MODULE GEOLOGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ekV3XlUEg
What is Geology?
Meteorites and the origin
of the solar system
Stephen Gallagher

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SOLAR SYSTEM
Triggered by supernova?
Collapse of molecular cloud (gas + dust)

Gravitational collapse forms a protostar

(100,000 yrs)

Material left over forms forms protoplanetary nebula

This clumps together = planetesimals over 100 myrs

è Planets form ca. 4600,000,000 year ago!

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Asteroid Belt
Tens of thousand of small planetesimals, called
asteroids, orbit between Mars and Jupiter in a
region that is called the Asteroid Belt
They are composed of silicate rock and some
metals, such as iron and nickel

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 Near-Earth Objects
During Earth’s long history, countless numbers of
asteroids have impacted Earth
These collisions are
now believed to have
caused several mass
extinctions on Earth
The most famous,
and most recent,
being the extinction
of the dinosaurs
about 65 million
years ago
Identifying meteorites
• Fusion crust – dull black to dark brown,
often soft, can be weathered to red (but
can flake off)
• Density – generally dense
• Chondrules are specifically meteoritic
• Never porous, but can be ‘dimpled’ with
surface depressions
• 99% of meteorites are magnetic
• Unusually high Ni content

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Willamette Meteorite
Oregon 1902 = 14 tonnes!

12-kg Ordinary Chondritic

meteorite Largest meteorite found in U.S.
Car – $10K -sacred Indian object
Meteorite – $75K
Peekskill Meteorite October 9, 1992

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Glassy fusion crusts

Ablation

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 Impact glass high pressure high temperature

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Desert collection Antarctic meteorites

ØMany meteorites have been
found in deserts, where the heat
and dryness have kept them from
rusting away
ØWhen meteorites are
discovered, they are called finds
ØOver 2,000 meteorite finds have
been made around the world
ØSome of these meteorites were on Earth for
hundreds of thousands of years before being
found
ØThe best collecting place in
the world is Antarctica, where
meteorites fell on the ice and
were preserved in it
ØHere scientists have found
a meteorite, and have taken
pictures to document their
find
ØEach sample is
photographed, given a
number, and carefully
packaged.

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Antarctic Meteorites

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 Sikhote-Alin Forest
ØSome of the meteorites
were embedded in trees!
ØThe Sikhote-Alin meteorite
was probably a piece broken
off an asteroid
ØClearings in the thick forest
were blasted open by the
impact
ØThere were 106 craters and
holes in the forest where the
ØIt must have been larger before it hit the meteorites had landed
Earth, because some of it vaporized in the
atmosphere and on impact Ø1947
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15th February 2013 Chelyabinsk Meteorite
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Meteor Crater in Arizona
ØLarger meteorites are
extremely rare, but make
enormous craters when
they hit the Earth
ØIt was formed about
50,000 years ago when a
large iron meteorite hit
the Earth
ØScientists estimate that
the meteorite weighed
one million tons ØMeteor Crater in Arizona is over one
kilometer across and 150 meters deep
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 Mineral - naturally occurring inorganic crystalline
compound

Halite Quartz

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Rock - mixture of several mineral

E.g. Granite - consists of the minerals Quartz,
Feldspar, Biotite - all silicates

SEDIMENTARY
IGNEOUS
METAMORPHIC

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Meteorites are classified into 3 main categories: Iron Stoney-iron Stony Meteorite
1. STONY: like terrestrial rocks, and may be
types
difficult to distinguish from terrestrial rocks unless
the fall is witnessed.

1. IRON: nearly pure nickel-iron, and

high density: 7 g/cm3.

1. STONY-IRON: a mixture of stone & metallic iron.

stony meteorites may contain iron Achondrites Chondrites

compounds: however an iron meteorite is metal.

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 Where do Meteorites come from?

