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Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim

Nature Geoscience volume 4, pages 244–247 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

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. However, owing to abundant fine-grained material, chondrites have largely resisted traditional in situ fabric analysis. Here we use high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction to map the orientation of submicrometre grains in the Allende CV carbonaceous chondrite. We look at the fine-grained rims surrounding the chondrules—spherical grains cooled from molten droplets before accretion in the meteorite—as well as the matrix material between the chondrules. Although the matrix exhibits a bulk uniaxial fabric indicative of a compressive event in the parent asteroid, we find that the chondrule rims preserve a spherically symmetric fabric centred on the chondrule. We define a method to quantitatively relate fabric intensity to net compression, and reconstruct an initial rim porosity of 70–80%. Our calculations provide meteoritic evidence that the first solids formed in the Solar System accreted with high porosity, similar to modelling and laboratory estimates2,3. We conclude that the chondrule rim textures formed in a nebula setting and may therefore represent the first rock fabric in the Solar System.

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Figure 1: Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) maps of an Allende barred olivine chondrule, fine grained rim (FGR) areas that surround it, and matrix.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank F. Ciesla and J. Cuzzi for valuable discussions. This work was supported by the Royal Society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Impacts & Astromaterials Research Centre (IARC), Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK

    Philip A. Bland & Kathryn A. Dyl

  2. Department of Mineralogy, IARC, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK

    Philip A. Bland & Lauren E. Howard

  3. Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia 6845, GPO Box U1987, Australia

    Philip A. Bland

  4. Department of Geology, University of Otago, 360 Leith Walk, Dunedin, Otago 9054, PO Box 56, New Zealand

    David J. Prior

  5. Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Liverpool, 4 Brownlow Street, Liverpool L69 3GP, UK

    John Wheeler

  6. CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, Perth, Western Australia 6151, Australia

    Robert M. Hough

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  1. Philip A. Bland
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Contributions

P.A.B. designed the project; P.A.B., L.E.H., D.J.P. and R.M.H. collected and analysed the data; J.W. performed strain calculations; P.A.B. wrote the manuscript; K.A.D. contributed to Supplementary Information; L.E.H., D.J.P., J.W. and R.M.H. edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Philip A. Bland.

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Bland, P., Howard, L., Prior, D. et al. Earliest rock fabric formed in the Solar System preserved in a chondrule rim. Nature Geosci 4, 244–247 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1120

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