Heating experiments of individual particles from the Renazzo matrix: SIMS measurements of nitrogen isotopes

Stadermann F. J. and Floss C. (2001) Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 36 (9, Supplement) p. A196-A197.


ABSTRACT

Deuterium enrichments are common in primitive meteorites and IDPs, but the carriers of the anomalies are poorly characterized; these materials also often exhibit 15N enrichments. Although no direct correlations between hydrogen and nitrogen isotopic anomalies have been observed, it is striking that both anomalies tend to be present in the same primitive materials. Identification of the carriers of these anomalies would be simplified if it could be shown that they are the same in both types of extraterrestrial materials. To this end, we are carrying out heating experiments on matrix material from Renazzo (CR), which contains significant enrichments of both deuterium and 15N. In the future, these experiments will be extended to IDPs and other primitive meteorites.

Our initial results focused on the deuterium enrichments observed in Renazzo matrix material, and suggested the loss of two distinct deuterium carriers: a low temperature component tentatively identified as acid-resistant organic phases (lost between 200-400 deg. C) and a higher temperature component, possibly the waters of hydration in phyllosilicates (lost between 600-800 deg. C). Here we report the results of nitrogen isotopic measurements on the same Renazzo matrix residues that we previously studied.


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