indicators of aqueous alteration in cm carbonaceous chondrites microtextures of a layered mineral containing fe s o and ni a petrographic and transmission electron microscopy study of the mighei murchison and murray cm carbonaceous chondrites shows that much of the cm matrix material was probably produced by aqueous alteration of olivine pyroxene sulfide and metal the amount of cm matrix appears to be proportional to the degree of alteration as suggested by mcsween 1979 and microtextures of pcp poorly characterized phase provide evidence of the progressive alteration pcp is divided into two major types one occurs in chondrules and aggregates and consists largely of an fe ni s o phase type i and the other occurs in matrix and consists of the fe ni s o phase and cronstedtite in various proportions type ii microtextures of pcp suggest that it resulted from a three stage alteration process 1 1 type i was produced by alteration of kamacite in chondrules and aggregates presumably early in the parent body regolith 2 2 as the alteration advanced olivine and pyroxene were converted to serpentine type i pcp separated from chondrules and aggregates into the matrix during regolith gardening simultaneously the fe ni s o phase reacted with si released by alteration of olivine and pyroxene producing well formed platy cronstedtite and coherent intergrowths of the fe ni s o phase and cronstedtite the fe ni s o phase also recrystallized into platy and pod like crystals fe s ni cr and p were leached out of type i pcp and were deposited as small grains of fe ni sulfides magnetite chromite and a mineral unidentified containing fe ni cr and p as a result pcp came to consist primarily of the fe ni s o phase and cronstedtite i e type ii pcp 3 3 during continued alteration the well formed crystals of the fe ni s o phase cronstedtite and their intergrowths in type ii pcp were replaced by poorly formed fibers in comparison to other cm chondrites mighei murchison and murray are relatively unaltered their matrices retain abundant amounts of the fe ni s o phase and cronstedtite commonly as distinctive pcp grains which account for a large proportion of the fe in these meteorite matrices in more altered cm chondrites much of the fe ni s o phase was probably consumed to produce cronstedtite magnetite and sulfides with further alteration cronstedtite itself reacted with the serpentine to form ferroan serpentine thus the cm matrix was increasingly enriched in mg with alteration and pcp was increasingly degraded and intimately mixed with the magnesian phyllosilicates

elephant moraine 96029 a very mildly aqueously altered and heated cm carbonaceous chondrite implications for the drivers of parent body processing elephant moraine eet 96029 is a cm carbonaceous chondrite regolith breccia with evidence for unusually mild aqueous alteration a later phase of heating and terrestrial weathering the presence of phyllosilicates and carbonates within chondrules and the fine grained matrix indicates that this meteorite was aqueously altered in its parent body features showing that water mediated processing was arrested at a very early stage include a matrix with a low magnesium iron ratio chondrules whose mesostasis contains glass and or quench crystallites and a gehlenite bearing calcium and aluminium rich inclusion eet 96029 is also rich in fe ni metal relative to other cm chondrites and more was present prior to its partial replacement by goethite during antarctic weathering in combination these properties indicate that eet 96029 is one of the least aqueously altered cms yet described cm2 7 and so provides new insights into the original composition of its parent body following aqueous alteration and whilst still in the parent body regolith the meteorite was heated to 400 600 c by impacts or solar radiation heating led to the amorphisation and dehydroxylation of serpentine replacement of tochilinite by magnetite loss of sulphur from the matrix and modification to the structure of organic matter that includes organic nanoglobules significant differences between samples in oxygen isotope compositions and water hydroxyl contents suggests that the meteorite contains lithologies that have undergone different intensities of heating eet 96029 may be more representative of the true nature of parent body regoliths than many other cm meteorites and as such can help interpret results from the forthcoming missions to study and return samples from c complex asteroids

high precision oxygen three isotope analyses of anhydrous chondritic interplanetary dust particles abstract oxygen three isotope ratios of three anhydrous chondritic interplanetary dust particles idps were analyzed using an ion microprobe with a 2 m small beam the three anhydrous idps show 17o values ranging from 5 to 1 which overlap with those of ferromagnesian silicate particles from comet wild 2 and anhydrous porous idps for the first time internal oxygen isotope heterogeneity was resolved in two idps at the level of a few per mil in 17o values anhydrous idps are loose aggregates of fine grained silicates 3 m in this study with only a few coarse grained silicates 2 20 m in this study on the other hand wild 2 particles analyzed so far show relatively coarse grained few m igneous textures if anhydrous idps represent fine grained particles from comets the similar 17o values between anhydrous idps and wild 2 particles may imply that oxygen isotope ratios in cometary crystalline silicates are similar independent of crystal sizes and their textures the range of 17o values of the three anhydrous idps overlaps also with that of chondrules in carbonaceous chondrites suggesting a genetic link between cometary dust particles wild 2 particles and most anhydrous idps and carbonaceous chondrite chondrules

on timing the vsp first arrival the advent of signal energy on a vsp or check shot trace may be defined as the first break an accurate pick of this first break would be possible in the absence of noise however real data traces are inevitably corrupted by noise and this leads to difficulty in identifying a break because the signal to noise ratio is low in its neighbourhood under such conditions an obvious alternative is to pick troughs where the local signal to noise ratio is likely to be much higher although trough picking is an effective way to minimize the noise problem it is sensitive to signal properties such as absorption and multiple reflections which have no effect upon the accuracy of break picks thus trough picking is signal sensitive and break picking is noise sensitive clearly an ideal first arrival picking scheme would combine the noise tolerant features of trough picking with the signal tolerant features of break picking this ideal may be approached by exploiting known properties of the vsp trace using conventional signal processing techniques the result of such processing is to reduce the problem to that of picking a trough correctly centered about the true break time

incompletely transformed serpentine type phyllosilicates in the matrix of antarctic cm chondrites abstract recent hrem high resolution electron microscopy investigation has shed light on the characterization of matrix phyllosilicates in cm chondrites in examining the antarctic cm chondrite yamato 793321 by hrem mineral grains which show an ed electron diffraction pattern consisting of both olivine and serpentine spots show disordered and defect structures in patchy hrem images these data are interpreted as representing an intermediate phase in the transformation from serpentine to olivine this is the first description of such an intermediate phase in belgica 7904 phyllosilicates seem to have been almost completely transformed to olivine it is suggested that it formed by heating of matrix phyllosilicates preliminary heating experiments on murchison also a cm chondrite showed that the matrix phyllosilicates transformed to a phase which gave an ed pattern and hrem image similar to those for yamato 793321 the results of these heating experiments support the formation of the intermediate phase by transformation from phyllosilicate to olivine during a heating event at a late stage

