eocene climate record of a high southern latitude continental shelf seymour island antarctica a high resolution record of eocene paleotemperature variation is preserved within the high southern latitude marine shelf succession of the la meseta formation on seymour island off the ne side of the antarctic peninsula 87 sr 86 sr ratios of bivalve shell carbonate indicate that the la meseta formation spans virtually the entire eocene and suggest the presence of an early middle eocene unconformity paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic inferences are based on the stable oxygen and carbon isotope values of two genera of bivalves collected with a high degree of stratigraphic resolution within the formation and with multiple replicate samples from each horizon 18 o data indicate roughly 10 c of cooling from the early eocene climatic optimum 15 c through the end of the eocene minimum 5 c much of which took place in two comparatively short intervals at ca 52 and ca 41 ma many features of the isotope curves generated from this eocene shelf section are apparent in 18 o and 13 c data from the southern and global oceans including warm intervals that likely correspond to the early and middle eocene climatic optima eeco and meco a rapid middle eocene shift to much more positive values is the most signifi cant in the section and refl ects a drop to universally cooler temperatures in the late middle and late eocene that might also be associated with a short lived glacial advance however even using a somewhat depleted value for 18 o of seawater in the antarctic peninsular region average seymour island shelf water paleotemperatures did not reach freezing before the end of the eocene 13 c data similarly refl ect the documented middle eocene surface ocean enrichment followed by more negative values but depletion is much more pronounced on seymour island and persists for the remainder of the eocene suggesting a combination of upwelling metabolic effects and or atypical carbon cycling on the shelf in this region isotope data capture information about changes in the paleoenvironment that also had consequences for the biota as published paleontological records document marked change in the nature of terrestrial and marine biota at this time the fact that middle eocene cooling and biotic turnover in the peninsular region correspond well in time to the proposed initial opening of drake passage suggests that the formation of gateways in addition to changes in pco 2 had signifi cant consequences for the earth s climate system during the paleogene

comment on effect of the vapor phase on the salinity of halite bearing aqueous fluid inclusions estimated from the halite dissolution temperature by m steele macinnis and r j bodnar abstract recently steele macinnis and bodnar reported an experimental study on the estimation of the salinity of halite bearing fluid inclusions from dissolution temperatures of halite crystals in the presence and absence of a vapour phase steele macinnis and bodnar 2013 the authors present new purely empirical equations to calculate fluid inclusion bulk salinity which is mainly determined by dissolution temperature of halite slv lv with a minor correction due to presence of a vapour phase at higher temperatures similar to the study of bakker 2012 the experimental approach in their work is inappropriate it does not provide experimental data and it does not illustrate an estimate of uncertainty accuracy and precision of the results the mathematical modelling with purely empirical best fit equations is insufficient and partly erroneous comparison with the model from bakker 2012 results in highly incorrect inconsistent and imprecise statements about the quality of the results from bakker 2012 furthermore the authors use supplementary data to continue a discussion without peer review

the influence of the α β phase transition of quartz on fluid inclusions during re equilibration experiments abstract the influence of the quartz phase transition on the properties of fluid inclusions was investigated experimentally the experiments were designed to have no gradients in pressure and fugacity between fluid inclusions and pore fluid deformation due to pressure differences were also excluded in this study h2o rich fluid inclusions with similar densities were synthesized in quartz at approximately 625 c and 280 mpa in the quartz stability field and at approximately 675 c and 320 mpa in the quartz stability field the experimental set up prevented any pressure differences during loading and unloading of the experiments these inclusions were re equilibrated at the same temperature pressure fluid conditions and changes in total homogenization temperature and ice melting temperature were recorded fluid inclusions are sensitive monitors of fluid conditions during entrapment which record minor variation in temperature and pressure and display a corresponding distribution pattern in homogenization temperatures fluid inclusions re equilibrated in the quartz stability field were not affected by changes in density fluid inclusions re equilibrated in the quartz stability field revealed density loss of 0 6 at 320 mpa to 3 0 at 280 mpa which was caused by the quartz phase transition consequently density loss which is probably caused by the formation of micro cracks at the transition from to quartz is more efficient at lower pressures in addition re equilibration experiments were performed with a pure d2o pore fluid to investigate diffusion processes at these experimental conditions diffusion of d2o is more efficient in quartz stability field and may result in near total exchange of the original h2o content within only 19 days fluid inclusions re equilibrated in the quartz stability field contain only half the amount of d2o within the same experimentation run time up to 53 mol d2o

implications of the carbonaceous chondrite mn cr isochron for the formation of early refractory planetesimals and chondrules abstract an excellent 53 mn 53 cr isochron for bulk ci cm co cv cb and ungrouped c3 chondrites seems to suggest that each carbonaceous chondrite group acquired its mn cr ratio 4568 1 myr ago this age is indistinguishable from the age of ca al rich inclusions cais which is considered to be the start of the solar system t 0 however carbonaceous chondrites were not assembled until at least 1 5 5 myr after t 0 to judge by the 207 pb 206 pb and 26 al 26 mg ages of the chondrules within them and by the fact that they were not melted by heat from the decay of 26 al presumably therefore these meteorites inherited their bulk mn cr isochron from precursor materials which experienced mn cr fractionation at t 0 as a possible physical mechanism for how the isochron was established initially and later inherited by the carbonaceous chondrites we propose the rapid formation at t 0 of planetesimals that were variably depleted in moderately volatile elements and hence had variably low mn cr the planetesimals and the undepleted high mn cr primitive dust from which they were made shared the same initial e 53 cr and therefore evolved on an isochron we suggest that later impact disruption of the planetesimals produced dusty debris which became mixed in various proportions with unprocessed high mn cr dust before accreting to the carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies with mixing in a closed system the isochron was unchanged we infer that some debris rich material was converted to chondrules prior to accretion the chondrules could have been formed by flash melting of the mixed dust or could instead have been made directly by the impact splashing of molten planetesimals or by condensation from impact generated vapor plumes

fluids preserved in variably altered graphitic pelitic schists in the dufferin lake zone south central athabasca basin canada implications for graphite loss and uranium deposition the athabasca basin canada contains the highest grade unconformity type uranium deposits in the world underlying the athabasca group sedimentary rocks of the dufferin lake zone are variably graphitic pelitic schists vgps altered to chlorite and hematite red green zone rgz they were locally bleached near the unconformity during paleoweathering and or later fluid interaction overall graphite was lost from the rgz and the bleached zone relative to the original vgps fluid inclusions were examined in different generations of quartz veins using microthermometry and raman spectroscopy to characterize and compare the different fluids that interacted with the rgz and the vgps in the vgps ch4 and n2 rich fluid inclusions which homogenize into the vapor phase between 100 and 74 c and 152 and 125 c respectively and co2 rich fluid inclusions homogenizing either into vapor or liquid between 20 and 28 c are present carbonic fluids could be the result of the breakdown of graphite to ch4 co2 whereas n2 rich fluid is interpreted to be the result of breakdown of feldspars micas to nh4 n2 in the rgz the presence of fluid inclusions with low ice melting temperature 38 to 16 c reflect the presence of cacl2 and fluid inclusions with halite daughter minerals that dissolve between 190 and 240 c indicate the presence of highly saline fluids these fluids are interpreted to be derived from the athabasca basin the circulation of carbonic fluids and brines occurred during two different events related to different p t conditions of trapping the carbonic fluids interacted with basement rocks during retrograde metamorphism of the basement rocks before deposition of the athabasca basin whereas the brines circulated after the deposition of the athabasca basin these latter fluids are similar to brines related to uranium mineralization at mcarthur river and thus in addition to possibly being related to graphite depletion in the rgz they could be linked to uranium mineralization

