Discovery of primitive CO2-bearing fluid in an aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite

Akira Tsuchiyama; Akira Miyake; Satoshi Okuzumi; Akira Kitayama; Jun Kawano; Kentaro Uesugi; Akihisa Takeuchi; Tsukasa Nakano; Michael Zolensky

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg9707

Discovery of primitive CO₂-bearing fluid in an aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite

Sci Adv. 2021 Apr 21;7(17):eabg9707. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abg9707. Print 2021 Apr.

Authors

Akira Tsuchiyama^{1

2

3}, Akira Miyake⁴, Satoshi Okuzumi⁵, Akira Kitayama⁴, Jun Kawano⁶, Kentaro Uesugi⁷, Akihisa Takeuchi⁷, Tsukasa Nakano⁸, Michael Zolensky⁹

Affiliations

¹ Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan. atsuchi@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp atsuchi@gig.ac.cn.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Mineral Physics and Materials, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 511 Kehua Street, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, China.
³ CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, 511 Kehua Street, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
⁴ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
⁵ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan.
⁶ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Kita-10 Nishi-8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan.
⁷ Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan.
⁸ Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan.
⁹ Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.

Abstract

Water is abundant as solid ice in the solar system and plays important roles in its evolution. Water is preserved in carbonaceous chondrites as hydroxyl and/or H₂O molecules in hydrous minerals, but has not been found as liquid. To uncover such liquid, we performed synchrotron-based x-ray computed nanotomography and transmission electron microscopy with a cryo-stage of the aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrite Sutter's Mill. We discovered CO₂-bearing fluid (CO₂/H₂O > ~0.15) in a nanosized inclusion incorporated into a calcite crystal, appearing as CO₂ ice and/or CO₂ hydrate at 173 K. This is direct evidence of dynamic evolution of the solar system, requiring the Sutter's Mill's parent body to have formed outside the CO₂ snow line and later transportation to the inner solar system because of Jupiter's orbital instability.

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