seismic versus sonic velocities a vertical seismic profiling study vertical seismic profiling vsp techniques provide a method to measure accurately the seismic velocity and lithologic structure near the borehole the analysis of a vsp survey can also provide insight into seismic wave propagation especially when related to sonic measurements but vsp and sonic log velocities or traveltimes are often found to disagree recent field evidence of these differences suggests that the vsp traveltimes are delayed with respect to the integrated sonic times especially in the deep section 3000 ft by about 2 0 ms 1000 ft on the average the vsp has numerous applications in exploration geophysics such as calibrating the sonic log it is thus important to understand why the two measurements differ differences in the geometries source frequencies and instrumental errors of the two surveys are reviewed more detailed analysis of seismic wave propagation in the vsp shows that short path multiples and velocity dispersion can have a significant delaying effect on the seismic tr

back arc rifting in the okinawa trough abstract geological and geophysical data reveal that the okinawa trough shows incipient continental rifting and crustal separation started from about 2 ma the early extensional movements in the trough are probably of miocene age in addition to the miocene phase two main periods of extension are recognized a pleistocene phase between 1 9 and 0 5 ma and the present day phase during the stage short central rifts central grabens were formed the opening however may have occurred only in the southern part of the trough basin having an average half spreading rate of 2 cm yr 1 since early pleistocene time producing its present width of several tens of kilometres these activities were well represented by igneous intrusions sedimentary facies and sedimentary structures in and around the okinawa trough the width of the zone affected by back arc extension defined as greater okinawa trough is larger than the present okinawa trough whose width is 200 250 km the present form of the greater okinawa trough started to form at the same time as that of the okinawa trough

shock fabrics in fine grained micrometeorites the orientations of dehydration cracks and fracture networks in fine grained unmelted micrometeorites were analyzed using rose diagrams and entropy calculations as cracks exploit pre existing anisotropies analysis of their orientation provides a mechanism with which to study the subtle petrofabrics preserved within fine grained and amorphous materials both uniaxial and biaxial fabrics are discovered often with a relatively wide spread in orientations 40 60 brittle deformation cataclasis and rotated olivine grains are reported from a single micrometeorite this paper provides the first evidence for impact induced shock deformation in fine grained micrometeorites the presence of pervasive low grade shock features in cm chondrites and cm like dust anomalously low density measurements for c type asteroids and impact experiments which suggest cm chondrites are highly prone to disruption all imply that cm parent bodies are unlikely to have remained intact and instead exist as a collection of loosely aggregated rubble pile asteroids composed of primitive shocked clasts

kinematics of convergence deformation and stress distribution in the taiwan collision area 2 d finite element numerical modelling abstract using a 2 d plane stress finite element model with elastic and elasto plastic rheologies appropriate for deformation within the brittle upper crust we analyse the relationship between kinematics of convergence deformation and stress distribution in the present taiwan collision occurring between the ryukyu and luzon subduction zones the distribution of stress trends calculated in our models is compared with a synthetic map of actual stress trajectories based on the most recent data available in the collision zone these data combine present day sources from borehole breakouts and earthquake focal mechanism with the reconstruction of quaternary palaeostress from fault slip data analyses resulting in a complete map of compressional stress trajectories which is used to constrain our models we show that the distribution of stress trajectories in the active taiwan collision is principally controlled by 1 the geometric configuration of the boundary between eurasia and the philippine sea plate 2 the shape and rheological properties of major structural units 3 the direction of convergence of the philippine sea plate relative to eurasia and 4 the influence of the opening of the okinawa trough the study of a two dimensional elastic and elasto plastic finite element modelling of the subduction collision in and around taiwan allows us to estimate the influences of these different parameters in the stress pattern taking into account both the simplifying assumptions of the numerical modelling and the angular uncertainties of field determinations the fit between the calculated stress pattern of the finite element model and that determined based on the geometrical synthesis of field analyses is rather good in general indicating that our model is valid to first approximation misfits remain minor and can be explained by data uncertainties and simplifying modelling assumptions for instance the shape of the corner of the collision zone is critical but is not accurately known also limited decoupling in the longitudinal valley collision zone was not considered in our models although it certainly plays a role some interesting features of our model are 1 the greater influence of the shape of the collision zone in comparison with that of the direction of convergence 2 the requirement for a trench retreat related to suction force in the ryukyu arc and 3 the crucial role of the interaction between okinawa trough opening and collision at the sharp northwestern corner of the philippine sea plate including its influence on the geological evolution of northeastern taiwan

oxygen and asteroids hundreds of thousands of asteroids have been discovered in the asteroid belt and in near earth space oxygen is an abundant element in meteorites and presumably in most asteroids spectral reflectance measurements of asteroids in the visible and near infrared can identify oxygen bearing minerals such as those found in the olivine pyroxene and serpentine groups due to their distinctive absorption features interpretation of the mineralogy of asteroids is complicated by the effects of space weathering which tends to redden and darken the surfaces of asteroids asteroids are primarily classified into a number of taxonomic classes and subclasses according to their spectral properties in the visible wavelength region however asteroids with similar spectral properties in the visible may have different spectral properties in the near infrared and therefore different interpreted mineralogies definite trends in the abundances of different taxonomic classes versus heliocentric distance are apparent these trends appear to be a function of both composition differences and degree of heating however dynamical processes have significantly affected these trends close observation of asteroids by spacecraft such as near shoemaker to 433 eros and hayabusa to 25143 itokawa are currently the best way to discern the mineralogies of individual asteroids

the determination of displacement fields from geodetic data along a strike slip fault observations of angles or distances between stations of a geodetic network are commonly used to infer information about the movement of the surface of the earth the absence of any observations external to the network leads to an ambiguous displacement field existing techniques for eliminating this ambiguity are all unsatisfactory in some respect the best technique an inner coordinate solution is not appropriate for networks located in a strike slip fault environment the inner coordinate solution zeros the rotation of all stations about their center of mass along a strike slip fault like the san andreas however motion normal to the fault is less likely than motion parallel to the fault the solution presented here an outer coordinate solution finds the rotation of the network that minimizes the components of displacement normal to the fault since motion along a strike slip fault is generally expected to be parallel to the fault the displacements obtained with the outer coordinate solution are more reasonable than those obtained with other techniques examination of a trilateration network near san francisco bay demonstrates the large effect that the choice of adjustment technique can have on the inferred relative motion of the two sides of the fault the inner coordinate solution gave a rate of about 1 mm yr whereas the preferred outer coordinate solution rate was 36 mm yr

