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JOURNAL
OF GEOPHYSICAL
RESE^RCH VOLVMF,67, NO. $ MAY 19fi2

On the ProductionRatios of Rare Gas Isotopesin Stone Meteorites

HEINZ STAUFFER1

School oJScience and Engineering

University oJ CaliJornia, San Diego

Abstract. The abundancesand isotopic compositionsof argon, neon, and helium extracted
from eight stone and four stony-iron meteorites were determined, and argon-potassiumages
were calculated.The productionratios of cosmic-ray-produced isotopeswere comparedwith
the chemicalcompositionof the samples.It was found that the ratios Ne•/Ar • may be pre-
dicted with an accuracyof usually better than 20 per cent by the equation

NeTM [Si] + 1.35[A1]+ 6.8[Mg]

Aras- 2.9X [re]-]-16.5[Ca]
where [Si], [All, [Mg], [Fe], and [Ca] are the concentrations
of the corresponding
elements.
It is concludedthat the cosmogenicratios He3/Ne •, He3/Ar•, and Ne•/A• in stone meteorites
are determined essentiallyby the chemical compositionof the samplesonly and that differ-
encesin shieldingand possiblediffusivelossesare of minor importance.

INTRODUCTION 1953]. Therefore,the ratios Hte3/Ne2•, He•/Ar%

and N&/Ar • are expected to differ markedly
The absoluteand relative productionrates of
from those observed in chondrites.
cosmic-ray-producedrare gas isotopesin stone
To investigate the relationship between the
meteoritesdependon their chemicalcomposi-
relative production rates of rare gas isotopes
tion, on the energyspectrumof cosmicradia-
and the chemical compositionof the samples,
tion, and on shieldingeffects.Sincechondrites we have measured the concentrations of cosmic-
have a rather uniform chemicalcomposition,the
ray-produced rare gases in stone meteorites
ratiosHe•/Ne•', He•/Ar•, and Ne•/Ar • are not
having extremely different chemical composi-
expectedto vary considerably. In fact, Eber-
tions. The calcium-rich achondrites are espe-
hardt and Eberhardt [1961] found that the
cially suitable because their chemical ratios
ratiosI-Ie•/Ne• of four chondritesagreewithin
Ca/Mg are much larger than those of chon-
_ 8 per cent, the averagevalue being 3.8. drites.
Stau•er [1961a] showedthat the ratios Ne•/
Ar• of some 13 chondritesagree within about A short descriptionof the samplesanalyzed
in this work is given in Table 1. Details of the
ñ 20 per cent.An averagevalueof 9.0 wasob-
tained for this ratio. experimentalprocedureappearedin a previous
Helium isotopesare producedfrom all ele- publication [Stau•er, 1961b].
ments. The variations of the chemicalcomposi-
RESULTS OF RARE GAS ANALYSES
tion of stone meteorites are too small to affect
significantlythe productionof heliumisotopes. The results of the rare gas analysesare given
Hence,for stonemeteorites, the productionrate in Table 2. They are correctedfor massdiscrimi-
of I-Ie• is practicallyindependent
of the chemi- nation and for small atmosphericcontamination
cal composition. Argonisotopesare mainly pro- introduced during the experimental procedure.
ducedfrom calciumand iron, neonisotopesfrom The errors of the isotopic ratios include the
magnesium,
aluminum,and silicon.Largevaria- standard deviation of 15 to 30 single spectra
tions are observed for the concentrations of and an uncertainty of 30 per cent of the blank
these elementsin achondrites[Urey and Craig, correction.The rare gas concentrationswere de-
termined by comparingthe ion beam intensities
with those of calibrated standards. The results
x Present address' Physics Department, Univer-
sity of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. are accurateto about ? per cent.
2023
 21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
2024 HEINZ STAUFFER

