Short duration thermal metamorphism in CR chondrites

Abstract

CR chondrites are considered as one of the most primitive classes of meteorites. Most of them experienced a mild aqueous alteration and show no evidence of significant effect of thermal metamorphism. We present here a search for low degree metamorphic effects in CR chondrites. We studied 15 CR chondrites using different metamorphic indicators: (1) structure and Ni content of metal grains; (2) hydration state of matrix; (3) structure and composition of organic matter. The different metamorphic indicators show that two of the analyzed CR chondrites, GRA 06100 and GRO 03116, experienced thermal metamorphism. Indeed, all of the metal grains in GRA 06100 and half of the metal grains in GRO 03116 show Ni-rich phases; the matrix of GRA 06100 is almost completely dehydrated, and the matrix of GRO 03116 is partially dehydrated; Raman spectra of organic matter in these two meteorites are clearly different from those obtained for organic matter in the other CR chondrites, which resemble Raman spectra of organic matter in unmetamorphosed, CM2 meteorites; IR spectra of insoluble organic matter extracted from GRA 06100 and GRO 03116 show lower carbonyl abundance and higher CH2/CH3 ratio with respect to organic matter of unmetamorphosed chondrites. The other CR chondrites analyzed here lack these characteristics and only show a few metal grains with Ni-rich inclusions. Our results also show that the metamorphic effects observed in GRA 06100 and GRO 03116 are different from those observed in type 3 chondrites, which experienced long-duration metamorphism of radiogenic origin. We infer that thermal processing in these two CRs extended over a short duration and was triggered by impacts.