statistical microthermometry of synthetic fluid inclusions in quartz during decompression reequilibration fluid inclusion microthermometric data are often reported as homogenization temperature frequency histograms interpretation of such histograms for a single fluid inclusion assemblage fia of non reequilibrated fluid inclusions is usually straightforward and provides an accurate determination of the original density th of that fia however interpretation of such histograms for reequilibrated inclusions is more problematic decompression experiments using synthetic inclusions in natural quartz and conducted at 2 5 kbar and 600 700 c with a maximum internal overpressure of 2 kbar indicate that histogram shape reflects the sample s p t history our results further indicate that the mean mode range standard deviation extreme values etc all have a significance with respect to the p t history of the sample thus a mound shaped unimodal histogram with low range is indicative of a nearly isochoric cooling p t path a unimodal histogram that is slightly skewed to the right and with a low standard deviation but high range results from inclusion deformation in the plastic regime high temperature low strain rates fluid inclusions deformed plastically show no correlation between size and density histogram outliers should not be ignored and may be used to determine an isochore that passes close to the conditions of entrapment minimum th or close to the final reequilibration conditions maximum th the histogram mean th value corresponds to an isochore that represents the internal overpressure about 1 kbar that can be maintained over geologic time by a majority of reequilibrated fluid inclusions a multimodal histogram with high range and high standard deviation indicates inclusion brittle deformation low temperature high strain environments fluid inclusions deformed in a brittle manner show strong positive correlation between size and density histograms produced in the laboratory show many similarities to histograms for natural samples offering the hope that laboratory results may be used to interpret p t histories of natural samples

mn cr isotope systematics of the d orbigny angrite we have conducted a detailed study of the mn cr systematics of the angrite d orbigny here we report cr isotopic abundances and mn cr ratios in olivine pyroxene glass chromite and bulk rock samples from d orbigny 53cr excesses in these samples correlate well with their respective mn cr ratios and define an isochron with a slope that corresponds to an initial 53mn 55mn ratio 3 24 0 04 x 10 6 and initial 53cr 52cr ratio of 53 0 30 0 03 at the time of isotopic closure the 53mn 55mn ratio of the d orbigny bulk rock is more than two fold the 53mn 55mn ratio of the angrites lewis cliff 86010 lew and angra dos reis ador and implies an older mn cr age of 4562 9 0 6 ma for d orbigny relative to a pb pb age of 4557 8 0 5 ma for lew and ador one of the most unusual aspects of d orbigny is the presence of glass a phase that has not been identified in any of the other angrites the mn cr data for glass and a pyroxene fraction found in druses indicate that they formed contemporaneously with the main phases of the meteorite since the mn cr age of d orbigny is 5 ma years older than the angrites lew and ador d orbigny likely represents an earlier stage in the evolution of the angrite parent body

a model for planetesimal meltdown by 26al and its implications for meteorite parent bodies the melting of planetesimals heated by 26 al has been modelled using a new finite difference method that incorporates convection as an example we consider a planetesimal with a radius of 64 km which accretes instantaneously at t 0 75 myr after the formation of calcium aluminum rich inclusions from cold 250 k nebular dust with 50 porosity at t 0 9 myr t 700 k the planetesimal shrinks to a radius of 50 km due to sintering at t 1 2 myr t 1425 k the fully insulated interior deeper than a few kilometers starts to melt and at t 1 5 myr t 1725 k with 50 melting convection starts by t 2 myr the planetesimal is a globe of molten convecting slurry inside a thin residual crust from about t 2 5 myr the crust thickens rapidly as the power of 26 al fades planetesimals probably melt in this manner when they accrete before t 1 3 myr and are large enough to insulate themselves r 20 km for accretion at t 0 rising to 80 km at t 1 3 myr melting behavior will also be affected by the level of 60 fe in nebular dust by the extent of devolatilization reactions and basalt segregation during heating and by gradual accretion the model suggests that a the parent bodies of differentiated meteorites had accreted before about t 1 5 to 2 myr and before most chondritic parent bodies had formed and b that molten planetesimals may be a source for chondrule melt droplets

early solar system events and timescale some recent information on the mn cr and al mg systems is reviewed this information is used to derive constraints on the timing of processes and events which took place in the early solar system using reasonable assumptions a timeline is constructed where the estimated age of the solar system is 4571 ma this age is taken to mark the time when most calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais were starting to form a process that may have lasted for several 105 years almost contemporaneously small planetesimals have accreted that served to store these cais for later dispersal among larger planetesimals by the time large numbers of planetesimals of several tens of kilometers in size had formed the interior of these objects started to melt through the decay of 26al collisional disruption of these planetesimals allowed gases dust and melt to escape into the surrounding space the fine droplets of melt reacted with gas and dust to form chondrules which after rapid cooling were partially re accreted onto the residual rubble pile this process of primary chondrule formation in most cases involving several generations of planetesimals most plausibly lasted only for 2 ma towards the end of this period and during the following 3 to 4 ma planetary objects of several hundred kilometers in size were formed they still stored enough energy to continue melting from the inside to finally differentiate into chemically stratified layers with basaltic volcanism occurring within a few million years