TABLE 1. Description of the Samples concentrationof 0.087 per cent. The small pos-
sible contributions of atmospheric APø were
Weight taken into account in the calculation of the
Re-
Classifi- Date
lower error limits. Since the potassiumconcert-
covered,
Sample cation kg ofFall trationsof the stony-iron
meteorites
are un-
known or very uncertain, the argon-potassium
Admire, agesof thesesamplescould not be determined.
olivine Pallasite 50 Found 1881 The finding that the argon-potassiumagesof
Bruderheim Chondrite 300 1960 the calcium-rich achondrites are considerably
Vavilovka Amphot. 16 1876 smaller than those reported for chondritesis in
chondrite
Pavlovka Howardite 2 1882
general agreementwith the results obtained by
Petersburg Howardite 2 1855 Geiss and Hess [1958] and suggests larger
Pasamonte Howardite 3-4 1933 diffusive losses of radiogenic Ar kø for these
Stannern Eucrite 52 1808 achondrites than for chondrites.
Shergotty Shergottite 5.5 1865
Except for the Weatherford sample,the con-
Nakhla Nakhlite 40 1911
Estherville Mesosiderite 350 centrationsof Ar asgiven in Table 2 are cor-
1879
Weatherford Mesosiderite 2 rectedfor possiblecontributionsof primordialor
1926
Vaca Muerta Mesosiderite 25 Found 1861
atmosphericAras [Stauffer, 1961a] and repre-
sent the amount of cosmic-ray-produced Ar88.
Note. The data are taken from Prior [1953]. The neon isotopic ratios indicate that the ob-
served amounts of Ne •xare of cosmogenicorigin.
The argon isotopicratios indicate that most The same is true for Ite 8, as was indicated by
of the observedAPøis of radiogenicorigin.How- the large I-IeS/Hek ratios. The latter are not
ever,smallcontributions of trappedatmospheric listed in Table 2 becauseof a large uncertainty
Ar kø cannot be excluded. In the Weatherford in the correction for mass discrimination.
sample it is possiblethat all the observedAr kø The Weatherford mesosiderite contains pri-
could be of terrestrial origin. Using the po- mordial argon and neon. This is clearly shown
tassium concentrationspublished by Edwards by the observedisotopic ratios. The ratio of
[1955] for the calcium-rich achondrites,we primordialNe•øto primordialAr8øis about 0.18.
calculated the following argon-potassiumages: This value is close to those observed for car-
bonaceouschondrites [Stauffer, 1961b], and it
Vavilovka 90+ .15 X 109 yr showsthat a similar fractionation betweenpri-
.35
mordial argon and neon has occurred in this
Pasamonte 80+ .23 X 109yr sampleand in carbonaceous chondrites.
.23
Pavlovka 70+ .15 X 109 yr PRODUCTIONRATIOS OF RARE GAs ISOTOPES
.25
The ratios He'AF •. The cosmogenicratios
Stannern 55+ .15 X 109yr
He'/Ar • of eleven stone meteorites are listed in
.20
Table 3 togetherwith the concentrationsof Fe
Petersburg 55+ .15 X 109 yr
and Ca. The small amounts of Ni, Co, Cr, and
.35
Bruderheim
Mn were added to Fe; those of Ti and K were
8o+ .10 X 109yr
.30
added to Ca [Geiss, 1957]. The data on the
Nakhla .10
chemical compositionswere taken from Urey
X 109yr
.30
and Craig [1953], except for Bruderheim and
Admire. A chemical analysis of the Bruderheim
Shergotty 56 + .06 X 109yr
.15
chondritewas publishedby Baadsgaard,Camp-
bell, Folinsbee,and Cumming [1961]. The con-
The ages of Pasamonte and Shergotty were centration of Fe in the Admire olivine was cal-
published by Geiss and Hess [1958]. Their culated by taking a value of 7 for the ratio
argon data agreewithin the limits of error with MgO/FeO [Prior, 1953].
our values. The age of Bruderheim was calcu- The ratio He•/Ar • in the calcium-poorAd-
lated by usingthe averagechondriticpotassium mire olivine is much larger than that in ebon-
 21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
RARE GAS ISOTOPESIN METEORITES 2025

TABLE 2. Experimental Results of Rare Gas Analyses,Correctedfor Blanks

Sample Ar4ø/Ar• Ar•/Ar •s Ne•ø/Ne• Ne•/Ne• Ar •ø Ar •s Ne• He•

Admire, olivine 202 1.51 0.90 1.02 180 0.49 42 lol

Bruderheim 762 1.05 .89 .94 1060 1.22 9.0 43.5
Vavilovka 1570 1.41 .92 .90 5200 1.97 12.7 65
Pavlovka 2350 .94 .87 .92 815 .35 1.16 9.5
Shergotty 570(a) 1.68(a) -- -- 400(a) .33 .46 4.7(b)
Petersburg. 600 .93 ..89 .83 1020 1.72 3.03 22.4
Pasamonte 3420(a) .72(a) -- .86 2250(a) .89 i 06
Nakhla 443 .90 .89 .89 950 2.26 2 32 19.8
Stannern 686 .70 .95 .91 2660 5.48 5 32 33.8
Estherville 152 .77 .93 .98 700 5.9 13 9 64.8
Vaca Muerta 73 .72 .86 .92 560 10.4 15 8 92.4
Weatherford 4.84 5.14 3.76 .67 270 10.9 2 18 19.5