Stoney Silicate Mantle

Achondrites and Crust
Meteorites

Stoney-
Irons

Metallic Core Chondrites Stony-irons Irons

Iron
Meteorites
Meteorite formation and parent Achondrites
bodies

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Origin of iron and stony-iron meteorites in “hit-and-run” Iron Meteorites

collisions
• 5% of meteorites, but 90% of the mass of recovered meteorites
and all of the largest meteorites (66 tons is the record) -
primarily composed of iron-nickel alloy intergrowths:
– Widmanstätten pattern – finely interweaved FeNi(Octahedrites)
• Classified on Ni content

Chain of metal-
enriched bodies

• Oblique collision between Moon-sized projectile & Mars-sized target

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Widmanstatten
Stony-iron Meteorites
Texture
• Mix of iron-nickel alloy and silicate minerals
(mostly olivine), 1% of meteorites
– Pallasites are thought to form a the core-
mantle boundary of differentiated asteroids
– Mesosiderite – equal parts metal alloy and
silicate with a breccia texture

Iron Meteorite - Iron and Nickel

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 Chondrites
• Stony meteorites – most common meteorites and
represent the oldest solids that are the building blocks of
the solar system
• Parent bodies were small-medium asteroids, not
planetoids!
• Contain up to 80% chondrules, which were freely
floating molten drops in space

Few mm to 1 cm spheres

Stony-Iron Meteorite -Iron and Silicates

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Chondrite groups Chondrite - Silicate minerals with chondrules

• Ordinary – make up 80% of the meteorites and 90% of
chondritic meteorites, abundant chondrules, variable
Fe-Ni contents
• Carbonaceous chondrites –less the 5% of chondritic
meteorites, few chondrules, more lithophile elements
(Ca, Mg, K, Cr, Al, Cl,…), high levels of water and organic
compounds
• Enstatite Chondrites – 2% of chondritic meteorites,
abundant metal and sulfide minerals

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Chondrite meteorite

Chondrules are rounded grains

Chondrites = probably from asteroid belt
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 Chondrules
-Melt droplets
-Crystal textures indicate
rapid cooling in zero gravity
Chondrule formation by impact melting or shock heating?

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Chemistry similar to
September 28th 1969 Sun

Murchison Meteorite -Bits of unaltered

solar nebula
Type 1 carbonaceous
Chondrite -Probably derived
from asteroids

Murchison meteorite - Type 1 Carbonaceous Chondrite

Primitive meteorite contain amino acids!! C & H2O!

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Achondrites Achondrite - silicates with no chondrules

• Stony meteorite similar to terrestrial basalts or plutonic
rocks, represent 8% of meteorites
• Also includes Martian and lunar meteorites

The Johnstown Diogenite. Lunar Meteorite Allan Hills 81005

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 Type Composition

Primitive Meteorites (chondrites)

silicates, carbon compounds,

Carbonaceous water
Other primitive stones silicates, iron

Differentiated meteorites
(achondrites)

• hot solar nebula cools and condenses

Differentiated stones igneous silicates • progressive gravity-driven accretion of planetesimals

Stony-irons igneous silicates, iron, nickel

Irons iron, nickel

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Interplanetary Dust
Silicon carbide
Interplanetary dust particles (Brownlee
particles) are minute pieces of space dust
which ‘rain’ down on the Earth as it
orbits the Sun.

Interstellar in origin,
Graphite dust grains of the
origin primordial
nebula

Pre-solar system minerals

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Age- 4568 million years

High
temperatures

Shergotty
Nakhla Chassigny

SNC meteorites- special achondrites

-Martian
Have atmospheric gas chemistry: Oxygen,
nitrogen, xenon, krypton etc. = to Mars
Calcium aluminium- Viking lander analysis
rich inclusions

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 The Allan Hills in Eastern
Antarctica
Allan Hills Meteorite - ALH84001 -Martian meteorite

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Carbonate minerals Nanobacteria from

Magnetite crystals-
like magnetite produced
by bacteria?
Alan Hills martian meteorite
Precipitated from water
Martian meteorite?
Nanobacteria from
Earth?, Phillipa Uwins,
Uni of Queensland

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 Summary of meteorites
Age of Solar System

Oldest ages from chondrites 1. Samples of solar nebula and early planet
& from Ca-Al inclusions formation

= 4568,000,000 + 1,000,000 years old!! 1. Insights into solar nebular processes

2. Planets and Planetesimal formation

3. Life on Mars - maybe

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Geology of
the solar system
Stephen Gallagher

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The Four Terrestrial Planets

The four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars are primarily composed of rocks
These rocks are principally silicate minerals and
metallic iron, which have a melting point >700oC

