Silica-rich volcanism in the early solar system dated at 4.565 Ga

Poorna Srinivasan; Daniel R. Dunlap; Carl B. Agee; Meenakshi Wadhwa; Daniel Coleff; Karen Ziegler; Ryan Zeigler; Francis M. McCubbin

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05501-0

Silica-rich volcanism in the early solar system dated at 4.565 Ga

Poorna Srinivasan, Daniel R. Dunlap, Carl B. Agee, Meenakshi Wadhwa, Daniel Coleff, Karen Ziegler, Ryan Zeigler, Francis M. McCubbin

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ranges in chemical composition of ancient achondrite meteorites are key to understanding the diversity and geochemical evolution of planetary building blocks. These achondrites record the first episodes of volcanism and crust formation, the majority of which are basaltic. Here we report data on recently discovered volcanic meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 11119, which represents the first, and oldest, silica-rich (andesitic to dacitic) porphyritic extrusive crustal rock with an Al–Mg age of 4564.8 ± 0.3 Ma. This unique rock contains mm-sized vesicles/cavities and phenocrysts that are surrounded by quench melt. Additionally, it possesses the highest modal abundance (30 vol%) of free silica (i.e., tridymite) compared to all known meteorites. NWA 11119 substantially widens the range of volcanic rock compositions produced within the first 2.5–3.5 million years of Solar System history, and provides direct evidence that chemically evolved crustal rocks were forming on planetesimals prior to the assembly of the terrestrial planets.

Original language	English
Article number	3036
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05501-0
State	Published - Dec 1 2018
Externally published	Yes

Funding

We thank A. Aithiba for lending the deposit sample of NWA 11119 to the Institute of Meteoritics, which has enabled this research. We are thankful to the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum for the high-resolution photograph of the NWA 11119 main mass specimen. We thank M. Spilde, J. Lewis, B. Ha, and E. J. Peterson at the University of New Mexico, and E. Berger and D. K. Ross at ARES Johnson Space Center for technical assistance and support. We also thank A. Ramsey from Nikon for assistance processing the XCT videos. We are grateful to R. Hines, V. Rai, and S. Romaniello at Arizona State University for assistance in the Isotope Cosmochemistry and Geochronology Laboratory. The ICPMS analyses were supported by NASA Emerging Worlds grant #NNX15AH41G to M.W. F.M.M. acknowledges support for this research that was provided by NASA’s Planetary Science Research Program.

Funders	Funder number
NASA’s Planetary Science Research Program
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	15AH41G

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title = "Silica-rich volcanism in the early solar system dated at 4.565 Ga",

abstract = "The ranges in chemical composition of ancient achondrite meteorites are key to understanding the diversity and geochemical evolution of planetary building blocks. These achondrites record the first episodes of volcanism and crust formation, the majority of which are basaltic. Here we report data on recently discovered volcanic meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 11119, which represents the first, and oldest, silica-rich (andesitic to dacitic) porphyritic extrusive crustal rock with an Al–Mg age of 4564.8 ± 0.3 Ma. This unique rock contains mm-sized vesicles/cavities and phenocrysts that are surrounded by quench melt. Additionally, it possesses the highest modal abundance (30 vol%) of free silica (i.e., tridymite) compared to all known meteorites. NWA 11119 substantially widens the range of volcanic rock compositions produced within the first 2.5–3.5 million years of Solar System history, and provides direct evidence that chemically evolved crustal rocks were forming on planetesimals prior to the assembly of the terrestrial planets.",

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Silica-rich volcanism in the early solar system dated at 4.565 Ga

Abstract

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