope compositions between materials from the earth and moon require that the material from the two bodies were well homogenized during the collision process as such the ancient isotopic signatures preserved in lunar samples provide constraints on the bulk composition of the earth two recent studies to obtain high precision 142nd 144nd ratios of lunar mare basalts yielded contrasting results in one study after correction of neutron fluence effects imparted to the nd isotope compositions of the samples the coupled 142nd 143nd systematics were interpreted to be consistent with a bulk moon having a chondritic sm nd ratio rankenburg k brandon a d and neal c r 2006 neodymium isotope evidence for a chondritic composition of the moon science 312 1369 1372 the other study found that their data on the same and similar lunar mare basalts were consistent with a bulk moon having a superchondritic sm nd ratio boyet m and carlson r w 2007 a highly depleted moon or a non magma origin for the lunar crust earth planet sci lett 262 505 516 delineating between these two potential scenarios has key ramifications for a comprehensive understanding of the formation and early evolution of the moon and for constraining the types of materials available for accretion into large terrestrial planets such as earth to further examine this issue the same six lunar mare basalt samples measured in rankenburg et al rankenburg k brandon a d and neal c r 2006 neodymium isotope evidence for a chondritic composition of the moon science 312 1369 1372 were re measured for high precision nd isotopes using a multidynamic routine with reproducible internal and external precisions to better than 3 ppm 2 for 142nd 144nd ratios the measurements were repeated in a distinct second analytical campaign to further test their reproducibility evaluation of accuracy and neutron fluence corrections indicates that the multidynamic nd isotope measurements in this study and the 3 in boyet and carlson boyet m and carlson r w 2007 a highly depleted moon or a non magma origin for the lunar crust earth planet sci lett 262 505 516 are reproducible while static measurements in the previous two studies show analytical artifacts and cannot be used at the resolution of 10 ppm to determine a bulk moon with either chondritic or superchondritic sm nd ratios the multidynamic data are best explained by a bulk moon with a superchondritic sm nd ratio that is similar to the present day average for depleted morb hafnium isotope data were collected on the same aliquots measured for their 142nd 144nd isotope ratios in order to assess if the correlation line for 142nd 143nd systematics reflect mixing processes or times at which lunar mantle sources formed based on the combined 142nd 143nd 176hf obtained we conclude that the 142nd 143nd correlation line measured in this study is best interpreted as an isochron with an age of 229 24 20ma after the onset of nebular condensation the uncertainties in the data permit the sources of these samples to have formed over a 44 ma time interval these new results for lunar mare basalts are thus consistent with a later sm nd isotope closure time of their source regions than some recent studies have postulated and a superchondritic bulk sm nd ratio of the moon and earth the superchondritic sm nd signature was inherited from the materials that accreted to make up the earth moon system although collisional erosion of crust from planetesimals is favored here to remove subchondritic sm nd portions and drive the bulk of these bodies to superchondritic in composition removal of explosive basalt material via gravitational escape from such bodies or chondrule sorting in the inner solar system may also explain the compositional features that deviate from average chondrites that make up the earth moon system this inferred superchondritic nature for the earth similar to the modern convecting mantle means that there is no reason to invoke a missing subchondritic reservoir to mass balance the earth back to chondritic for sm nd ratios however to account for the subchondritic sm nd ratios of continental crust a second superchondritic sm nd mantle reservoir is required

inherited 142nd anomalies in eoarchean protoliths abstract geological records of the earliest history of the earth are rare rocks older than 3700 ma comprise only a few percent of continental surfaces evidence is mounting however that vestiges of primordial planetary differentiation continued to influence the compositions of the oldest rocks during the hadean and into the archean here we report new whole rock 147 146sm 143 142nd data for the ancient nuvvuagittuq supracrustal belt nsb in quebec canada and confirm the 142nd deficits reported by o neil et al 2008 we show that the assigned o neil et al 2008 and recently revised kinoshita et al 2012 142nd age of 4362 54 35 ma claimed for nsb amphibolites is at odds with the younger 147sm 143nd record this discrepancy can be reconciled by partial nd isotope equilibration of rocks with hadean model ages of up to 4500 ma during magmatic and metamorphic perturbations associated with the emplacement of the nsb at ca 3750 ma cates and mojzsis 2009 our model further predicts a whole rock 147sm 143nd age of 3800 ma for other nsb lithologies in agreement with u pb zircon chronology cates and mojzsis 2007 hence 146sm 142nd systematics for the eoarchean nsb rocks represent inheritance of a hadean signature that was stored either in pre existing crust or in early enriched mantle sources the decoupled 147 146sm 143 142nd systematics of the nsb is similar but complementary to the hadean mantle isochron preserved in eoarchean rocks from west greenland bennett et al 2007 rizo et al 2011