Accuracy < 4-5% < 4-3% < 4-3% < 4-2% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7% -,- 4-7%

Notes. All abundancesare given in units of 10-s cc/g (STP). The abundancesof Arasare correctedfor
possiblecontributionsof atmosphericor primordialArss[Stauffer,1961a].(a) Geissand Hess[1958],
(b) Eberhardt and Hess [1960].

drites. Similarly high values were found in the viouslytoo small//e*/Ar ** ratio? The following
Brenham olivine and in the calcium- and iron- results were obtained:
poor Norton County achondrite [Geiss and
Hess, 1958; Eberhardt and Hess, 1960]. Con- NasC'/Na= 0.98 q- 0.09
versely, the ratios I-Ie*/Ar*s in the calcium-rich NasC•/Nas
" = 16.5q- 2.7
achondrites are much smaller than in chondrites.
The rate of productionof Ar • in stone me-
Nas•/Na = 0.059q- 0.008
teoritesis approximatelygiven by The errors given representthe 68 per cent con-
fidencelimits (standarderrors). The production
= Nf[Ca] + (1) rates are given in units of 10-• cc/g (STP) of
target elementand per unit time.
[Ca] and [Fe] are the concentrations of Ca The value of 16.5 _ 2.7 for the production
and Fe, respectively. N• c' and N• •* are the pro- ratio N•O'/N• •' is about 5 times larger than
duction rates of Ar• from Ca and Fe, respec- the value estimatedby Geiss [1957] from nu-
tively. Sincefor stonemeteoritesthe production clear emulsiondata. Eberhardt and Hess [1960]
rate of I-Ie*, N•, is virtually independentof the have pointed out that this ratio is strongly
chemicalcomposition,we obtain energy dependent.AF • is producedfrom iron
mostly by high-energyparticles, from calcium
Nas Nasc• Nas•'
- [Ca] + [re] (2) by low-energysecondaries. The small error ob-
Na Na Na tained by the method of multiple regressionin-
If no diffusivelossesof rare gaseshave occurred, dicates that the energy spectra of irradiation
the abundanceratio Ar•/I-Ie • is equal to the at the site of the sampledid not differ markedly
productionratio N•/N•, averagedover the time for the different samples.The differencesin
of exposure. shieldingwere small and did not strongly affect
From the data given in Table 3 the average the productionratios N•C•/N• TM.
values for the ratios N•O'/N, and N•r'/N, were
calculated by using the statistical method of •The small value for the He•/Ar • ratio in
Stannern is due most probably to a preferred dif-
multipleregression.
The Admire samplewasdis- fusive loss of I-Ie•. Also the I-Ie*/Ne = ratio is too
carded because of the uncertain chemical com-
small, whereas the Ne=/AF s ratio fits well into
position,the Stannernsamplebecauseof an ob- the general picture (see Table 5).
 21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
2026 HEINZ STAUFFER

