Search for extinct 36Cl: Vigarano CAIs, the Pink Angel from Allende, and a Ningqiang chondrule

Abstract

We have searched for excesses of 36S derived from the decay of extinct 36Cl in sodalite, a secondary Cl-rich mineral, in Ca–Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) from the Vigarano and Allende CV3 chondrites and in a chondrule from the Ningqiang carbonaceous chondrite. The presence of sodalite in two CAIs from Vigarano and its absence from surrounding CAI fragments suggests sodalite formation after CAI fragmentation. As for sodalite in the Allende Pink Angel CAI, oxygen isotopic compositions have been interpreted as indicative of high temperature interactions, thus suggesting formation prior to accretion to the parent body, probably in a nebular setting. Sodalite in the Ningqiang chondrule is considered to have formed via alkali-Ca exchange, which is believed to have occurred before accretion to the parent body. Sodalites in the Vigarano CAIs and in the Ningqiang chondrule show no clear evidence for the presence of radiogenic 36S. The inferred 2 σ upper limits for 36Cl/ 35Cl at the time of sodalite formation are 1.6 × 10 −6 (Vigarano CAIs) and 3.3 × 10 −6 (Ningqiang chondrule), respectively. In the Pink Angel CAI sodalite exhibits small 36S excesses which weakly correlate with 35Cl/ 34S ratios. The inferred 36Cl/ 35Cl ratio of (1.8 ± 2.2) × 10 −6 (2 σ error) is lower than that found by Hsu et al. [Hsu, W., Guan, Y., Leshin, L. A., Ushikubo, T. and Wasserburg, G. J. (2006) A late episode of irradiation in the early solar system: Evidence from extinct 36Cl and 26Al in meteorites. Astrophys. J. 640, 525–529], thus indicative of heterogeneous distribution of 36Cl in this CAI. Spallation reactions induced by energetic particles from the young Sun are suggested for the origin of 36Cl, similar to the case of 10Be. While 10Be appears to be present in roughly equal abundance in all studied CAIs, our study indicates the level of 36Cl abundances to be variable so that there seems to be no simple relationship between 10Be and 36Cl. This would be expected if trapped cosmic rays rather than Early Solar System spallation were the dominant source of 10Be in the Early Solar System, since their contribution to 36Cl would have been tiny. If the variability of 36Cl abundances is caused by temporal differences in the alteration that formed sodalite, sodalite in the Vigarano CAIs and in the Ningqiang chondrule may have formed ⩾0.5 and ⩾0.2 Ma after formation of the sodalite in the Ningqiang CAI analyzed by Lin et al. [Lin, Y., Guan, Y., Leshin, L. A., Ouyang, Z. and Wang, D. (2005) Short-lived chlorine-36 in a Ca- and Al-rich inclusion from the Ningqiang carbonaceous chondrite. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 1306–1311]. The Pink Angel sodalite that we analyzed may have formed ∼0.3 Ma after formation of the sodalite in the Pink Angel analyzed by Hsu et al. [Hsu, W., Guan, Y., Leshin, L. A., Ushikubo, T. and Wasserburg G. J. (2006) A late episode of irradiation in the early solar system: Evidence from extinct 36Cl and 26Al in meteorites. Astrophys. J. 640, 525–529]. The estimated temporal differences suggest that alteration extended over at least 0.5 Ma. If previous works showing very low initial 36Cl/ 35Cl in the Allende CAIs and a H3 chondrite CAI are also considered, then alteration processes may have been more than 1.7 Ma.