synthetic fluid inclusions vii re equilibration of fluid inclusions in quartz during laboratory simulated metamorphic burial and uplift p t conditions inferred from fluid inclusions in metamorphic rocks often disagree with the values predicted from mineral equilibria calculations these observations suggest that inclusions formed during early stages of regional metamorphism continue to re equilibrate during burial and subsequent uplift in response to differential pressure p t conditions accompanying burial and uplift were experimentally simulated by initially forming pure h2o inclusions in quartz at elevated temperatures and pressures and then re equilibrating the inclusions in the presence of a 20 wt nacl solution such that final confining pressures ranged from 5 kbar above to 4 kbar below the initial internal pressure of the inclusions at the temperature of re equilibration in all samples re equilibrated at confining pressures below the internal pressure some inclusions were formed that had compositions of 20 wt nacl and densities in accord with the final p t conditions additionally some inclusions were observed to contain fluids of intermediate salinities between 0 and 20 wt nacl densities of these inclusions were also consistent with formation at the re equilibration p t conditions the remainder of the fluid inclusions observed in these samples contained pure h2o and their homogenization temperatures corresponded to densities intermediate between the initial and final p t conditions in short term experiments 7 days where the initial internal overpressure exceeded 1 kbar no inclusions were found that contained the original density and none were found to have totally re equilibrated instead most h2o inclusions re equilibrated until their internal pressures were between 750 and 1500 bars above the confining pressure regardless of the initial pressure differential in a long term experiment 52 days inclusions re equilibrated at a lower confining pressure than the initial internal pressure displayed homogenization temperatures corresponding to a range in final internal pressures between 0 kbar i e total re equilibration and 1 2 kbar above the confining pressure in experiments where the confining pressure during re equilibration exceeded the initial internal pressure densities of pure h2o inclusions increased to values intermediate between the initial and final p t conditions additionally these inclusions were generally surrounded by a three dimensional halo of smaller inclusions also of intermediate density resulting in a texture similar to that previously ascribed to decrepitation from internal overpressure in extreme cases where confining pressures were 4 5 kbar above the initial pressure the parent inclusion almost completely closed leaving only the three dimensional array of small 5 m inclusions the outline of which may be several times the volume of the original inclusion groups of such inclusions closely resemble textures commonly observed in medium to high grade metamorphic rocks inclusions containing 10 and 42 wt nacl solutions trapped at 600 c and 3 kbar were re equilibrated at 600 c and 1 kbar for 5 days in dry argon to evaluate the importance of h2o diffusion as a mechanism of lowering the inclusion bulk density salinities of re equilibrated inclusions obtained from freezing point depressions and halite dissolution temperatures indicate that original compositions were preserved density changes similar to those previously described were noted in these experiments in inclusions showing no visible microfractures therefore density variations observed in inclusions in this study re equilibrated under rapid deformation conditions are considered to result from a change in the inclusion volume without significant loss of contents by diffusion or leakage

modification of fluid inclusions in quartz by deviatoric stress i experimentally induced changes in inclusion shapes and microstructures fluid inclusions in quartz are known to modify their shapes and microstructures textures during weak plastic deformation however such changes have not been experimentally demonstrated and criteria are not available to relate them to paleostress conditions to address these issues quartz crystals containing natural co2 h2o nacl fluid inclusions have been experimentally subjected to compressive deviatoric stresses of 90 250 mpa at 700 c and 600 mpa confining pressure strains of up to 1 cause the inclusions to develop irregular shapes and to generate microcracks in crystallographic planes oriented subperpendicular to the major compression axis 1 the uniform alignment of the microcracks imparts a planar fabric to the samples the microcracks heal and form swarms of tiny satellite inclusions these new inclusions lose h2o by diffusion thereby triggering plastic deformation of the surrounding quartz via h2o weakening consequently the quartz samples deform plastically only in domains originally rich in inclusions this study shows that fluid inclusions deformed by deviatoric stresses may indeed record information on paleostress orientations and that they play a key role in facilitating crystal plastic deformation of quartz

a short duration of chondrule formation in the solar nebula evidence from 26al in semarkona ferromagnesian chondrules abstract the 26 al 26 mg systems of five ferromagnesian chondrules from the least metamorphosed ordinary chondrite semarkona ll3 0 were studied using a secondary ion mass spectrometer their glass or plagioclase portions contain excesses of 26 mg and in two chondrules the 26 mg excesses are well correlated with 27 al 24 mg which demonstrates the in situ decay of 26 al the initial 26 al 27 al ratios in these chondrules obtained from the slope of isochrons show a narrow range of between 6 10 6 and 9 10 6 indicating their short formation duration of less than 1 my if the solar nebula was initially homogeneous in al isotopes the chondrule formation ages are 2 my younger than those of cais our results based on the study of the least metamorphosed uoc are consistent with the previous studies on al rich chondrules that the chondrule formation started at least 2 my after cais alternatively the older records before 2 my were erased by chondrule recycling process it further suggests that the young apparent ages 3 to 5 my after cais for chondrules in type 3 4 uocs are due to the disturbance of the 26 al 26 mg system possibly during parent body metamorphism the result is not consistent with the extended nebular time scale of 5 my and the chondrule formation by planetary processes the ni isotopic analysis of the feo rich olivines in a type ii chondrule in semarkona did not show any detectable excess 60 ni in spite of their high fe ni ratios the upper limit of the initial 60 fe 56 fe ratio of the solar system was estimated to be 3 4 10 7 which is consistent with the previous estimate 0 2 1 9 10 7 from eucrites this result confirms that the 60 ni excess previously observed from cais was not due to the decay of the short lived nuclide 60 fe but a ni isotopic anomaly of nucleosynthetic origin

comparison of fluid inclusion decrepitation and acoustic emission profiles of westerly granite and sioux quartzite abstract acoustic emissions recorded during slow heating of rocks at 1 atm have generally been attributed to intergranular stresses generated by differences in thermal expansion coefficients and elastic moduli of neighboring grains these experiments have considered only the solid phases in analysis of the results and little attention has been given to the role of intragranular or grain boundary fluid inclusions in initiating or facilitating fracturing in principle fluid inclusions may be thought of as a special case in which the neighboring grains are fluids rather than the usual solid mineral phases the major differences are that 1 the number of inclusions per unit volume is usually 10 2 to 10 6 times greater than the number of mineral grains in that same volume and that 2 the volume increase with temperature for most fluids is 1 2 orders of magnitude greater than for minerals thus when fluid inclusion grains are considered the absolute number of grain to grain contacts in a given sample volume is several orders of magnitude greater than if the inclusions are not considered further the magnitude of the stresses between any two adjacent grains may be much higher if one of the grains is a fluid inclusion owing to the larger coefficient of thermal expansion of the fluid relative to a solid phase as a result substantial overpressures may be generated at the fluid inclusion grain mineral grain contact during heating experiments these overpressures result in brittle failure when the stress around the inclusion exceeds the local strength of the host crystal in fluid inclusion terminology this fracturing event is referred to as decrepitation samples of westerly granite and sioux quartzite were heated at 2 c min in a gas flow stage in order to determine the decrepitation profiles number of decrepitations as a function of temperature of these rocks decrepitation was monitored visually during heating experiments and was evidenced by the explosive loss of fluids from the inclusion during a fracturing event decrepitation produces microfractures which originate at decrepitated fluid inclusions and propagate outward into the surrounding mineral four different types of inclusions based on room temperature phase ratios and distribution within the host phase were noted in westerly granite type 1 inclusions contain a single aqueous liquid type 2 are two phase liquid rich inclusions type 3 are mostly one phase fluid inclusions that occur in dense clusters in plagioclase and type 4 are two phase moderate density h 2 o co 2 salt inclusions type 5 inclusions are one phase aqueous liquid inclusions observed in sioux quartzite fluid inclusions in westerly granite decrepitate between 75 and 573 c with peaks at 275 300 c and 400 450 c type 4 inclusions in westerly granite tend to decrepitate at lower temperatures 75 300 c than other inclusion types initial fracturing of the quartz host surrounding type 1 inclusions primary decrepitation generally occurs over the range 100 400 c and the fractures continue to propogate through the quartz secondary decrepitation during further heating from 400 to 573 c fluid inclusions in sioux quartzite decrepitate between 188 and 573 c with a broad maximum at 250 450 c primary decrepitation generally occurs at 200 450 c while secondary decrepitation occurs at 350 573 c in sioux quartzite some small inclusions in both samples do not decrepitate until the quartz transition temperature 573 c is reached decrepitation profiles determined in this study display many similarities and differences when compared to previously published acoustic emission profiles of westerly granite and sioux quartzite owing to fundamental differences in the techniques used to measure acoustic emission and decrepitation and the potentially different energies associated with the two events it is unclear whether decrepitating fluid inclusions are recorded during acoustic emission studies however if decrepitating fluid inclusions are being recorded during acoustic emission measurements then our results suggest that 1 decrepitation contributes more to low temperature portions of acoustic emission profiles than to high temperature portions for both sioux quartzite and westerly granite 2 compared to westerly granite a larger percentage of acoustic emissions in the low temperature decrepitation profile of sioux quartzite is due to fluid inclusions 3 decrepitating fluid inclusions not stresses generated by solid solid interactions cause the majority of intragranular fracturing in quartz below the temperature of the transition in both these rocks

