A combined carbon and oxygen isotopic analysis of ALH84001 carbonates with NanoSIMS

Tomkinson, T.; Guillermier, C.; Needham, A. W.; Franchi, I. A.; Wright, I. P.; Hagermann, A. and Grady, M. M. (2010). A combined carbon and oxygen isotopic analysis of ALH84001 carbonates with NanoSIMS. In: 73rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, 26-30 Jul 2010, New York City, NY, USA.

URL: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2010/

Abstract

ALH84001 is the oldest known martian meteorite we have on Earth (4.56 Ga) [1], the carbonates within ALH84001 precipitated ~3.9 Ga [2]. Of all the current martian meteorites ALH84001 has the largest quantity of carbonates (1 % vol) and variations in mineralogy, especially the carbonate “rosettes”, with an ankerite core commonly surrounded by an alternating layer of siderite-magnesite siderite. The age, quantity, isotope range and diverse mineralogy make ALH84001 carbonates ideal candidates to provide insights into the primordial martian conditions.

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