Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia

Impact breccia 14311, was collected from the Apollo 14 landing site as a potential sample of the underlying Fra Mauro Formation. Published zircon U-Pb ages of >4000 Ma date the source material of the breccia and the apatite U-Pb age of ~3940 Ma is interpreted as dating thermal resetting of the ap...

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Main Authors: Pidgeon, R., Merle, R., Grange, M., Nemchin, Alexander, Whitehouse, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: WILEY-BLACKWELL 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6206
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author Pidgeon, R.
Merle, R.
Grange, M.
Nemchin, Alexander
Whitehouse, M.
author_facet Pidgeon, R.
Merle, R.
Grange, M.
Nemchin, Alexander
Whitehouse, M.
author_sort Pidgeon, R.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Impact breccia 14311, was collected from the Apollo 14 landing site as a potential sample of the underlying Fra Mauro Formation. Published zircon U-Pb ages of >4000 Ma date the source material of the breccia and the apatite U-Pb age of ~3940 Ma is interpreted as dating thermal resetting of the apatite U-Pb systems. In this contribution we present new age information on the late stage thermal history of the breccia based on the annealing of radiation damage in the zircons. From Raman spectroscopic determination of the radiation damage within SIMS analytical spots on the zircons and the U and Th concentrations determined on these spots, we demonstrate that the radiation damage in the zircons has been annealed and we estimate the age of annealing at 3410 ± 80 Ma. This age is interpreted as a cooling age following heating of the breccia to above the annealing temperature of ~230 °C for stage 1 radiation damage in zircon, but below the temperature needed to reset the U-Pb system of apatite (~500 °C). It is proposed that this thermal event was associated with the prolonged period of Mare volcanism, from 3150 to 3750 Ma, that generated massive basalt flows in the vicinity of the sample location.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-62062017-09-13T14:41:37Z Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia Pidgeon, R. Merle, R. Grange, M. Nemchin, Alexander Whitehouse, M. Impact breccia 14311, was collected from the Apollo 14 landing site as a potential sample of the underlying Fra Mauro Formation. Published zircon U-Pb ages of >4000 Ma date the source material of the breccia and the apatite U-Pb age of ~3940 Ma is interpreted as dating thermal resetting of the apatite U-Pb systems. In this contribution we present new age information on the late stage thermal history of the breccia based on the annealing of radiation damage in the zircons. From Raman spectroscopic determination of the radiation damage within SIMS analytical spots on the zircons and the U and Th concentrations determined on these spots, we demonstrate that the radiation damage in the zircons has been annealed and we estimate the age of annealing at 3410 ± 80 Ma. This age is interpreted as a cooling age following heating of the breccia to above the annealing temperature of ~230 °C for stage 1 radiation damage in zircon, but below the temperature needed to reset the U-Pb system of apatite (~500 °C). It is proposed that this thermal event was associated with the prolonged period of Mare volcanism, from 3150 to 3750 Ma, that generated massive basalt flows in the vicinity of the sample location. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6206 10.1111/maps.12572 WILEY-BLACKWELL restricted
spellingShingle Pidgeon, R.
Merle, R.
Grange, M.
Nemchin, Alexander
Whitehouse, M.
Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title_full Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title_fullStr Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title_full_unstemmed Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title_short Annealing of radiation damage in zircons from Apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: Implications for the thermal history of the breccia
title_sort annealing of radiation damage in zircons from apollo 14 impact breccia 14311: implications for the thermal history of the breccia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/6206