package fluids 1 computer programs for analysis of fluid inclusion data and for modelling bulk fluid properties the computer package fluids contains five sets of computer programs written in c for the calculation of fluid properties both model fluids and data from fluid inclusions can be analysed in the programs bulk density molar volume and composition of fluid inclusions are calculated with the program bulk which uses microthermometric data micro raman spectroscopic data cation ratios and volume fraction estimations as input the program offers a broad variety of equations of state which are selected according to the fluid system or the temperature and pressure conditions of interest the isochores that correspond to the output or test v x properties of fluid inclusions are calculated by the program isoc in calculating the isochores this program takes account of the compressibility and expansion of selected host minerals the program test allows different equations of state to be compared directly with experimental data thereby facilitating selection of the most adequate model in the programs bulk and isoc loner is a group of programs that handle individual equations of state eos for all fluid systems presented in the programs bulk and isoc aqso is a group of programs that allows purely empirical modelling of electrolyte bearing aqueous solutions henry s law for dilute gas bearing aqueous solutions and osmotic coefficients for dilute electrolyte bearing aqueous solutions the programs are available on the university of leoben web site at http www unileoben ac at buero62 minpet ronald

age and isotopic relationships among the angrites lewis cliff 86010 and angra dos reis results of a wide ranging isotopic investigation of the unique antarctican angrite lew 86010 lew are presented together with a reassessment of the type angrite angra dos reis ador the principal objectives of this study are to obtain precise radiometric ages initial sr isotopic compositions and to search for the erstwhile presence of the short lived nuclei 146sm and 26al via their daughter products the isotopic compositions of sm u ca and ti were also measured this allows a detailed appraisal to be made of the relations between and the geneology of these two angrites lew proves to be severely contaminated with modern terrestrial pb which is shown to result from terrestrial weathering nevertheless concordant pb pb model ages of pyroxene separates were obtained 2 4 55784 52 ga for lew and 4 55780 42 ga for ador uranium isotopic compositions are normal within error the inferred initial pb isotopic composition is within error of primordial pb as defined by canon diablo troilite because of the extreme upb ratios of both angrites this places an upper limit of 2 ma on the time between volatile element loss of the angrite parent body or its precursor planetesimals and the final crystallization of the angrites as differentiates initial 87sr86sr ratios were found to be indistinguishable in lew ador and the cumulate eucrite moore county the derived initial 87sr86sr for all three meteorites is 0 698970 15 2 a 147sm 143nd isochron for lew was obtained yielding an age of 4 553 34 ga with an initial 143nd144nd of 0 506682 49 2 146sm142nd isotope systematics were also measured anomalies on 142nd arising from extinct 146sm were clearly resolved resulting in an initial 146sm144sm of 0 0071 17 with nd142 2 57 0 62 at the time of isotopic closure both of these sm nd methods imply derivation of lew from a reservoir with chondritic smnd ratio they are also quite consistent with the previously reported systematics for ador overall the age and isotopic similarities between lew and ador are striking it suggests almost simultaneous production on the same asteroid even though recent experimental studies imply that the two are not comagmatic calcium and titanium do not exhibit enrichments in the n rich isotopes in contrast to cais making it unlikely that the angrite parent body is inherently rich in early condensates from the solar nebula no evidence was found for live 26al in lew when combined with the pb pb age and initial 87sr86sr data this firmly excludes 26al being an important heat source in the early solar system heat supplied for for example 1 the differentiation of the angrite and eucrite parent bodies and 2 metamorphism of the chondrite parent bodies must come from some other source the debate over live vs extinct 26al in the earliest solar system remains unresolved by this new data from lew however both the angrite and eucrite parent bodies have extremely low rbsr and high upb ratios compared to the solar nebula therefore the common initial 87sr86sr of 0 698970 can be firmly associated with the u pb angrite age above and the formation of both bodies this enables an absolute chronology of the early solar system to be established based upon 87sr86sr differences the oldest cais are a minimum of 11 4 ma older than the angrites i e 4 569 5 ga the age and isotopic constraints are discussed with respect to current collapse condensation and accretion timescales calculated for the solar nebula

mobility and h2o loss from fluid inclusions in natural quartz crystals petrographic observations on quartz crystals from the mole granite australia and other localities shed new light on the mechanisms of post entrapment modification of fluid inclusions these modifications include migration away from pseudosecondary trails changes in fluid salinity and density shape distortion and the formation of sweat haloes around strongly deformed inclusions increases in fluid salinity which usually are associated with inclusion migration indicate water losses of up to 50 however la icp ms analysis of unmobilized and mobilized inclusions of the same trail reveals basically unchanged ratios of major and trace element cations with the exception of li which seems to be incorporated into the crystal lattice during migration despite the fact that all these modifications are closely related to deformation processes they occur not only in mechanically deformed quartz but also in free standing crystals in the latter samples stress has been generated internally as a result of brazil twinned growth and compositional zonation these observations and their interpretation leads to a list of practical criteria that should help in differentiating between reliable and suspect fluid inclusions in other samples