marine geology in the arc continent collision zone off southeastern taiwan implications for late neogene evolution of the coastal range abstract marine geology in the region between taiwan and luzon is characterized by a convergent tectonics in the south and an oblique arc continent collision in the north in the collision zone six geologic provinces are recognized they are the manila trench the accretionary prism of the hengchun ridge the sutural basin of the southern longitudinal trough the subduction melange of the huatung ridge the forearc basins of the taitung and the north luzon troughs and the volcanic arc of the north luzon ridge the oceanic crust of the south china sea is subducting eastward beneath the philippine sea plate along the manila trench south of 20 n further to the north the trench has changed progressively its axis toward the west from the subduction melanges off southeastern taiwan at 3 ma to the hengchun peninsula of southern taiwan at 2 1 ma and then to the present day location off southwestern taiwan because of the continuing collision and the westward shifting of the manila trench sediments deposited in the region are passively incorporated into the accretionary prism and deformed to the hengchun ridge after the collision the southern longitudinal trough consisting of a 2 km thick of orogenic sediments represents a sutural basin superposed on the plate boundary between the accretionary prism of the hengchun ridge asian continent and the subduction melange of the huatung ridge philippine sea plate the huatung ridge is a bathymetric high connected to the southern coastal range and is characteristic of low negative free air gravity and magnetic anomalies the ridge contains deeply weathered sedimentary blocks with abraded deep water late pliocene foraminifera and identical clay mineral compositions as those in the onshore lichi melange this implies that at least a portion of the huatung ridge is composed of melange materials and represents a former subduction zone extending from the lichi melange of the southern coastal range the north luzon trough and the taitung trough are the constructed foreac basins with 2 km of orogenic sediments unconformably overlying the volcanic islands and the subduction melange the taitung trough is southward connected to the north luzon trough through a bathymetric passage which was formed by narrowing the north luzon trough as a consequence of clockwise rotation of the lutao volcanic island during the late pleistocene a detailed study of the four neogene tectonostratigraphic units in the coastal range shows that the overall history of the formation of the range can be related to the present day geologic provinces and the on going collision processes in the region off southeastern taiwan the range had evolved from a southward accretion of the shuilien loho remnant forearc basin and the chimei volcanic pair at 2 ma followed by the chengkung taiyuan remnant forearc basin and the chengkuangao volcanic island pair at 1 ma and the taitung trough and the lutao volcanic island pair presently in process by analogy the northern part of the north luzon trough and the lanhsu volcanic island will be accreted to the coastal range in the next million years the paired forearc basin volcanic island accretion model proposed in this study may thus have implications for mountain ranges that evolved from similar tectonics of oblique arc continent collision

mineralogy and noble gas signatures of the carbonate rich lithology of the tagish lake carbonaceous chondrite evidence for an accretionary breccia abstract the carbonate rich lithology of the tagish lake carbonaceous chondrite was characterized by noble gas mass spectrometry synchrotron x ray diffraction analysis and transmission and scanning electron microscopy noble gas analysis was performed on two samples and the results showed that primordial noble gases are abundant and solar noble gases are absent in the samples of carbonate rich lithology the concentrations of ne a2 and e in both samples are at the maximum level observed for ci and cm chondrites suggesting high abundances of presolar diamonds and sic graphite respectively the cosmic ray exposure age cannot be determined precisely because the shielding depth of our tagish lake samples is unknown but the minimum exposure age was determined to be 5 5 0 7 myr on the basis of cosmogenic 21ne concentrations and the highest 21ne production rate x ray and electron microscopic study showed that the carbonate rich lithology is dominated by loosely packed porous matrix that consists mainly of fine grained saponite and ferromagenesian carbonate the matrix contains very few chondrules but many fine grained clasts having angular shape with longest dimensions up to 1 mm the clasts differ from host matrix in both texture and mineralogy they are massive compacted material with porosity much lower than matrix and contain abundant magnetite and a coherent intergrowth of serpentine and saponite that is rare in matrix the presence of texturally and mineralogically distinct clasts indicates that the carbonate rich lithology is a breccia but the absence of solar noble gases and impact induced deformational features in host matrix distinguish it from an asteroid regolith breccia our results instead indicate that it is an accretionary breccia formed by simultaneous accretion of diverse objects in a massive dust cloud the clasts often enclose chondrules and anhydrous silicate fragments such as low iron manganese enriched olivines this observation and their highly compacted angular morphology suggests that the clasts derive from earlier formed chondritic materials which have experienced compression and fragmentation due to mild impacts and from which they were excavated and incorporated into the final rock it is thus suggested that in the course of planetesimal formation agglomeration and disagglomeration of small parent bodies occurred repeatedly in a dense dust cloud where solar wind from the infant sun was shielded the fine grained ferromagnesian carbonates must have precipitated from aqueous solutions after the assembly of the tagish lake asteroid from recycled materials from previous bodies because the carbonates coat the surfaces of pores and fill in veins in the clasts

accretionary dust mantles in cm chondrites evidence for solar nebula processes abstract the texture and modal composition of fourteen carbonaceous chondrites of the cm group were studied in detail to unravel the origin of their various components and the evolution of their parent body ies the analysis and mapping of complete thin sections by scanning electron and optical microscopy revealed textural units in most samples in which all coarse grained primordial chondritic components chondrules chondrule fragments refractory inclusions particles rich in hydrous silicates pcp and various mineral fragments are coated by fine grained serpentine and tochilinite rich dust the dust mantled particles have spheroidal shapes and form a special lithology in which they are densely aggregated and compacted without any interstitial clastic material the dust mantles termed accretionary dust mantles and their host lithology called primary accretionary rock are interpreted as products of accretion processes in the solar nebula an origin by processes on the parent body is excluded for textural and mineralogical reasons most cm chondrites are affected by secondary impact induced brecciation of variable intensity except for yamato 791198 which is composed entirely of a primary accretionary rock obviously unaltered by secondary parent body processes such as aqueous alteration or brecciation the cm chondrites y74662 haripura cold bokkeveld kivesvaara mighei pollen nogoya y793321 alh 83100 murray and murchison consist of clasts of primary accretionary rock embedded in a fine grained clastic matrix derived from primary rock material the volume percentage of the clastic matrix ranges from 5 y74662 to 76 murchison bells and essebi are brecciated and affected by aqueous alteration to an extent that fragments of primary rock are not preserved the evaluation of literature data indicates that solar wind implanted noble gases are absent in the primary accretionary rock component of cm chondrites they are only present in brecciated samples it must be concluded from the relation between the content of trapped solar wind and degree of brecciation that 1 the solar noble gases are residing exclusively in the clastic matrix and 2 some cm chondrites are regolith breccias and others are fragmental or monomict breccias both types were formed on the parent body although the latter were never exposed to the solar wind based on the results of textural chemical and mineralogical investigations we conclude that a major portion of the water bearing phases in cm chondrites were produced by the hydration of refractory phases prior to the formation of dust mantles and prior to the formation of the recent cm parent body this process requires special physicochemical conditions which allow the crystallization of oh bearing silicates e g higher density of the nebula gas or special precursor planetesimals of the cm chondrite parent body

