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Elsevier, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, (432), p. 243-253, 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.10.013

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A comprehensive study of noble gases and nitrogen in Hypatia, a diamond-rich pebble from SW Egypt

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This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

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. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that Hypatia is mainly made of defect-rich diamond containing lonsdaleite and multipledeformation bands. These characteristics are compatible with an impact origin on Earth and/or in space. 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. Cosmicray produced "cosmogenic" 21Ne is present in concentrations corresponding to a nominal cosmic-ray exposure (CRE) age of roughly 0.1 Myr if produced in a typical meter-sized meteoroid. Such an atypically low nominal CRE age suggests high shielding in a considerably larger body. In addition to the Xe-Q composition, an excess of radiogenic 129Xe (from thedecay of short-lived radioactive 129I) is observed (129Xe/132Xe = 1.18 +/- 0.03). Two isotopically distinct N components are present, an isotopically heavy component (δ15N ~ +20‰) released at low temperatures and a major isotopically light component (δ15N ~ -10‰) at higher temperatures. This disequilibrium in N suggests that the diamonds in Hypatia were formed in space rather than upon impact on Earth (δ15Natm = 0 ‰). All our dataare broadly consistent with concentrations and isotopic compositions of noble gases in at least three different types of carbon-rich meteoritic materials: carbon-rich veins in ureilites, graphite in acapulcoites/lodranites and graphite nodules in iron meteorites. However, Hypatia does not seem to be directly related to any of these materials, but may have sampled a similar cosmochemical reservoir. Our study does not confirm the presence of exotic noble gases (e.g. G component) that led Kramers et al. (2013) to propose that Hypatia is a remnant of a comet nucleus that impacted the Earth.