Frank T. Kyte

Accretion Rate of Extraterrestrial Matter: Iridium Deposited 33 to 67 Million Years Ago

Iridium measured in 149 samples of a continuous 9-meter section of Pacific abyssal clay covering the time span 33 to 67 million years ago shows a well-defined peak only at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. In the rest of the section iridium ranges from a minimum concentration near 0.35 nanograms per gram in the Paleocene to a maximum near 1.7 in the Eocene; between 63 and 33 million years ago the mean iridium accumulation rate is approximately 13 nanograms per square centimeter per million years. Correction for terrestrial iridium leads to an extraterrestrial flux of9 � 3 nanograms of iridium per square centimeter per million years, and an estimated annual global influx of 78 billion grams of chondritic matter, consistent with recent estimates of the influx of dust, meteorites, and crater-producing bodies with masses ranging from 10-13 to 1018 grams. Combining the recent flux of objects ranging in mass from 106 to 107 grams with the flux of 1014 - to 1015 -gram objects indicates that the number of objects is equal to 0.54 divided by the radius (in kilometers) to the 2.1 power. Periodic comet showers should increase the cometary iridium flux by a factor of 200 to 600 on a time scale of 1 to 3 million years; the predicted iridium maxima (more than 30 times background) are not present in the intervals associated with the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary or the tektiteproducing late Eocene events.

Search for evidence of impact at the Permian-Triassic boundary in Antarctica and Australia

Life on Earth was almost destroyed some 250 m.y. ago in the most profound of all known mass extinction events. We investigated the possible role of impact by an extraterrestrial bolide through chemical and mineralogical characterization of boundary breccias, search for shocked quartz, and analysis for iridium in Permian-Triassic boundary sections at Graphite Peak and Mount Crean, Antarctica, and Wybung Head, Australia. Thin claystone breccias at the isotopically and paleobotanically defined boundary at all three locations are interpreted as redeposited soil rather than impact ejecta. The breccias at all three locations also yielded shocked quartz, but it is an order of magnitude less abundant (0.2 vol%) and smaller (only as much as 176 micrometers m diameter) than shocked quartz at some Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sites. Faint iridium “anomalies” were detected (up to 134 pgṁg −1 ). These values are an order of magnitude less than iridium anomalies at some Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sites. Furthermore, peak iridium values are as much as 1 m below the isotopically and paleobotanically defined boundary. The idea that impact caused the extinctions thus remains to be demonstrated convincingly.

Geological and Geochemical Record of 3400-Million-Year-Old Terrestrial Meteorite Impacts

Beds of sand-sized spherules in the 3400-million-year-old Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone belt, South Africa, formed by the fall of quenched liquid silicate droplets into a range of shallow-to deep-water depositional environments. The regional extent of the layers, their compositional complexity, and lack of included volcanic debris suggest that they are not products of volcanic activity. The layers are greatly enriched in iridium and other platinum group elements in roughly chondritic proportions. Geochemical modeling based on immobile element abundances suggests that the original average spherule composition can be approximated by a mixture of fractionated tholeiitic basalt, komatiite, and CI carbonaceous chondrite. The spherules are thought to be the products of large meteorite impacts on the Archean earth.

Spherule Beds 3.47-3.24 Billion Years Old in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa: A Record of Large Meteorite Impacts and Their Influence on Early Crustal and Biological Evolution

