Moessbauer mineralogy of calcined Murchison meteorite

• Main Authors: Lipschutz, M. E., Morris, Richard V., Hiroi, T., Zolensky, M. E.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1994
• Subjects: ASTROPHYSICS; Antarctic; Murchison; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19940031659

The three Antarctic meteorites B7904, Y82162, and Y86720 are unusual because they have characteristics in common with both CI and CM groups and because they apparently underwent thermal alteration after hydrous alteration on their parent body. They are also spectrally similar (visible and near-IR) to C, G, B, and F asteroids, which may imply that the surface materials on those asteroids may have undergone thermal alteration. Based on the reflectance spectra of samples of Murchison (CM2 carbonaceous chondrite) that were thermally altered in the laboratory (cryopumped and initial 10(exp -5) atm H2), Hiroi et al. concluded that putative thermal alteration occurred at temperatures of 600 to 1000 C. Similar experiments have been done on Murchison and reported mineralogical changes based on data from transmission electron diffraction microscopy, electron diffraction, and analytical electron microscopy. We report here the Mossbauer mineralogy of the same samples of thermally-altered Murchison. Mossbauer mineralogy gives the molar distribution of Fe among its oxidation states and iron-bearing mineralogies.