granoblastic olivine aggregates in magnesian chondrules planetesimal fragments or thermally annealed solar nebula condensates abstract granoblastic olivine aggregates goa have been discovered in some type i magnesian chondrules within carbonaceous chondrites by libourel and krot libourel g krot a n 2007 evidence for the presence of planetesimal material among the precursors of magnesian chondrules of nebular origin earth planet sci lett 254 1 8 who proposed an origin from pre existing planetesimals amoeboid olivine aggregates aoa generally considered as aggregates of solar nebula condensates and found within similar carbonaceous chondrites display similar equilibrium texture though on a finer scale for these reasons we conducted experiments to determine if annealing of olivine required time scales appropriate to planetesimal or nebular heating pressed 88 4 was isothermally heated at temperatures ranging from 1350 1550 c for 1 100 h the 100 h runs yield olivine aggregates with well developed granoblastic texture at all temperatures manifest as a network of randomly oriented and sutured olivine grains with 120 triple junctions individual olivine grains are 4 6 sided and polygonal by 1450 c and equigranular texture is developed at high temperature 1500 1550 c melting of olivine commences at 1450 1500 c and aids in ripening and suturing grain coarsening and grain boundary migration textural equilibrium is clearly met at 1550 c a planetesimal origin cannot be ruled out however the experimental evidence reveals that granoblastic texture can be reproduced in an interval not inconsistent with heating times for nebular objects goa may have experienced higher degrees of thermal processing than the finer grained aoa if the precursors were the same grain coarsening would have to be accompanied by modification to bulk and isotopic compositions however the precursors could have been olivine condensates formed later than aoa annealing may have been a widespread process operating in the primordial solar nebula responsible for thermal processing and formation of goa prior to their incorporation into chondrules

an experimental study of enstatite formation reaction between forsterite and si rich gas experiments on the reaction between forsterite and si rich gas were carried out in a vacuum furnace using a newly designed double capsule technique a thin layer of enstatite was formed on the surface of the forsterite by the reaction the thickness of the enstatite layer changes in proportion to the square root of time parabolic rate law indicating that the rate is controlled by diffusion in the enstatite layer the activation energy and the logarithm of the pre exponential term of the parabolic rate constant were obtained at505 188 kj mol and3 6 5 6 cm2 s respectively it is difficult to definitely determine the mechanism of the reaction from these values but consideration of strain generation due to volume change during the reaction may suggest that the counter diffusion of silicon and magnesium takes place along the grain boundary in the enstatite layer the degree of the reaction of forsterite with si rich residual gas in the primordial solar nebula is discussed based upon the measured reaction rate and it is suggested that very little enstatite was formed by this reaction in the cooling nebula if the grain size of the forsterite crystals was controlled by homogeneous nucleation theory

26 al 26 mg and 207 pb 206 pb systematics of allende cais canonical solar initial 26 al 27 al ratio reinstated abstract the precise knowledge of the initial 26 al 27 al ratio 26 al 27 al 0 is crucial if we are to use the very first solid objects formed in our solar system calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais as the time zero age anchor and guide future work with other short lived radio chronometers in the early solar system as well as determining the inventory of heat budgets from radioactivities for early planetary differentiation new high precision multi collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry mc icp ms measurements of 27 al 24 mg ratios and mg isotopic compositions of nine whole rock cais six mineralogically characterized fragments and three micro drilled inclusions from the cv carbonaceous chondrite allende yield a well defined 26 al 26 mg fossil isochron with an 26 al 27 al 0 of 5 23 0 13 10 5 internal mineral isochrons obtained for three of these cais a44a ajef and a43 are consistent with the whole rock cai isochron the mineral isochron of ajef with 26 al 27 al 0 4 96 0 25 10 5 anchored to our precisely determined absolute 207 pb 206 pb age of 4567 60 0 36 ma for the same mineral separates reinstate the canonical 26 al 27 al 0 of 5 10 5 for the early solar system the uncertainty in 26 al 27 al 0 corresponds to a maximum time span of 20 ka thousand years suggesting that the allende cai formation events were culminated within this time span although all allende cais studied experienced multistage formation history including melting and evaporation in the solar nebula and post crystallization alteration likely on the asteroidal parent body the 26 al 26 mg and u pb isotopic systematics of the mineral separates and bulk cais behaved largely as closed system since their formation our data do not support the supra canonical 26 al 27 al ratio of individual minerals or their mixtures in cv cais suggesting that the supra canonical 26 al 27 al ratio in the cv cais may have resulted from post crystallization inter mineral redistribution of mg isotopes within an individual inclusion this redistribution must be volumetrically minor in order to satisfy the mass balance of the precisely defined bulk cai and bulk mineral data obtained by mc icp ms the radiogenic 208 pb 206 pb ratio obtained as a by product from the pb pb age dating is used to estimate time integrated 232 th 238 u ratio value of cais limited variations among the minerals within a single cai contrasted by much larger variations among the bulk cais suggest th u fractionation occurred prior to crystallization of igneous cais if interpreted as primordial heterogeneity the value can be used to calculate the mean age of the interstellar dust from which the cais condensed

the mid cenozoic challenger rift system of western new zealand and its implications for the age of alpine fault inception analysis of the structure and sedimentary geology of western new zealand has identified a middle eocene to early miocene continental rift system 1 200 km long and 100 200 km wide named here the challenger rift system four phases of rift development occurred 1 infra rift subsidence 2 active axial trough subsidence 3 expanded rift subsidence involving collapse of the rift shoulders and 4 incipient sea floor spreading the spatial and temporal distribution of these phases identifies a north island and a south island rift segment and shows that rifting propagated toward the center of the rift from both ends the northern segment shows a simple pattern of rifting that is comparable with vink9s model of rift propagation the southern segment with locked zones and rift nucleation segments is comparable to courtillot9s model of rift propagation the sea floor spreading history of the southwest pacific shows that the northern rift segment probably linked with a sea floor spreading center in the norfolk basin and the southern segment linked with the southeast indian ridge this is corroborated by the good correlation between the ages of sea floor magnetic anomaly lineations that are aligned with the rift and the biostratigraphic ages of rifting the probable continuity of the rift system in its early development precludes pre miocene transcurrent displacement on the alpine fault an early miocene 23 m y b p age of alpine fault inception is indicated by the age and pattern of rift disruption attributed to compression that originated at the australia pacific plate boundary the modern australia and pacific plates were not discrete entities therefore until the early miocene

the eocene expansion of nautilids to high latitudes abstract a short term return of environmental conditions similar to those of the end cretaceous is marked by the reappearance of nautiloid cephalopods in the lower middle eocene la meseta formation of seymour island antarctic peninsula previous findings have been supplemented by a collections of 33 specimens the nautiloids come from several horizons the oldest sample apparently being located close to the base of the formation telm1 the most numerous coming from the cucullaea bed of telm2 and 3 a few specimens were collected from telm4 6 the la meseta formation nautiloid assemblages developed apparently in response to one of the eocene warmings and resulting transgression of a warm sea the incursion of nautiloids into southern high latitudes was roughly coeval with their expansion to the northern european seas and the succession of faunas was parallel in both regions based on the analogy with the lower eocene london clay nautiloid assemblages an estimate of bathymetric evolution of the environment can be made by the presence of a relatively shallow water form similar to cimomia imperialis close to the base of the lower middle eocene la meseta formation telm1 marks the beginning of the marine transgression the dominant la meseta species euciphoceras argentinae was apparently an analogue of the english e regale the occurrence of which in the london clay corresponds to the highest sea level stand the presence of aturia in the higher part telm4 and 5 of the la meseta formation suggests that cold oceanic waters possibly entered the area accompanied by a sea level drop the last nautiloid telm6 is an euciphoceras sp interpreted to be indicative of shallower habitat depth limits both incursion of the nautiloids to and their disappearance from the eocene high latitudes were connected with a fundamental rearrangement of the geographic distribution of particular lineages