Four layers, S1-S4, containing sand-sized spherical particles formed as a result of large meteorite impacts, occur in 3.47-3.24 Ga rocks of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Ir levels in S3 and S4 locally equal or exceed chondritic values but in other sections are at or only slightly above background. Most spherules are inferred to have formed by condensation of impact-produced rock vapor clouds, although some may represent ballistically ejected liquid droplets. Extreme Ir abundances and heterogeneity may reflect element fractionation during spherule formation, hydraulic fractionation during deposition, and/or diagenetic and metasomatic processes. Deposition of S1, S2, and S3 was widely influenced by waves and/or currents interpreted to represent impact-generated tsunamis, and S1 and S2 show multiple graded layers indicating the passage of two or more wave trains. These tsunamis may have promoted mixing within a globally stratified ocean, enriching surface waters in nutrients for biological communities. S2 and S3 mark the transition from the 300-million-year-long Onverwacht stage of predominantly basaltic and komatiitic volcanism to the late orogenic stage of greenstone belt evolution, suggesting that regional and possibly global tectonic reorganization resulted from these large impacts. These beds provide the oldest known direct record of terrestrial impacts and an opportunity to explore their influence on early life, crust, ocean, and atmosphere. The apparent presence of impact clusters at 3.26-3.24 Ga and approximately 2.65-2.5 Ga suggests either spikes in impact rates during the Archean or that the entire Archean was characterized by terrestrial impact rates above those currently estimated from the lunar cratering record.

Early Archean spherule beds: Chromium isotopes confirm origin through multiple impacts of projectiles of carbonaceous chondrite type

Three Early Archean spherule beds from Barberton, South Africa, have anomalous Cr isotope compositions in addition to large Ir anomalies, confirming the presence of meteoritic material with a composition similar to that in carbonaceous chondrites. The extra-terrestrial components in beds S2, S3, and S4 are estimated to be approx. l%, 50% - 60%, and 15% - 30%, respectively. These beds are probably the distal, and possibly global, ejecta from major large-body impacts. These impacts were probably much larger than the Cretaceous-Tertiary event, and all occurred over an interval of approx. 20 m.y., implying an impactor flux at 3.2 Ga that was more than an order of magnitude greater than the present flux.

Siderophile interelement variations in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sediments from Caravaca, Spain

A detailed profile of the siderophiles Fe, Co, Ni, Pd, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at Caravaca, Spain, indicates that the major fractionation mechanisms are local redistribution, reworking, and diagenetic mobilization. Large fractions of the Fe, Co, and Re and perhaps a small amount of Pd and Au appear to be terrestrially derived, but nearly all of the Ni, Os, Ir, and Pt must be derived from an extraterrestrial source. Only the basal layers at Caravaca and Stevns Klint, Denmark, are representative of the initial fallout and integrated Ir fluences across entire sections can be misleading. These suggest a concentration oft 120mg/g projectile in the fallout and a global fluence of chondritic matter oft 140mg cm−2.

Regional variations in spinel compositions: An important key to the Cretaceous/Tertiary event

Spinel found in spherules from Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary sediments exhibits a wide range in composition and is distinguished from typical igneous spinel by high Mg, Al, and Ni, relatively low Ti and Cr, and high Fe2O3/FeO. Solid-solution compositions range from nearly pure magnetite to magnesioferrite to relatively pure MgAl2O4 spinel. The Ni-spinel trevorite is also a common component. A regional variation in composition is also observed: spinel from two North Pacific sites has higher Mg and Al and lower Ni and Fe than spinel from two European sites and one South Atlantic site. The most probable source of the spinel is crystallization from molten silicate droplets produced from a major impact event. The regional variations may provide a key to locating the impact site(s).

Noble metal abundances in an early Archean impact deposit

We report detailed analyses on the concentrations of the noble metals Pd, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au in an early Archean spherule bed (S4) of probable impact origin from the lower Fig Tree Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Compared to other sedimentary deposits of known or suspected impact origin, some noble metals are present in exceptionally high concentrations. Noble metal abundances are fractionated relative to abundances in chondrites with ratios of Os/Ir, Pt/Ir, Pd/Ir, and Au/Ir at only 80, 80, 41, and 2% of these values in CI chondrites. Although an extraterrestrial source is favored for the noble metal enrichment, the most plausible cause of the fractionation is by regional hydrothermal/metasomatic alteration.