carbonaceous micrometeorites from antarctica over 100 000 large interplanetary dust particles in the 50 500 micrometers size range have been recovered in clean conditions from approximately 600 tons of antarctic melt ice water as both unmelted and partially melted dehydrated micrometeorites and cosmic spherules flux measurements in both the greenland and antarctica ice sheets indicate that the micrometeorites deliver to the earth s surface approximately 2000x more extraterrestrial material than brought by meteorites mineralogical and chemical studies of antarctic micrometeorites indicate that they are only related to the relatively rare cm and cr carbonaceous chondrite groups being mostly chondritic carbonaceous objects composed of highly unequilibrated assemblages of anhydrous and hydrous minerals however there are also marked differences between these two families of solar system objects including higher c o ratios and a very marked depletion of chondrules in micrometeorite matter hence they are chondrites without chondrules thus the parent meteoroids of micrometeorites represent a dominant and new population of solar system objects probably formed in the outer solar system and delivered to the inner solar system by the most appropriate vehicles comets one of the major purposes of this paper is to discuss applications of micrometeorite studies that have been previously presented to exobiologists but deal with the synthesis of prebiotic molecules on the early earth and more recently with the early history of the solar system

stress tensor analysis in the taiwan area from focal mechanisms of earthquakes abstract we produce a map of the stress pattern in and around taiwan based on 200 earthquake focal mechanism solutions these solutions were determined by using data from taiwan telemetered seismographic network microearthquake surveys and wwssn the stresses are derived through a minimization of angles between the slip vector and the shear stress on each nodal plane considered as a fault employing appropriate weighting factors the whole set of focal mechanisms is divided into several groups mainly according to apparent clustering of the event locations the results show that the direction of maximum principal stress in taiwan area is nearly horizontal and se nw on average this is in good agreement with the direction of relative motion between the philippine sea plate and the eurasian plate in western taiwan the fan shaped distribution of the maximum principal stress is consistent with the direction of philippine sea eurasian plate convergence through a simple model of viscous material indented by a rigid wedge in the northeastern part of taiwan a nearly horizontal minimum principal stress oriented n s is found for shallow depths it occurs in a region of low seismic velocities probably related to the back arc activity of the okinawa trough down dip compressional and down dip extensional stresses have been identified in different depth ranges within the subducting slab of the philippine sea plate in the northern taiwan this may reflect the slab characteristics in this area a complex stress pattern prevails in the hualien area at the junction between the ryukyu subduction system and the taiwan collision zone

detection of gas bubble boundary movement high resolution seismic surveys were performed on an underground gas storage of gaz de france at gournay sur aronde oise in order to obtain information about gas bubble boundaries within the reservoir for that purpose a light seismic source soursile and spreads with small spacing between geophone groups 10 m and small geophone group extension 10 m or 20 m were used in december 1982 a line recorded on the top of the anticline structure of the gas reservoir provided an estimation of the lateral extension of the bubble based on an amplitude anomaly dim spot associated with reservoir seismic horizons in order to estimate the displacement of the gas bubble within the reservoir three lines were recorded on the southeastern part of the anticline at different time periods april 1981 and january 1982 with different volumes of gas in the reservoir it is assumed that a variation of gas volume introduces a seismic velocity variation and as a result a travel time variation for the seismic waves that pass through the reservoir a method based on the residual time shifts observed on reflectors below the reservoir from one survey to the other was developed and implemented this method permitted a detection of a movement gas bubble boundary between april 1981 and january 1982 which agrees with drill hole data water level measurements

an introduction to the global positioning system and some geological applications receivers equipped to measure dual frequency carrier phase signals from satellites of the global positioning system gps have been capable under special conditions of determining relative horizontal positions among stations separated by one to a few hundred kilometers with a precision of one to several millimeters since the early 1980s the major obstacles to making this capability routine extending it to all parts of the globe and extending it to longer station separations have been equipment cost limitations in the gps satellite constellation arduous data analysis uncertainties in satellite orbits uncertainties in propagation delays associated with variable tropospheric water vapor and difficulties in resolving carrier phase cycle ambiguities recent improvements have occurred in all these areas the increasing ease and reduced cost of gps data acquisition and analysis are having a significant impact on studies of near fault crustal deformation and earthquake processes until recently the province of conventional terrestrial geodetic techniques the enhanced satellite constellation improved models and establishment of global tracking networks have extended several millimeters horizontal positioning capability to station separations of 1000 km or more in virtually all parts of the world this enables study of new classes of tectonic problems that previously were difficult to attack with any geodetic technique examples include a complete kinematic description of ongoing crustal deformation in broad complex continental plate boundary zones and measurement of relative plate motion at convergent boundaries where global models may be poorly constrained

the isotopic composition of volatiles in the unique bench crater carbonaceous chondrite impactor found in the apollo 12 regolith abstract projectiles striking the moon have modified its crust and delivered volatile elements to its interior and surface direct evidence of impactor origins is recorded by the rare occurrence of sub cm sized meteorite fragments identified in apollo samples and lunar meteorites the bench crater meteorite is a millimetre sized carbonaceous chondrite collected in regolith on the rim of bench impact crater at the apollo 12 landing site transmission electron microscopy has previously shown that bench crater contains abundant hydrated silicates establishing the survivability of hydrated material impacting the lunar surface to provide further information on the volatile inventory of the bench crater meteorite we report here the isotope compositions of hydrogen nitrogen carbon and oxygen this is the first direct isotopic analysis of meteoritic material delivered to the lunar surface and provides context for volatile and organic element signatures in lunar regolith samples and the survivability of volatile material delivered to planetary surfaces during impact bombardment the bench crater meteorite is characterised by d values ranging between 36 40 and 200 40 and bulk average 13 c of 13 30 and 15 n of 40 36 all uncertainties at the 2 confidence level the oxygen isotope compositions measured in situ in matrix silicates and magnetite in bench crater are consistent with those measured in matrix and magnetite in ci and cm chondrite falls altogether these new h c n and o isotope data coupled to mineralogical and geochemical observations suggest that bench crater may have been derived from an asteroidal parent body not represented in the terrestrial meteorite collection this is a crucial outcome in the current context of sample return missions to carbonaceous asteroids and more broadly for investigating the flux of material delivered to the earth moon system through time

