Noble gas contents of shergottites and implications for the Martian origin of SNC meteorites

Abstract

Isotopic concentrations of the noble gases have been measured in several different phases of Elephant Moraine A79001 and in whole rock samples of Zagami and Allan Hills A77005, three meteorites which belong to the rare group of SNC achondrites that may have originated from the planet Mars. Shocked phases of EETA79001 contain a trapped Ar, Kr, and Xe component characterized by 84Kr 132Xe ∼15, 40Ar 36Ar > 2000 , 129Xe 132Xe ≥ 2 , and 4He 40Ar ≤ 0.1 . These elemental and isotopic ratios are unlike those for any other noble gas component except analyses of the Martian atmosphere made by Viking spacecraft. The isotopic composition of the trapped Kr shows an approximate 1% per mass unit enrichment of lighter isotopes compared to terrestrial Kr, and the traped Xe may show either a fission component or a fractionated enrichment of heavier isotopes compared to terrestrial Xe. It is hypothesized that these gases represent a portion of the Martian atmosphere which was shock-implanted into EETA79001, and that they constitute direct evidence of a Martian origin for the shergottite meteorites. Cosmic ray-produced gases in the eight known SNC meteorites form three distinct groups with exposure ages of ∼11 MY (Chassigny and the nakhlites), ∼2.6 MY (Shergotty, Zagami, and ALHA77005), and ∼0.5 MY (EETA79001). These ages suggest three distinct events and cannot have been produced by irradiation for a common time under greatly different shielding. Comparison of cosmogenic 3He 21 Ne measured in EETA79001 with two independent models for the production of this ratio as a function of shielding indicates that this meteorite was irradiated in space as a relatively small object. If the SNC meteorites were ejected from Mars ∼ 180 My ago, the shock age of the shergottites, they must have been relatively large objects (>6 meters diameter) which experienced at least three space collisions to initiate cosmic ray exposure. Ejection from Mars by three events at the times of initiation of cosmic ray exposure would permit the ejected objects to have been much smaller (<1 meter diameter), but would require three such events on 1.3 Gy Martian terraine in the past ∼10 MY and would not explain the common 180 MY shock age seen in all four shergottites.