manganese chromium isotope systematics of enstatite meteorites abstract we present results of a study of the 53 mn 53 cr isotope systematics in the enstatite chondrites and achondrites aubrites the goal of this study was to explore the capabilities of this isotope system to obtain chronological information on these important classes of meteorites and to investigate the original distribution in the inner solar system of the short lived radionuclide 53 mn our earlier work lugmair and shukolyukov 1998 shukolyukov and lugmair 2000a has shown that the asteroid belt bodies are characterized by essentially the same initial 53 mn abundance however we have found the presence of a gradient in the abundance of the radiogenic 53 cr between the earth moon system mars and the asteroid vesta if this gradient is considered as a function of the heliocentric distance a linear radial dependence is indicated this can be explained either by an early volatility controlled mn cr fractionation in the nebula or by an original radially heterogeneous distribution of 53 mn the enstatite chondrites are suggested to form in the inner zones of the solar nebula much closer to the sun than the ordinary chondrites therefore their investigation may be an important test on the hypothesis on a radial heterogeneity in the initial 53 mn we have studied the bulk samples of the eh4 chondrites indarch and abee and the el6 chondrite khairpur although these meteorites have essentially the same mn cr ratio as the ordinary chondrites the relative abundance of the radiogenic 53 cr is three times smaller than in the ordinary chondrites because these meteorites are primitive undifferentiated and no mn cr fractionation had occurred within their parent bodies this difference is a strong argument in favor of an initially heterogeneous distribution of 53 mn in the early inner solar system this finding is also consistent with formation of the enstatite chondrites in the inner zones of the solar nebula using the characteristic 53 cr excess of the enstatite chondrites and the observed gradient their place of origin falls at about 1 4 au or somewhat closer to the sun i e 1 0 1 4 au we also present chronological results for the enstatite chondrites and achondrites the absolute 53 mn 53 cr ages of the eh4 chondrites are old 4565 ma the el6 chondrite khairpur is 4 5 ma younger which is in good agreement with the 129 i 129 xe data from the literature the age of the aubrite pena blanca spring appears to be similar to those of the enstatite chondrites while that of the aubrite bishopville is at least 10 ma younger which is also in agreement with the 129 i 129 xe data the results from bulk samples of aubrites indicate that the last mn cr fractionation in their parent body occurred 4563 ma ago and imply an evolution of the mn cr isotope system in an environment with an higher than chondritic mn cr ratio for several millions of years

modification of fluid inclusions in quartz by deviatoric stress ii experimentally induced changes in inclusion volume and composition fluid inclusions in quartz are known to modify their densities during shear deformation modifications of chemical composition are also suspected however such changes have not been experimentally demonstrated their mechanisms remain unexplained and no criteria are available to assess whether deformed inclusions preserve information on paleofluid properties to address these issues quartz crystals containing natural co2 h2o nacl fluid inclusions have been experimentally subjected to compressive deviatoric stresses of 90 250 mpa at 700 c and 600 mpa confining pressure the resulting microcracking of the inclusions leads to expansion by up to 20 producing low fluid densities that bear no relation to physical conditions outside the sample nevertheless the chemical composition of the precursor inclusions is preserved with time the microcracks heal and form swarms of tiny satellite inclusions with a wide range of densities the highest reflecting the value of the maximum principle stress 1 these new inclusions lose h2o via diffusion thereby passively increasing their salt and gas contents and triggering plastic deformation of the surrounding quartz via h2o weakening using microstructural criteria to identify the characteristic types of modified inclusions both the pre deformation fluid composition and syn deformation maximum stress on the host mineral can be derived from microthermometric analysis and thermodynamic modelling

initial 26al 27al in carbonaceous chondrite chondrules too little 26al to melt asteroids we report 26mg excesses correlated with al mg ratios in five chondrules from the primitive co3 0 chondrite yamato 81020 that yield a mean initial 26al 27al ratio of only 3 8 0 7 10 6 about half that of ordinary chondrite oc chondrules even if asteroids formed immediately after chondrule formation this ratio and the mean al content of co chondrites is only capable of raising the temperature of a well insulated co asteroid to 940 k which is more than 560 k too low to produce differentiation the same ratio combined with the higher al content of cv chondrites results in a cv asteroid temperature of 1100 k we calculate that the mean initial 26al 27al ratio of about 7 4 10 6 found in ll chondrules is only able to produce small amounts of melting too little to produce differentiation these results cast serious doubt on the viability of 26al as the heat source responsible for asteroid differentiation inclusion of 60fe raises temperatures about 160 k but this increment is not enough to cause differentiation even of an ll chondrite asteroid

correlated helium 3 and tungsten isotopes in iron meteorites quantitative cosmogenic corrections and planetesimal formation times abstract core formation in planetesimals can in principle be dated using the short lived 182 hf 182 w chronometer however it has been predicted that burnout and production of w isotopes by nuclear reactions can substantially modify the compositions in iron meteorites when exposed for several hundred million years myr to galactic cosmic rays this may severely limit the use of the hf w system for determining chronologies of metal segregation as recorded in iron meteorites here we present the first experimental evidence of cosmogenic effects on w isotopes in two magmatic iron meteorites carbo iid and grant iiiab the 182 w 184 w ratio near the pre atmospheric centre of the meteorites is lower by 0 5 epsilon compared to values near the pre atmospheric surface the 182 w 184 w ratio displays excellent correlations with the 3 he concentration which in turn provides a proxy for the fluence of the relevant cosmic ray particles using new nuclear physics parameters a first order correction for cosmic ray effects on w isotopes is proposed based on the 3 he concentration and on an independent exposure age of the meteorite this method is then applied to other magmatic iron meteorites negrillos cape of good hope navajo and arispe when corrected for cosmogenic effects the w isotopic compositions of carbo grant negrillos cape of good hope and navajo are similar to the initial composition recorded in allende cais this shows that at least some magmatic meteorites from groups iiab iid iiiab and ivb segregated within less than 1 2 myr of the hf w system closure in allende cais the isotopic variations among the samples indicate that the iron meteorites studied in this paper segregated over a time interval of 4 myr carbo being the oldest iron meteorites of this study