holocene mean uplift rates across an active plate collision boundary in taiwan samples of holocene fossil coral from uplifted reefs of three tectonically distinct yet geographically proximal regions of taiwan have been dated by uranium series and 14c isotopes applying corrections for altitude change caused by sea level fluctuations enables evaluation of long term average holocene uplift rates for three areas across an active convergent margin i the hengchun peninsula of the eurasian tectonic plate ii the eastern coastal range of taiwan a plate boundary and iii two offshore islands lanyu and lutao both situated on the leading edge of the adjoining philippine plate the data indicate that while all three areas have experienced uplift through the holocene plate collision has caused significantly higher uplift rates in the region directly along the plate boundary

q log determination on downgoing wavelets and tube wave analysis in vertical seismic profiles1 seismic attenuation introduces modifications in the wavelet shape in vertical seismic profiles these modifications can be quantified by measuring particular signal attributes such as rise time period and shape index use of signal attributes leads to estimations of a seismic attenuation log q log to obtain accurate signal attributes it is important to minimize noise influence and eliminate local interference between upgoing and downgoing waves at each probe location when tube waves are present it is necessary to eliminate them before performing separation of upgoing and downgoing events we used a trace by trace wiener filter to minimize the influence of tube waves the separation of upgoing and downgoing waves was then performed in the frequency domain using a trace pair filter we used three possible methods based on signal attribute measurements to obtain g log from the extracted downgoing wavefield the first one uses a minimum phasing filter and the arrival time of the first extremum the two other methods determine the q factor from simple relations between the amplitudes of the first extrema and the pseudo periods of the down going wavelet the relations determined between a signal attribute and traveltime over quality factor were then calibrated using field source signature and constant q models computed by ganley s method q logs thus obtained from real data are discussed and compared with geological information specifically at reservoir level analysis of the tube wave arrivals at the level of the reservoir showed a tube wave attenuation that could not be explained by simple transmission effects there was also a loss of signal coherence this could be interpreted as tube wave diffusion in the porous reservoir followed by dispersion if this interpretation can be verified tube wave analysis could lead to further characterization of porous permeable zones

the nanoscale mineralogy of fe ni sulfides in pristine and metamorphosed cm and cm ci like chondrites tapping a petrogenetic record we have sampled sulfide grains from one pristine cm2 chondrite yamato y 791198 one thermally metamorphosed cm2 chondrite y 793321 and two anomalous metamorphosed cm ci like chondrites y 86720 and belgica b 7904 by the focused ion beam fib technique and studied them by analytical transmission electron microscopy tem our study aims at exploring the potential of sulfide assemblages and microstructures to decipher processes and conditions of chondrite petrogenesis complex exsolution textures of pyrrhotite crystallographic nc type with n 6 troilite and pentlandite occur in grains of y 791198 and y 793321 additionally polycrystalline 4c pyrrhotite pentlandite magnetite aggregates occur in y 791198 pointing to diverse conditions of gas solid interactions in the solar nebula coarser exsolution textures of y 793321 grains indicate higher long term average temperatures in the 100 c range compared to y 791198 and other cm chondrites sulfide mineralogy of y 86720 and b 7904 is dominated by aggregates of pure troilite and metal indicating metamorphic equilibration at sulfur fugacities fs2 of the iron troilite buffer absence of magnetite in equilibrium with sulfide and metal in y 86720 indicates higher peak temperatures compared with b 7904 in which coexistence of troilite metal and magnetite constrains metamorphic temperature to less than 570 c nc pyrrhotite occurs in both meteorites as nm wide rims on troilite grains and together with frequent anhydrite indicates a retrograde metamorphic stage at higher fs2 slightly above the fayalite magnetite quartz pyrrhotite buffer fine grained troilite olivine intergrowths in both meteorites suggest the pre metamorphic presence of tochilinite serpentine interlayer phases pointing to mineralogical cm affinity pseudomorphs after euhedral pyrrhotite crystals in y 86720 in turn suggest ci affinity as do previously published o isotopic data of both meteorites

a synthesis of the geologic evolution of taiwan abstract the island arc of taiwan is composed of cenozoic geosynclinal sediments more than 10 000 m thick lying on a pre tertiary metamorphic basement pleistocene to miocene andesitic islands surround the main island and are related mostly to arc magmatism the penghu island group in the taiwan strait is covered with pleistocene flood basalt neogene shallow marine clastic sediments are exposed mainly in the western foothills with pleistocene andesitic extrusives at the northern tip and the northeastern offshore islands a thick sequence of paleogene to miocene argillitic to slaty metaclastic rocks underlies the western central range and forms the immediate sedimentary cover on the pre tertiary metamorphic complex to the east which represents an older mesozoic arc trench system the coastal range in eastern taiwan is a neogene andesitic magmatic arc including also a large variety of volcaniclastic and turbiditic sediments cenozoic taiwan is the site of arc continent collision where the luzon arc on the philippine sea plate overrides the chinese continental margin on the eurasian plate east and northeast of taiwan the polarity of subduction changes whereby the oceanic philippine sea plate is subducting beneath the ryukyu arc system on the eurasian plate continent arc collision in taiwan island is anomalous and may occur in a broad belt of deformation rather than along a well defined plate boundary or subduction zone

the cm carbonaceous chondrite regolith diepenveen a carbonaceous chondrite was recovered immediately after the fall near the village of diepenveen in the netherlands on october 27 1873 but came to light only in 2012 analysis of sodium and poly aromatic hydrocarbon content suggests little contamination from handling diepenveen is a regolith breccia with an overall petrology consistent with a cm classification unlike most other cm chondrites the bulk oxygen isotopes are extremely 16o rich apparently dominated by the signature of anhydrous minerals distributed on a steep slope pointing to the domain of intrinsic cm water a small subset plots closer to the normal cm regime on a parallel line 2 lower in 17o different lithologies in diepenveen experienced varying levels of aqueous alteration processing being less aqueously altered at places rather than more heated the presence of an agglutinate grain and the properties of methanol soluble organic compounds point to active impact processing of some of the clasts diepenveen belongs to a cm clan with 5 ma cre age longer than most other cm chondrites and has a relatively young k ar resetting age of 1 5 ga as a cm chondrite diepenveen may be representative of samples soon to be returned from the surface of asteroid 162173 ryugu by the hayabusa2 spacecraft