Origin of planetary cores: evidence from highly siderophile elements in martian meteorites

We present new bulk compositional data for 6 martian meteorites, including highly siderophile elements Ni, Re, Os, Ir and Au. These and literature data are utilized for comparison versus the siderophile systematics of igneous rocks from Earth, the Moon, and the HED asteroid. The siderophile composition of ALH84001 is clearly anomalous. Whether this reflects a more reducing environment on primordial Mars when this ancient rock first crystallized, or secondary alteration, is unclear. QUE94201 shows remarkable similarity with EET79001-B for siderophile as well as lithophile elements; both are extraordinarily depleted in the “noblest” siderophiles (Os and Ir), to roughly 0.00001 × CI chondrites. As in terrestrial igneous rocks, among martian rocks Ni, Os and Ir show strong correlations vs. MgO. In the case of MgO vs. Ni, the martian trend is displaced toward lower Ni by a large factor (5), but the Os and Ir trends are not significantly displaced from their terrestrial counterparts. For Mars, Re shows a rough correlation with MgO, indicating compatible behavior, in contrast to its mildly incompatible behavior on Earth. Among martian MgO-rich rocks, Au shows a weak anticorrelation vs. MgO, resembling the terrestrial distribution except for a displacement toward 2–3 times lower Au. The same elements (Ni, Re, Os, Ir and Au) show similar correlations with Cr substituted for MgO. Data for lunar and HED rocks generally show less clear-cut trends (relatively few MgO-rich samples are available). These trends are exploited to infer the compositions of the primitive Earth, Mars, Moon and HED mantles, by assuming that the trend intercepts the bulk MgO or Cr content of the primitive mantle at the approximate primitive mantle concentration of the siderophile element. Results for Earth show good agreement with earlier estimates. For Mars, the implied primitive mantle composition is remarkably similar to the Earth’s, except for 5 times lower Ni. The best constrained of the extremely siderophile elements, Os and Ir, are present in the martian mantle at 0.005 times CI, in comparison to 0.007 times CI in Earth’s mantle. This similarity constitutes a key constraint on the style of core-mantle differentiation in both Mars and Earth. Successful models should predict similarly high concentrations of noble siderophile elements in both the martian and terrestrial mantles (“high” compared to the lunar and HED mantles, and to models of simple partitioning at typical low-pressure magmatic temperatures), but only predict high Ni for the Earth’s mantle. Models that engender the noble siderophile excess in Earth’s mantle through a uniquely terrestrial process, such as a Moon-forming giant impact, have difficulty explaining the similarity of outcome (except for Ni) on Mars. The high Ni content of the terrestrial mantle is probably an effect traceable to Earth’s size. For the more highly siderophile elements like Os and Ir, the simplest model consistent with available constraints is the veneer hypothesis. Core-mantle differentiation was notably inefficient on the largest terrestrial planets, because during the final ∼ 1% of accretion these bodies acquired sufficient H2O to oxidize most of the later-accreting Fe-metal, thus eliminating the carrier phase for segregation of siderophile elements into the core.

Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, K-Ca, O, and H isotopic study of Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sediments, Caravaca, Spain: evidence for an oceanic impact site

Isotopic ratios and trace element abundances were measured on samples of Ir-enriched clay at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, and in carbonate and marl from 5 cm below and 3 cm above the boundary. Samples were leached with acetic acid to remove carbonate, and with hydrochloric acid. Leachates and residues were measured. The Sr, Nd, O and H isotopic compositions of the boundary clay residues are distinct from those of the stratigraphically neighboring materials. The data indicate that most of the clay material was derived from a terrestrial source with relatively low87Sr/86Sr and high143Nd/144Nd ratios. The δ18O data suggest that the detritus has been modified by submarine weathering. K-Ca and Rb-Sr systematics, as well as O isotope ratios of K-feldspar spherules within the boundary clay, suggest that they are predominantly authigenic and may have formed after the time of deposition. However, Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr isotopic data indicate that the spherules contain relict material that provides information on the nature of the original detritus. The isotopic evidence for foreign terrestrial detritus in the boundary clay, the low rare earth element concentrations and high Ni concentration, support the hypothesis of a terminal Cretaceous asteroidal impact that produced a global layer of fallout. The data are most easily explained if the impact site was on oceanic crust rather than continental crust, and if a substantial fraction of the fallout was derived from relatively deep within the lithosphere (>3 km). This would probably require a single large impactor.