origin of chondritic forsterite grains abstract iron poor and refractory lithophile element rle rich forsterite grains occur in all major types of unequilibrated chondrites in our laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry la icpms minor and trace element study we show that refractory forsterites rf from carbonaceous cc unequilibrated ordinary uoc and a rumuruti chondrite rc have similar chemical compositions with high rle concentrations and low concentrations of mn fe co and ni fractionation of rles and rare earth elements rees is in agreement with formation by crystallization from a rle rich silicate melt low concentrations and the fractionation of moderately siderophile elements fe co ni in rfs suggests formation at low oxygen fugacity possibly in equilibrium with primitive fe ni metal condensates in a gas of solar composition anomalously high ti in the parental melt can be explained by ti3 ti4 1 5 supporting formation of rf in highly reducing conditions low mn concentrations indicate formation at high temperatures 1160 k the model of formation of rfs and the accompanying physico chemical conditions during their formation as well as their relation to non refractory olivine are discussed

a petrographic chemical and isotopic study of calcium aluminum rich inclusions and aluminum rich chondrules from the axtell cv3 chondrite petrographic compositional and isotopic characteristics were studied for three calcium aluminum rich inclusions cais and four plagioclase bearing chondrules three of them al rich from the axtell cv3 chondrite all seven objects have analogues in allende cv3 and other primitive chondrites yet axtell like most other chondrites contains a distinctive suite of cais and chondrules in common with allende cais cais in axtell exhibit initial 26 al 27 al ratios 26 al 27 al 0 ranging from 5 10 5 to 2 ma after the first cais as in other cv3 chondrites some objects in axtell show evidence of isotopic disturbance axtell has experienced only mild thermal metamorphism 600 c probably not enough to disturb the al mg systematics its cais and chondrules have suffered extensive metasomatism probably prior to final accretion these data indicate that cais and chondrules in axtell and other meteorites had an extended history of several million years before their incorporation into the axtell parent body these long time periods appear to require a mechanism in the early solar system to prevent cais and chondrules from falling into the sun via gas drag for several million years before final accretion we also examined the compositional relationships among the four plagioclase bearing chondrules two with large anorthite laths and two barred olivine chondrules and between the chondrules and cais three processes were examined 1 igneous differentiation 2 assimilation of a cai by average nebular material and 3 evaporation of volatile elements from average nebular material we find no evidence that igneous differentiation played a role in producing the chondrule compositions although the barred olivine compositions can be related by addition or subtraction of olivine methods 2 and 3 could have produced the composition of one chondrule axch 1471 but neither process explains the other compositions our study indicates that plagioclase bearing objects originated through a variety of processes

petrographic and oxygen isotopic study of refractory forsterites from r chondrite dar al gani 013 r3 5 6 unequilibrated ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites we have conducted petrographic chemical and in situ oxygen isotopic studies of refractory forsterites from unequilibrated ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites as well as an unequilibrated r chondrite refractory forsterites occur in all types of unequilibrated chondrites and all have very similar chemical composition with low feo and high refractory lithophile element rle contents refractory forsterites are typically enriched in 16o relative to normal olivine independent of the bulk o isotope ratios of the parent meteorites analyses of refractory forsterites spread along a 17o mixing line with 17o ranging from 2 to 10 due to similarities in oxygen isotopes and chemical compositions we conclude that refractory forsterites of various types of chondrites come from a single common reservoir implications of this hypothesis for the chemical and o isotope evolution of silicates in the early solar nebular are discussed

pb isotopic age of the allende chondrules we have studied pb isotope systematics of chondrules from the oxidized cv3 carbonaceous chondrite allende the chondrules contain variably radiogenic pb with a 206pb 204pb ratio between 19 5 268 pb pb isochron regression for eight most radiogenic analyses yielded the date of 4566 2 2 5 ma internal residue leachate isochrons for eight chondrule fractions yielded consistent dates with a weighted average of 4566 6 1 0 ma our best estimate for an average age of allende chondrule formation this pb pb age is consistent with the range of model 26al 26mg ages of bulk allende chondrules reported by bizzarro et al 2004 and is indistinguishable from pb pb ages of ca al rich inclusions cais from cv chondrites 4567 2 0 6 ma amelin et al 2002 and the oldest basaltic meteorites we infer that chondrule formation started contemporaneously with or shortly after formation of cv cais and overlapped in time with formation of the basaltic crust and iron cores of differentiated asteroids the entire period of chondrule formation lasted from 4566 6 1 0 ma allende to 4564 7 0 6 ma cr chondrite acfer 059 to 4562 7 0 5 ma cb chondrite gujba and was either continuous or consisted of at least three discrete episodes since chondrules in cb chondrites appear to have formed from a vapor melt plume produced by a giant impact between planetary embryos after dust in the protoplanetary disk had largely dissipated krot et al 2005 there were possibly a variety of processes in the early solar system occurring over at least 4 5 myr that we now combine under the umbrella name of chondrule formation

manganese chromium isotope systematics of carbonaceous chondrites abstract in this article we present the results of cr isotope investigations of different types of carbonaceous chondrites and of the pallasite eagle station the 53 cr 52 cr ratios in the bulk samples of carbonaceous chondrites are correlated with 55 mn 52 cr ratios the slope of the correlation line yields a 53 mn 55 mn ratio of 8 5 1 5 10 6 at the time of mn cr fractionation mapping this ratio onto an absolute time scale yields a time for this event of 4568 1 0 8 1 1 ma ago this time is very similar to the formation age of efremovka cais of 4567 2 0 6 ma y amelin a n krot i d hutcheon a a ulyanov lead isotopic ages of chondrules and calcium aluminum rich inclusions science 297 2002 1678 1683 to a time of the chondrule formation of 4568 1 ma ago l e nyquist d lindstrom d mittlefehldt c y shih h wiesmann s wentworth r martinez manganese chromium formation intervals for chondrules from the bishunpur and chainpur meteorites meteorit planet sci 36 2001 911 938 which most likely constrains early global high temperature mn cr fractionation in a nebular setting the bulk samples of carbonaceous chondrites exhibit clear 54 cr excesses 54 cr that are correlated with the 53 cr excesses 53 cr and also with mn cr ratios one possible explanation of this correlation is that 54 cr is also radiogenic like 53 cr and was formed by the decay of the short lived parent radionuclide 54 mn the very short half life of 54 mn of 312 days would require that both short lived radionuclides 53 mn and 54 mn were generated locally in spallation reactions during the early period of an active sun the alternative and possibly more plausible explanation is the heterogeneous addition of presolar material the presolar component enriched in 54 cr is mostly contained in the matrix of carbonaceous chondrites the relative amount of matrix decreases in the sequence ci cm co cv a large proportion of mn is associated with the matrix while cr preferentially resides in the chondrules thus the mn cr ratio also follows the sequence ci cm co cv and is correlated with 54 cr the acid resistant residues of carbonaceous chondrites are characterized by relatively large excesses of 54 cr and moderate deficits of 53 cr the magnitude of these excesses and deficits decreases in the sequence ci cm cv and may imply that cr in the cm and cv residues is increasingly more equilibrated with cr from the rest of the meteorites the 53 cr 52 cr and 54 cr 52 cr ratios in the residues are anti correlated indicating that there are at least two cr components of possibly presolar origin all residues have large excesses of the most neutron rich ti isotope 50 ti the pattern of 50 ti does not exactly follow that observed for 54 cr but it is generally similar the cr isotope systematic of the pallasite eagle station indicates that the precursor of this meteorite was a cv type material the 53 mn 53 cr system indicates that the cr isotopes equilibrated in this meteorite 4557 5 0 6 ma ago