thermally metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrites from data for thermally mobile trace elements we report radiochemical neutron activation analysis rnaa data for u co au sb ga rb cs se ag te zn in bi tl and cd ordered by increasing ease of vaporization and loss from the murchison cm2 chondrite during open system heating in nine antarctic c2 and c3 chondrites these meteorites exhibit properties obtained by reflectance spectroscopy o isotopic mass spectrometry and or mineralogy petrology suggesting thermal metamorphism in their parent bodies five of these meteorites asuka a 881655 yamato y 793495 y 790992 pecora escarpment pca 91008 and y 86789 paired with y 86720 exhibit significant depletion of the most thermally mobile 1 5 trace elements which is consistent with open system loss during extended parent body heating under conditions duplicated by week long heating of the murchison c2 chondrite heated at 500 700 c in a low pressure initially 10 5atm h2 atmosphere from earlier data three other c3 chondrites allan hills alh 81003 alh 85003 and lewis cliffs lew 85332 show significant cd depletion nine additional c2 and c3 chondrites show no evidence of mobile trace element depletion including y 793321 which by all other criteria was mildly metamorphosed thermally either metamorphism of these nine meteorites occurred under closed conditions and or alteration took place under such mild conditions that even cd could not be lost the rnaa data suggest that 10 of the 46 antarctic carbonaceous chondrites including 4 of 37 from victoria land and 6 of 9 from queen maud land exhibit open system loss of at least some thermally mobile trace elements by heating in their parent bodies whereas none of the 25 non antarctic falls experienced this these results are consistent with the idea that the antarctic sampling of near earth material differs from that being sampled today

first arrival picking on common offset trace collections for automatic estimation of static corrections the increase in the number of geophone groups in production records during recent years and the requirement for accurate basic static corrections for high resolution records have made it necessary to develop sufficiently accurate automatic techniques for the determination of static corrections a fully automatic method is presented which makes use of the delay time method in order to compute static corrections at each shot position delay times weathering and subweathering velocities are determined from automatic picks of the first arrivals on common offset trace collections it is assumed that the weathering is a single layer and that the dip of the subweathering layer under the geophone groups is small the picking routine is fully automatic and successful in most cases provided the signal to noise ratio is sufficiently high the subsequent filtering of erroneous values for picked times is performed by means of statistical techniques using curves of picked times on common offset trace collections if the distance between receivers and shot points on the profile is sufficiently short one can expect only little change in the picked times of two contiguous traces the method is well adapted to end on spreads with a great number of traces where distances between geophone groups are short examples are presented showing the possibilities of the method for the determination of long wavelength as well as short wavelength components of static corrections

correlated alteration effects in cm carbonaceous chondrites three parameters are proposed to determine the relative extent of alteration in cm chondrites the mineralogic alteration index monitors the relative progress of coupled substitutions in the progressive alteration of cronstedtite to mg serpentine and increases with increasing alteration to calculate values of this index an algorithm has been developed to estimate the average matrix phyllosilicate composition in individual cm chondrites the second parameter is the volume percent of isolated matrix silicates which decreases with progressive alteration due to mineral hydration finally the volume percent of chondrule alteration monitors the extent of chondrule phyllosilicate production and increases as alteration proceeds these parameters define the first cm alteration scale that relies on multiple indicators of progressive alteration the following relative order of increasing alteration is established by this model murchison bells pollen murray mighei nogoya cold bokkeveld the relative degree of aqueous processing cochabamba and boriskino experienced is less precisely constrained although both fall near the middle of this sequence a comparison between the mineralogic alteration index and literature values for the whole rock chemistry of cm chondrites reveals several correlations a positive nearly linear correlation between bulk h content and progressive cm alteration suggests an approximately constant production rate of new phyllosilicates relative to the mineralogical transition from cronstedtite to mg serpentine the abundance of trapped planetary 36ar decreases systematically in progressively altered cm chondrites suggesting the wholesale destruction of primary noble gas carrier phase s by aqueous reactions because low temperature fluid rock reactions are generally associated with large isotopic mass fractionation factors we also compared our model predictions with 18o values for bulk cm samples although some of these data are poorly resolved the order of increasing 18o values approximates the order of increasing alteration predicted by our model parameters multiple correlations between diverse alteration parameters strongly suggest that a different cm chondrites experienced similar kinds of processes and conditions and b cm materials experienced in situ alteration on the cm parent body or bodies

q estimation from vertical seismic profile data and anomalous variations in the central north sea four different methods of estimating q from vertical seismic profile vsp data based on measurements of spectral ratios pulse amplitude pulse width and zeroth lag autocorrelation of the attenuated impulse are described the last procedure is referred to as the pulse power method practical problems concerning nonlinearity in the estimating procedures uncertainties in the gain setting of the recording equipment and the influence of structure are considered in detail vsp data recorded in a well in the central north sea were processed to obtain estimates of seismic attenuation these data revealed a zone of high attenuation from approximately 4 900 ft to 5600 ft with a value of 25 3 results of the spectral ratio analysis show that the data conform to a linear constant q model in addition since the pulse width measurement is dependent upon the dispersive model adopted it is shown that a nondispersive model cannot possibly provide a match to the real data no unambiguous evidence is presented that e

shock metamorphism of carbonaceous chondrites abstract we have studied shock effects in carbonaceous chondrites using optical microscopy of thin sections and find that our petrographic classification of progressive shock metamorphism in ordinary chondrites can also be applied to carbonaceous chondrites we find that sixty nine carbonaceous chondrites can be assigned to four shock stages si to s4 largely on the basis of shock effects in olivine the least shocked chondrite groups are cm2 and co3 thirty six out of thirty eight members are classified as shock stage s1 differences between the mean shock levels of certain groups of chondrites e g co3 and cv3 are probably due to stochastic differences in the sampling of their parent bodies however there is an overall tendency for the mean shock level of carbonaceous chondrites and ordinary chondrites to increase with increasing petrologic type that may reflect real differences in the shock level of near surface materials on their parent bodies caused by intrinsic variations in the chemical and physical properties of these materials petrologic type 2 and 3 chondrites are more porous and richer in volatiles than types 4 to 6 the greater porosity of types 2 3 causes higher post shock temperatures and melting at lower pressures and the higher volatile contents ensure that strongly shocked material is more readily dispersed on release from high pressure we suggest that type 2 3 material shocked above 20 30 gpa normally escapes from the parent asteroids and forms particles that are too small to survive as meteorites in the cv3 group there is a correlation between the degree of chondrule flattening and the intensity of shock metamorphism analogous to that discovered in ordinary chondrites by sneyd et al 1988 suggesting that shock rather than static overburden pressure is responsible for chondrule flattening we infer that the correlations are due to collapse of pores under shock pressures of at least 5 10 gpa and that shock is an important process affecting many physical properties of type 2 4 chondrites

