The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Anders Lindskog

Anders Lindskog

Postdoctoral fellow

Anders Lindskog

A Russian record of a Middle Ordovician meteorite shower: Extraterrestrial chromite at Lynna River, St. Petersburg region

Author

  • Anders Lindskog
  • Birger Schmitz
  • Anders Cronholm
  • Andrei Dronov

Summary, in English

Numerous fossil meteorites and high concentrations of sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial chromite (EC) grains with ordinary chondritic composition have previously been documented from 467 +/- 1.6 Ma Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) strata. These finds probably reflect a temporarily enhanced influx of L-chondritic matter, following the disruption of the L-chondrite parent body in the asteroid belt 470 +/- 6 Ma. In this study, a Volkhovian-Kundan limestone/marl succession at Lynna River, northwestern Russia, has been searched for EC grains (>63 mu m). Eight samples, forming two separate sample sets, were collected. Five samples from strata around the Asaphus expansusA. raniceps trilobite Zone boundary, in the lower-middle Kundan, yielded a total of 496 EC grains in 65.5 kg of rock (average 7.6 EC grains kg-1, but up to 10.2 grains kg-1). These are extremely high concentrations, three orders of magnitude higher than background levels in similar condensed sediment from other periods. EC grains are typically about 50 times more abundant than terrestrial chrome spinel in the samples and about as common as terrestrial ilmenite. Three stratigraphically lower lying samples, close to the A. lepidurusA. expansus trilobite Zone boundary, at the Volkhov-Kunda boundary, yielded only two EC grains in 38.2 kg of rock (0.05 grains kg-1). The lack of commonly occurring EC grains in the lower interval probably reflects that these strata formed before the disruption of the L-chondrite parent body. The great similarity in EC chemical composition between this and other comparable studies indicates that all or most EC grains in these Russian mid-Ordovician strata share a common sourcethe L-chondrite parent body.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

1274-1290

Publication/Series

Meteoritics and Planetary Science

Volume

47

Issue

8

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1086-9379