calculated fluid evolution path versus fluid inclusion data in the cohn system as exemplified by metamorphic rocks from rogaland south west norway fluid evolution paths in the cohn system can be calculated for metamorphic rocks if there are relevant data regarding the mineral assemblages present and regarding the oxidation and nitrodation states throughout the entire p t loop the compositions of fluid inclusions observed in granulitic rocks from rogaland south west norway are compared with theoretical fluid compositions and molar volumes the fluid parameters are calculated using a p t path based on mineral assemblages which are represented by rocks within the pigeonite in isograd and by rocks near the orthopyroxene in isograd surrounding an intrusive anorthosite massif the oxygen and nitrogen fugacities are assumed to be buffered by the coexisting fe ti oxides and cr carlsbergite respectively many features of the natural fluid inclusions including 1 the occurrence of co2 n2 rich graphite absent fluid inclusions near peak m2 metamorphic conditions 927 c and 400 mpa 2 the non existence of intermediate ternary co2 ch4 n2 compositions and 3 the low molar volume co2 rich fluid inclusions 36 42 cm3 mol 1 are reproduced in the calculated fluid system the observed co2 ch4 rich inclusions with minor n2 5 mol should also include a large proportion of h2o according to the calculations the absence of h2o from these natural high molar volume co2 ch4 rich inclusions and the occurrence of natural ch4 n2 rich inclusions are both assumed to result from preferential leakage of h2o this has been previously experimentally demonstrated for h2o co2 rich fluid inclusions and has also been theoretically predicted fluid deficient conditions may explain the relatively high molar volumes but cannot be used to explain the occurrence of ch4 n2 rich inclusions and the absence of h2o

a mechanism for preferential h 2 o leakage from fluid inclusions in quartz based on tem observations preferential leakage of h2o from fluid inclusions containing multiple gas components has been suspected in natural metamorphic rocks and has been demonstrated experimentally for synthetic h2o co2 rich inclusions in natural quartz knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of the leakage mechanism which may be very complex increases the value of natural fluid inclusions to metamorphic geology it is proposed that crystal defects play a major role in nondecrepitative preferential h2o leakage through quartz and remain effective during metamorphism inclusions with either an internal overpressure or underpressure produce strain in the adjacent quartz crystal via the nucleation of many dislocations and planar defects like dauphine twin boundaries these defects allow preferential loss of h2o from h2o co2 rich inclusions at supercritical conditions the transport capacity of this leakage mechanism is enhanced by nucleation of small bubbles on defect structures the nucleation of these bubbles seems to be a recovery process in strained crystals solubility gradients of quartz in water in a crystal with internally underpressurized inclusions may result in optical visible implosion halos in a three dimensional spatial arrangement caused by the growth of small bubbles at the expense of the larger original fluid inclusion natural fluid inclusions from naxos greece are always associated with numerous interlinked dislocations these dislocations may have been produced by plastic derormation or by crystal growth related processes e g crack healing the presence of small bubbles on these dislocations indicates that a similar leakage mechanism for h2o must have occurred in these rocks

the relative formation ages of ferromagnesian chondrules inferred from their initial aluminum 26 aluminum 27 ratios we performed a systematic high precision sims 26al 26mg isotopic study for 11 ferromagnesian chondrules from the highly unequilibrated ordinary chondrite bishunpur ll3 1 the chondrules are porphyritic and contain various amounts of olivine and pyroxene and interstitial plagioclase and or glass the chemical compositions of the chondrules vary from feo poor to feo rich eight chondrules show resolvable 26mg excesses with a maximum 26mg of 1 in two chondrules the initial 26al 27al ratios inferred for these chondrules range between 2 28 0 73 x 10 5 to 0 45 0 21 x 10 5 assuming a homogeneous distribution of al isotopes in the early solar system this range corresponds to ages relative to cais between 0 7 0 2 my and 2 4 0 4 0 7 my the inferred total span of the chondrule formation ages is at least 1 my which is too long to form chondrules by the x wind the initial 26al 27al ratios of the chondrules are found to correlate with the proportion of olivine to pyroxene suggesting that olivine rich chondrules formed earlier than pyroxene rich chondrules though we do not have a completely satisfactory explanation of this correlation we tentatively interpret it as a result of evaporative loss of si from earlier generations of chondrules followed by addition of si to the precursors of later generation chondrules

u pb ages of angrites abstract precise u pb ages determined with double spike 202 pb 205 pb thermal ionization m1ass spectrometry are reported for angrites angra dos reis ador lewis cliff 86010 lew and d orbigny nineteen of 23 acid washed pyroxene fractions from these meteorites and whole rock fractions from d orbigny contain between 0 5 and 1 3 pg of total common pb indistinguishable from analytical blank measured 206 pb 204 pb ratios in these fractions are between 6300 and 14 100 for ador 1160 4500 for lew and 608 8500 for d orbigny blank corrected 206 pb 204 pb ratios for all three meteorites vary from 2160 to over 100 000 these fractions yielded precise and reproducible 207 pb 206 pb dates with the average values of 4557 65 0 13 ma for ador 4558 55 0 15 ma for lew and 4564 42 0 12 ma for d orbigny pb pb isochrons including data with slightly elevated common pb and u pb upper concordia intercepts yield similar dates the implications of these new pb isotopic ages of angrites are threefold first they demonstrate that ador and lew are not coeval and the group of slowly cooled angrites is therefore genetically diverse second the new age of lew suggests an upward revision of 53 mn 53 cr absolute ages by 0 7 ma third a precise age of d orbigny allows consistent linking of the 53 mn 53 cr and 26 al 26 mg extinct nuclide chronometers to the absolute lime scale

textural evolution of synthetic fluid inclusions in quartz during reequilibration with applications to tectonic reconstruction experimental reequilibration of synthetic 10 wt nacl h2o inclusions in natural quartz reveals that reequilibration textures show distinct differences depending upon the p t path followed by the inclusion after formation these differences combined with other geological information may be used to determine whether the sample rock followed a dominantly isothermal or isobaricp t path following entrapment the intensity and style of inclusion reequilibration features is related to the direction and magnitude of the departure of thep t path from the original isochore for the inclusion thus fluid inclusion reequilibration textures not only permit inclusionists to determine whether the rocks followed an isothermal or isobaric retrogradep t path but also the magnitude of departure of this path from one that is isochoric