the paradox between low shock stage and evidence for compaction in cm carbonaceous chondrites explained by multiple low intensity impacts abstract petrographic analysis of eight cm carbonaceous chondrites eet 96029 lap 031166 lon 94101 met 01072 murchison murray sco 06043 que 93005 by electron imaging and diffraction and x ray computed tomography reveals that six of them have a petrofabric defined by shock flattened chondrules with the exception of murchison those cms that have a strong petrofabric also contain open or mineralized fractures indicating that tensional stresses accompanying the impacts were sufficient to locally exceed the yield strength of the meteorite matrix the cms studied span a wide range of petrologic subtypes and in common with rubin 2012 we find that the strength of their petrofabrics increases with their degree of aqueous alteration this correspondence suggests that impacts were responsible for enhancing alteration probably because the fracture networks they formed tapped fluid reservoirs elsewhere in the parent body two meteorites that do not fit this pattern are met 01072 and murchison both have a strong petrofabric but are relatively unaltered in the case of met 01072 impact deformation is likely to have postdated parent body aqueous activity the same may also be true for murchison but as this meteorite also lacks fractures and veins its chondrules were most likely flattened by multiple low intensity impacts multiphase deformation of murchison is also revealed by the microstructures of calcite grains and chondrule defined petrofabrics as revealed by x ray computed tomography the contradiction between the commonplace evidence for impact deformation of cms and their low shock stages most belong to s1 can be explained by most if not all having been exposed to multiple low intensity i e

bulk mineralogy of individual micrometeorites determined by x ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy abstract bulk mineralogy of individual fine grained micrometeorites from 50 to 200 m in diameter was determined on the basis of the powder x ray diffraction patterns and the observation of internal textures by a transmission electron microscope tem x ray diffraction analysis of 56 micrometeorites indicated that 42 11 and 3 samples are olivine rich pyroxene rich and phyllosilicate rich micrometeorites respectively among the phyllosilicate rich micrometeorites one contains saponite and other two contain serpentine no samples contain both saponite and serpentine we found that saponite rich micrometeorite was weakly heated which results in shrinkage of 001 basal spacing of saponite down to 9 7 a and that cronstedtite which is commonly contained in cm chondrites occurs in serpentine rich micrometeorites micrometeorites that consist entirely of anhydrous minerals and amorphous phases are predominant in the samples studied the major phases of such micrometeorites are olivine low ca pyroxene magnetite and fe sulfide and the average abundances are 65 17 11 and 7 wt respectively when the total abundance of the four minerals are normalized to 100 wt the relative mineral abundance varies greatly between samples low ca pyroxene olivine ratios range from 0 to 3 5 with a mean of 0 3 tem observations of inner portions of some micrometeorites revealed that they are aggregates of very small equigranular grains 100 nm of olivine magnetite or low ca pyroxene olivine magnesiowustite the textures are very similar to those of hydrous carbonaceous chondrite that was experimentally heated to temperature below melting point thus suggesting that the micrometeorites had been hydrous particles but were decomposed by the brief heating upon atmospheric entry it is newly found that magnesiowustite was formed in micrometeorites instead of magnetite as a product of phyllosilicate decomposition under low oxygen fugacity the decomposed hydrous micrometeorites gave two types of characteristic x ray diffraction patterns 1 broad olivine and magnetite reflections or 2 variable intensities of magnesiowustite reflections together with magnetite low ca pyroxene and olivine reflections twenty nine olivine or pyroxene rich micrometeorites showed such diffraction patterns thus suggesting that more than half of micrometeorites investigated must be decomposed hydrous particles the results confirmed that hydrous dust particles are much more abundant in the interplanetary space than in the micrometeorites recovered on the earth

yamato 793321 cm chondrite dehydrated regolith material of a hydrous asteroid abstract based on the reflectance spectra surface materials of many c g b and f type asteroids are altered by heating and consist of low crystalline dehydrated phyllosilicates similar to heated hydrous carbonaceous chondrites however meteorites of this kind studied so far were not samples from the asteroid regolith but from the asteroid interior they lack both of two properties characteristic for regolith materials lithologies with impact induced brecciation and noble gases from implanted solar winds thus no meteorite samples have ever been identified as a real sample of c g b and f type asteroid regolith here i report the discovery of a meteorite having mineralogical and isotopic signatures expected for regolith samples of these asteroids through the investigation of seven cm carbonaceous chondrites the meteorite is the yamato y 793321 cm carbonaceous chondrite it exhibits a variety of petrologic features that are characteristic of active regolith material chondrules are crushed matrix is comminuted and coarse silicate crystals show deformation and characteristic planner fractures due to repeated impacts synchrotron x ray diffraction analysis showed that fine grained matrix is dominated by amorphous silicates with minor amounts of olivine and magnetite which was produced by dehydration of preexisting hydrous phases probably serpentine during impact induced heating at 500 c in addition isotopic analysis revealed that the meteorite is enriched in implanted solar noble gases suggesting that it was once located at surface layers of a parent asteroid all results taken together demonstrate that y 793321 is a regolith breccia of a hydrous asteroid which underwent impacts heating dehydration and solar wind implantation at the surface layers of the asteroid the reflectance spectrum of this meteorite matches well with those of asteroids c g b and f confirming that it was derived from these asteroid surfaces

shock induced volatile loss from a carbonaceous chondrite implications for planetary accretion solid recovery impact induced volatile loss experiments on the murchison c2m meteorite indicate that for an impact of a given velocity h 2o and total volatiles are driven from the sample in the same proportion as present initially we infer that the volatiles other than h 2o driven from the meteorite also have the same bulk composition as those of the starting material thus the early bulk composition of an impact induced atmosphere of a planet growing by accretion from material like murchison would be the same as the volatile composition of the incident planetesimals incipient devolatilization of murchison occurs at an initial shock pressure of about 11 gpa and complete devolatilization occurs at a pressure of about 30 gpa if an earth sized planet were formed from the infall of planetesimals of murchison composition incipient and complete devolatilization of accreting planetesimals would occur when the planet reached approximately 12 and 27 respectively of its final radius thus impact induced devolatilization of accreting planetesimals and of the hydrated surface would profoundly affect the distribution of volatiles within the accreting planet for example for a cold homogeneous accretion of a planet prior to metallic core formation and internal differentiation the growing planet would have a very small core with the same volatile content as the incident material a volatile depleted mantle and an extremely volatile rich surface