The ratios HeS/Ne". The cosmogenicratios The magnesium-rich Admire olivine has the
Hea/Ne• are listed in Table 4 togetherwith the smallestHe3/Ne2•ratio.
concentrationsof Mg, A1, and Si. The small Correspondingto equation 2 we obtain for
amountsof S and P were addedto Si, those of the productionratio Na/N8
Na to Mg. The Hea/Ne• ratios are larger in the
magnesium-poor achondritesthan in chondrites. N2! N21Mg N21AI N21si
Ns- Ns [Mg]
-]- Ns"
[A1]
-]- Ns[Si]
TABLE 3. Comparisonof He•/Ar38 Ratios
with Concentrations of Ca and Fe
N• •, N• •l, and N• s* are the productionrates
Fe of Ne• from Mg, A1, and Si, respectively.In
(•-Ni q- Co Ca He3 principle, the three unknown production ratios
+ Cr+ Mn), (+K+ Ti), in (3) can be calculatedfrom the data given in
Sample weight % weight %
Ar•S Table
4.Large
errors
areintroduced
bythispro-
cedure,however,and a different approachwas
Admire,
used.Estimatesbasedon spallationsystematics
.•r•'olivine 10 Traces? 206
Bjurboele 21.9 1.38 41 (seelater) indicatethat the production
ratio
St. Michel 24.2 1.27 40 N•I/N• s•is approximately1.35.With this value
Bruderheim 24.7 1.40 36 (3) can be modified:
Vavilovka 21.9 1.38 33
Pavlovka 13.8 4.71
27 /V2• N21Mg N• si
Shergotty 17.0 7.59 14 -- [Mg] •-
Petersburg 16.4 6.49 13 Na Na Na
Pasamonte 16.5 7.40 8.9
Nakhla 16.5 11.10 8.8 ß{[Si]-•- 1.35[A1]} (4)
Stannern 16.3 7.71
6.2 The two unknownprbductionratios
and N•/N• were determined from the data
Notes. The ratios HeS/Arssare accurateto 10 per given in Table 4 by using the method of multi-
cent. For the samples Bjurboele and St. ple regression.Again, the two samplesAdmire
Michel the rare gas data are taken from
Geiss and Hess [1958] and Eberhardt and
Hess [1960]. Correctionsfor possiblecontri- TABLE 5. Comparisonof the Measured Ratios
butions of primordial or atmosphericArSS Ne•-•/Ar•s with Those Predicted from Equation 5
are made.
Differ-
TABLE 4. Comparisonof He•/Ne •'•Ratios Ne •l/Ar •, Ne •/Ar •, ence,
with Concentrationsof Mg, A1, and Si Sample measured predicted %

Si A1, Mg HeS Admire, olivine 86.0 66.0 - 23

(q-Sq- P), weight (q-Na), Bjurboele 11.1 8.7 -22
Sample weight % % weight % Ne •-• St. Michel 10.4 8.4 - 19
Bruderheim 7.4 7.9 q- 7
Admire, Vavilovka 6.5 8.7 •-35
olivine 19 Traces ? 28 2.4 Pavlovka 3.32 3.02 - 9
Bjurboele 21.3 1.35 16.4 3.7 Shergotty 1.40 1.54 -[-10
St. Michel 20.7 1.75 15.8 38 Petersburg 1.76 1.63 -8
Bruderheim 20.2 1.02 15.9 48 Pasamonte 1.19 1.27 q- 7
Vavilovka 21.2 .86 16.5 51 Nakhla 1.03 1.10 q- 7
Pavlovka 23.8 3.34 10.4 82 Stannern .97 1.28 q-31
Shergotty 23.5 3.12 7.0 10 2
Petersburg 23.1 5.85 5.5 7.4
Pasamonte 22.6 7.36 4.13 7.5 Norton County
Nakhla 23.0 .92 7.55 8.5 ach. 30 26 - 13
Stannern 22.7 5.92 4.85 6.4 Mezel, ch. 7.0* 7.8 -[-11
Manbhoom,
amph. ch. 8.3• 8.4 q-1
Note. The He3/Ne •'• ratios are accurate to 10 per
cent. For the samples Bjurboele and St.
Michel the rare gas data are taken from * P. Signer, private communication.
Eberhardt [1961]. • Stauffer[1961a].
 21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
RARE GAS ISOTOPES IN METEORITES 2027

and Stannernwere discarded.The followingre- from the target nucleiAo,N(A, Ao), is givenby
sults were obtained:

N2•M•/Na-- 1.15+ 0.23 N( A, Ao) = I(E)a( A, Ao, E) dE (7)

N2•M•/N•si •- 6.8 + 2.4 where f(E) dE is the differentialenergy spec-

trum of irradiation.Geiss,Oeschger,
andSchwarz
N•Si/Na = 0.17 + 0.05 [1961] analytically treated equation 7 and
The ratiosNe'•/AF". Comparison of the re- showedthat N(A, Ao) may be calculatedfrom
sultsof the precedingsectionswith the measured the differentialenergyspectrumby meansof a
ratiosNe•/Ar • immediatelygives Laplacetransformation.Conversely,the energy
spectrummay be calculatedfrom a given dis-
N2,Sl/NasFe = 2.9 4- 0.5 tribution of productionratesN(A, Ao) through
the inversetransformation. Thus,the simplecase
Hence, the ratios Ne•/Ar • are related to the of an exponentialenergy spectrumf(E)dE --
chemicalcompositionof the samplesby the foE-adEresultsin a distributionof production
equation rates of the form