Iron-Nickel Core

Magnesium-Iron
silicate mantle

Thin crust with less

Iron and magnesium, more silicon

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 Core
Melting chondrite material and separating iron
Iron, Nickel and other iron-loving elements
(platinum, gold, sulfur etc)
Liquid core convects - source of magnetic field

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Mantle
Melting chondrite material and separating iron
Minerals like olivine and pyroxene
Magnesium and iron rich silicates
Basalt
Formed by partially melting mantle
Forms most of crust on rocky planets
Contains minerals like feldspar, pyroxene, olivine
- more silica than mantle

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core formation What processes shape planetary

Crust probably
forms later by
surfaces?
partly re-melting
the silicate mantle

Core forms early

By segregation of
metals from
silicates

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 Planetary processes
Volcanism eruption of molten material on surface

Meteorite impacts

Tectonism disruption of a planet’s surface by SEDIMENTARY

Internal stresses IGNEOUS
METAMORPHIC
Sedimentation and erosion
Surface changes made by wind water of ice
life

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Volcanism and crust formation

Lava and Volcanoes

Runny lava makes Slightly thicker lava Thickest lava

flat lava plains makes broad shield makes steep
volcanoes stratovolcanoes Basalts on lunar Maria

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Olympus Mons
Mars
Venera and Venus surface

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 Venus
volcano

Io-sulfur
volcanoes
Magellan radar Moon of Jupiter
Tidal forces

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Io Io
Io is primarily composed of silicate rock
surrounding a molten iron or iron sulfide core
Io is subjected to the constantly changing
gravitational pull from Jupiter and the three
other Galilean moons
This causes a tidal action where Io expands and
contacts in response to the varying gravitation
attractions
This tidal action has
heated up Io’s interior
And created volcanoes

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Europa, moon of
Io Jupiter
-Ice volcanism?

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 Europa
Europa is 3120 kilometers (1938 miles) in diameter
and is the sixth largest moon in the Solar System
Europa is believed to have a rocky interior that is
covered with a surface layer of water ice about 120
kilometers (75 miles) thick
The exposed surface ice on
Europa is extremely smooth
Also, there are few craters,
which indicates that the
surface is very young
Interior of Europa, moon of Jupiter

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Triton
Triton is Neptune’s largest moon at 2707 kilometers
(1681 miles) in diameter

Europan
subsurface
model

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Triton Sequence
Meteorite
of Events
impactduring
Voyager 2 images showed active geyser-like Impact
eruptions spewing nitrogen gas and dark dust
particles several kilometers into the atmosphere

Thin atmosphere

Dark brown areas Copernicus lunar crater

are geyser sites
Ice volcanism? From Shoemaker and Shoemaker, 1999

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 Mercury impact craters, NASA JPL
Impacts on moon - Tycho and Copernicus

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Moon
Manicougan

Mars

Ringed impact

Impact
types

Venus

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Impacts Impacts
Earth Earth

Acraman Wolfe Creek

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 Impacts Impacts
Earth Earth

Wolfe Creek Wolfe Creek

Geologist?

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Lunar Maria and

Highlands

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Volcanism and crust formation

Venus
Enigma

Basalts on lunar Maria

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 Formation of Lunar Maria

Early Large Heat build- Cooled lava is

surface impact up allows smoother &
covered crater lava to well darker than
with weakens up to surroundings
craters crust surface
Early solar system - giant impacts impact events

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Tectonics
Mars tectonics
Valles Marineris

• Convection of the mantle creates stresses in the crust called

tectonic forces
• Compression forces make mountain ranges
• Valley can form where crust is pulled apart

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Coronae and arachnoids

Ganymede
Moon of
Jupiter

Prockter
Compression ridges Venus tectonics 2001

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 Titan
Methane
rivers &
Seas
Saturnian moon

Earth Tectonics
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Geological Destiny
A planet’s fundamental properties determine its
geological fate. • Impact cratering
• important early on
• affects all planets equally
• Volcanism & Tectonics
• become dominant later
on
• require internal heat
• size determines how long
a planet remains hot
• Erosion
• ultimately dominant
• requires volcanism for
© 2005 Pearson
planet size determines fate
Education Inc.,
publishing as Addison-
outgassing of atmosphere
Wesley
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