in situ investigation of seismic body wave attenuation in heterogeneous media field experiments have been carried out to study the nature and magnitude of seismic wave attenuation for a variety of lithologies in each survey two three component sets of geophones with wall clamping mechanisms were lowered down boreholes and signals originating from surface compressional and shear wave sources were recorded the data collected were corrected for spherical divergence and analyzed to determine intrinsic attenuation for situations of anomalous wavefront expansion and in cases where multiple reflection losses may be significant corrections were supplied by a synthetic seismogram programme to improve the estimates of intrinsic attenuation values of attenuation were obtained for pure sandstone sandstone marl sequences and fissured unfissured chalk sequences these formations were all near surface and relatively porous significant differences in the relative values of compressional and shear wave attenuation in the various lithologies were noted in particular compressional absorption in the fissured zones of chalk was twice the absorption associated with the seismic velocities and the absorption of shear waves fluctuated much less a large contrast in p wave attenuation was also observed between pure bunter sandstone and the sandstone marl sequence absorption was over three times as small in the former a smaller contrast was noted for shear attenuation the results obtained suggest that for the relatively homogeneous formations such as pure sandstone and unfissured chalk shear absorption was dominant over bulk absorption in contrast bulk absorption was larger than shear absorption for other formations e g the fissured chalk sequences and a partially saturated chalk section attenuation was found to be approximately proportional to frequency in all experiments

active deformation of taiwan from gps measurements and numerical simulations using a two dimensional distinct element model we evaluate the relationships between plate kinematics and present day deformation in taiwan where active collision occurs in particular the distribution of velocity fields calculated in our models is compared with the actual velocity field revealed by the most recent geodetic data gps obtained in taiwan and the surrounding islands of the philippine sea plate and the eurasian shelf the main aim of this paper is to produce a mechanically consistent 2 d model that accounts for the observed velocity field taken as whole within the limits of acceptable rheological parameters and reasonable boundary displacement conditions we evaluate how the active deformation of taiwan is influenced by the presence of strong and weak zones such as the structural highs in the foreland and subduction zones with accretionary prisms respectively major mechanical discontinuities such as the main fault zones in the mountain belt and the opening of the okinawa trough particular attention is paid to the role of preexisting discontinuities since the presence of mechanical decoupling along major faults strongly affects the distribution of the velocity and stress patterns we show that despite parameter uncertainties several tectonic factors the presence of the strong kuanyin and peikang highs in contrast to the weak subduction zone to the south the weak active regional shear zones and the opening of the back arc okinawa trough concur to provide an acceptable mechanical model for this regional deformation these sources are related not only to the geometry of the plate boundary the direction of plate convergence and the shape of the chinese margin but also to the presence of major zones of relative weakness and mechanical decoupling such as the longitudinal valley fault zone and the western thrust belt of taiwan

detection of open fractures with vertical seismic profiling in vertical seismic profiling surveys tube waves are generated by compressional waves impinging on subsurface fractures or permeable zones the problem of generation of these waves by a nonnormal incident p wave for an inclined borehole intersecting a tilted parallel wall fracture is formulated theoretically the amplitude of tube waves depends on the permeability the length of the fracture and the frequency the relative effects of these parameters are studied individually the problem is also formulated for a thin oblate ellipsoidal penny shaped fracture the results for the two fracture models are compared and contrasted field data from tyngsboro massachusetts are shown for open fractures in granite from tube wave amplitudes normalized to p wave amplitudes calculated permeabilities are of the order of 100 mdarcy

measurements of attenuation from vertical seismic profiles values of attenuation have been extracted from five detailed velocity surveys significant amounts of attenuation are observed in all five wells measured values of attenuation vary by a factor of 10 ranging from less than 0 1 to 0 9 db wavelength correlation of attenuation with lithology is good considering the resolution limits of the surveys one of the surveys was performed in west texas and the other four were carried out in the gulf coast area the total number of recording depths in each survey varied from 31 to 208 with downhole recordings taken every 10 or 20 ft over key stratigraphic zones in all five surveys a monitor geophone was placed near the well to check for source consistency our procedure for measuring attenuation involved constructing the spectral ratio between each downhole pulse and one particular reference pulse a value of cumulative attenuation ca was then extracted from each spectral ratio and plotted as a function of geophone depth this method allowed us to use many m

bright carbonate veins on asteroid 101955 bennu implications for aqueous alteration history introduction carbonaceous asteroids formed early in solar system history and experienced varying degrees of aqueous water rock and thermal alteration most models of the evolution of these asteroids suggest that aqueous alteration was driven by hydrothermal convection however it is debated whether this alteration occurred in a chemically closed or open system the bulk chemical compositions of the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites imply that the system was closed models predict that large scale fluid flow in an open system took place on at least some asteroids in this scenario fluids would have flowed through fractures from the interior and minerals would have precipitated into these fractures forming veins rationale global spectral observations by the osiris rex origins spectral interpretation resource identification and security regolith explorer spacecraft have shown that carbon bearing materials including organics and or carbonates are widespread on the surface of near earth asteroid 101955 bennu to understand the composition of these carbon bearing materials and their implications for bennu s aqueous alteration history we examined visible near infrared spectra obtained at resolutions of 4 m in the region around the mission s primary sampling site nightingale we compared these spectra with laboratory spectra of organics and carbonates broadband panchromatic images of the nightingale region at pixel scales of 1 4 cm allowed us to search for surface features that could contextualize the spectral data results on the basis of the wavelength position and shape of spectral absorption features the closest matches to a subset 15 of spectra collected in the nightingale region are the carbonate minerals calcite dolomite and magnesite with calcite being the most prevalent these minerals are found in the highly aqueously altered cm and ci group carbonaceous chondrites proposed meteorite analogs of bennu bright centimeters thick roughly meter long veins are apparent in images of some boulders near the nightingale site the veins have albedos of 10 to at least 19 much brighter than bennu s average of 4 4 these albedos are consistent with the veins being filled by carbonates with minor abundances of opaque materials such as magnetite and organics the albedos are too high for the veins to be dominantly composed of organics or any other material that has been identified on bennu except carbonates there are only a few bright vein filling materials found in meteorites and carbonate is the only one of these that is plausibly present on bennu linear mixture modeling suggests that only a small fraction of a spectrometer field of view conclusion the observed bright veins on bennu are most likely dominantly composed of carbonates the detection of these meter sized putative carbonate veins indicates that extensive water flow occurred in a chemically open hydrothermal system on the larger parent asteroid of bennu before the catastrophic disruption of the parent asteroid led to bennu s reaccumulation as a rubble pile kinetic modeling assuming a calcite vein composition shows that a hydrothermal system kilometers in size with alteration likely taking place over thousands to millions of years would have been needed to create veins of the dimensions preserved in the constituent boulders of bennu some cm and ci group meteorites have very small micrometers to millimeters carbonate veins or presumed vein fragments veins on the scale that we observe on bennu are not present in meteorites it is possible that such veins are present on other carbonaceous asteroids that have not been observed by spacecraft we predict that the sample of bennu s surface material that is planned to be returned to earth by the osiris rex spacecraft will contain carbonates and that they will be distributed with a structure and scale distinct from those that occur in meteorites