Ne• [Si]+ 1.35[A1]

+ 6.8[Mg] N(A, Ao)

In Table 5 the measuredNe•/Ar • ratios are = Kao '1+ •)'.•2

A (AA)-• (8)
listedwith thosecalculatedfrom (5). The agree-
The constants• and ]? are independentof A,.
ment is satisfactory.The small observeddiffer-
ences between the measured and the calculated They depend only on the differentialenergy
spectrum.Stau#er and Honda [1062] have ex-
Ne•/Ar • ratiosmay be explainedby differences
perimentally verified (8) for iron meteorites
in shieldingor/and by fractionationdue to dif-
within the AA range5 < AA < 36, the values
fusivelosses.However,differences in shielding
of/• varying from 2.20 to 2.64 for the different
and diffusivelossesare of minor importance.
samples.
The ratios Ne•/Ar • are essentiallydetermined
We have used (8) for estimatingthe value
by the chemicalcomposition of the samples.
of 1.35 for the productionratio N•'/N• •',
With equation5 it will be possibleto predict which was used in the section on the ratios
Ne•/Ar "8ratioswith an accuracywhichusually
I-/e'e •, assuming• = 2.2. It is interestingto
will be better than 20 per cent.
notethat (8) givesN•S'/N• • = 3.4, whichis in
Discussion. Recently, Oeschgerand Schwarz
satisfactoryagreementwith the experimental
[1961] studiedthe dependenceof the excitation value of 2.9 --+ 0.5 for this ratio.
functionson the mass Ao of the target nuclei.
Their calculations were based on the Monte
For energiesbelow about 200 Mev the true
energy spectrum differs strongly from the as-
Carlo calculationscarried out by Metropolis,
sumedexponentialenergyspectrum.Therefore,
Bivins, Storm, Miller, and Friedlander [1958]
(8) cannotbe usedfor estimatingrelative pro-
and Dostrowsky,Rabinowitz and Bivins [1958].
They obtained the following formula for the
duction ratesof spallation products withAA<• 5.
generalizedexcitation functions'
In fact, (8) would give N•C'/N:8TM = 80,
whereasan averagevalue of 16.5 --+ 2.7 was ob-
tained from the experimentalresults.
a(A,Ao, Aoe/S
E)= ao 1cxE
+ -2/s
cz
Ao From (8) we obtain values of 0.67 and 0.71
for the ratiosNe•/Ne • from A1 and 8i, respec-
tively. Combiningthese values with the results
( c•
ßexp 1 -{-ceAo AA ) (6) of the previoussectionsand with the measured
Ne•/Ne • ratios,we obtainan averagevalue of
whereao -- 60 mb, c• - 0.25, c• - 0.022,E is 1.03 --+ 0.05 for the Ne•/Ne • ratio from Mg.
measuredin bey, and AA ----Ao -- A is the total This largevalueis duemostprobablyto the re-
mass loss. actionsMg•(n, a) and Mg•'(p, a); i.e. Na•' -•
The total production rate of the isobar A •+ + Ne•. Both give Ne•.
 21562202, 1962, 5, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ067i005p02023 by Indian Institute Of Tech - Roorkee, Wiley Online Library on [02/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
2028 HEINZ STAUFFER

Acknowledgments. I wish to thank Dr. Harold Geiss, J., H. Oeschger,and U. Schwarz, The his-
C. Urey, Dr. R. Bieri, Dr. J. Geiss, and Dr. U. tory of cosmic radiation as revealed by isotopic
Schwarzfor many helpful and stimulating discus- changes in the meteorites and on the earth,
sions. Proc. Varenna Summer Course on Cosmic Rays,
This researchwas supported by the U.S. Atomic 1961.
Energy Commission under contract AT( 11-1)-34. Metropolis, N., R. Bivins, M. Storm, J. M. Miller,
and G. Friedlander, Phys. Rev., 110, 185 and
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