Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim
Rock fabrics – the preferred orientation of grains – provide a window into the history of rock formation, deformation and compaction. Chondritic meteorites are among the oldest materials in the Solar System1 and their fabrics should record a range of processes occurring in the nebula and in asteroid...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Ltd
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47767 |
| _version_ | 1848757924640325632 |
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| author | Bland, Phil Howard, L. Prior, D. Wheeler, J. Hough, R. Dyl, Kathryn |
| author_facet | Bland, Phil Howard, L. Prior, D. Wheeler, J. Hough, R. Dyl, Kathryn |
| author_sort | Bland, Phil |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Rock fabrics – the preferred orientation of grains – provide a window into the history of rock formation, deformation and compaction. Chondritic meteorites are among the oldest materials in the Solar System1 and their fabrics should record a range of processes occurring in the nebula and in asteroids, but due to abundant fine-grained material these samples have largely resisted traditional in situ fabric analysis. Here we use high resolution electron backscatter diffraction to map the orientation of sub-micrometre grains in the Allende CV carbonaceous chondrite: the matrix material that is interstitial to the mm-sized spherical chondrules that give chondrites their name, and fine-grained rims which surround those chondrules. Although Allende matrix exhibits a bulk uniaxial fabric relating to a significant compressive event in the parent asteroid, we find that fine-grained rims preserve a spherically symmetric fabric centred on the chondrule. We define a method that quantitatively relates fabric intensity to net compression, and reconstruct an initial porosity for the rims of 70-80% - a value very close to model estimates for the earliest uncompacted aggregates2,3. We conclude that the chondrule rim textures formed in a nebula setting and may therefore be the first rock fabric to have formed in the Solar System. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:35:49Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-47767 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:35:49Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Ltd |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-477672017-09-13T14:17:04Z Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim Bland, Phil Howard, L. Prior, D. Wheeler, J. Hough, R. Dyl, Kathryn Rock fabrics – the preferred orientation of grains – provide a window into the history of rock formation, deformation and compaction. Chondritic meteorites are among the oldest materials in the Solar System1 and their fabrics should record a range of processes occurring in the nebula and in asteroids, but due to abundant fine-grained material these samples have largely resisted traditional in situ fabric analysis. Here we use high resolution electron backscatter diffraction to map the orientation of sub-micrometre grains in the Allende CV carbonaceous chondrite: the matrix material that is interstitial to the mm-sized spherical chondrules that give chondrites their name, and fine-grained rims which surround those chondrules. Although Allende matrix exhibits a bulk uniaxial fabric relating to a significant compressive event in the parent asteroid, we find that fine-grained rims preserve a spherically symmetric fabric centred on the chondrule. We define a method that quantitatively relates fabric intensity to net compression, and reconstruct an initial porosity for the rims of 70-80% - a value very close to model estimates for the earliest uncompacted aggregates2,3. We conclude that the chondrule rim textures formed in a nebula setting and may therefore be the first rock fabric to have formed in the Solar System. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47767 10.1038/ngeo1120 Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Ltd fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Bland, Phil Howard, L. Prior, D. Wheeler, J. Hough, R. Dyl, Kathryn Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title | Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title_full | Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title_fullStr | Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title_full_unstemmed | Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title_short | Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim |
| title_sort | earliest rock fabric formed in the solar system preserved in a chondrule rim |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/47767 |