Abstract
Abstract— A glass separate from the LEW88516 shergottite was analyzed by step‐wise combustion for N and noble gases to determine whether it contained trapped gas similar in composition to the martian atmosphere‐like component previously observed in lithology C of EETA79001. Excesses of 40Ar and 129Xe were in fact observed in this glass, although the amounts of these excesses are ≤20% of those seen in the latter meteorite, and are comparable to the amounts seen in whole‐rock analyses of LEW88516. The isotopic composition of N in LEW88516 does not show an enrichment in 15N commensurate with the amount of isotopically‐heavy N expected from the noble gases excesses. One must posit some extreme assumptions about the nature of the N components present in LEW88516 in order to allow the presence of the trapped nitrogen component. Alternatively, the N has somehow been decoupled from the noble gases, and was either never present or has been lost.
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