A comprehensive study of noble gases and nitrogen in “Hypatia”, a diamond-rich pebble from SW Egypt
Guillaume Avice (1), Matthias M.M. Meier (1,2), Bernard Marty (1), Rainer Wieler (2), Jan D. Kramers (3), Falko Langenhorst (4), Pierre Cartigny (5), Colin Maden (2), Laurent Zimmermann (1), Marco A.G. Andreoli (6)
1) CRPG-CNRS, Université de Lorraine, UMR 7358, 15 rue Notre-Dame des Pauvres, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France, 2) Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Clausiusstrasse 25, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland, 3) Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa, 4) Institut für Geowissenschaften, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 10, D-07745 Jena, Germany, 5) Équipe de Géochimie des Isotopes Stables, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Univ. Paris Diderot, UMR 7154 CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France, 6) School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Box 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2015), V432, pp243-253, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.10.013
This is a follow-up study of a work by Kramers et al. (2013) on a very unusual diamond-rich rock fragment found in the area of south west Egypt in the south-western side of the Libyan Desert Glass strewn field. This pebble, called Hypatia, is composed of almost pure carbon. We also analyzed concentrations and isotopic compositions of all five noble gases and nitrogen in several ∼mg sized Hypatia samples. These data confirm the conclusion by Kramers et al. (2013) that Hypatia is extra-terrestrial. The sample is relatively rich in trapped noble gases with an isotopic composition being close to the Q component found in many types of meteorites. 40Ar/36Ar ratios in individual steps are as low as 0.4±0.3.
- Noble Gas MS
- Helix MC Plus
- Xe, Kr isotopes
- Meteorites
United States
