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Silicate Grains (silicate + grain)
Selected AbstractsGrowth and albitization of K-feldspar in crystalline rocks in the shallow crust: a tracer for fluid circulation during exhumation?GEOFLUIDS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2003M. B. Holness Abstract A general feature of medium- to coarse-grained, sheet-silicate bearing, quartzo-feldspathic rocks of either metamorphic or igneous affinity is the retrograde development of lenses of pure K-feldspar at the grain boundaries between sheet silicate (0 0 1) faces and original feldspar grains. The growth of these lenses acts to displace and deform the sheet silicate grain by a force of crystallization, although the substrate feldspar and adjacent quartz are not deformed. Subsequent to the growth of the lenses they are replaced to variable degrees by pure albite, which grows into the lens from the substrate feldspar behind an irregular replacement front. The composition and texture of both K-feldspar and replacive albite suggest a strong affinity with authigenic feldspars, although it is considered likely that the K-feldspar of the lenses is derived from low-temperature biotite-breakdown reactions. A model is proposed whereby the lenses grow into open pores at dilatant sites in response to infiltration of aqueous fluids as the crystalline rocks are exhumed under brittle conditions. Continued circulation of infiltrating fluids in a temperature gradient results in the replacement of K-feldspar by albite via an alkali exchange process. The lenses point to a significant grain-scale permeability in crystalline rock at shallow levels in the crust. [source] Stardust in Antarctic micrometeoritesMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 8 2008Toru YADA The oxygen isotopic compositions of the eighteen presolar silicate (and one oxide) grains found are similar those observed previously in primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust particles, and indicate origins in oxygen-rich red giant or asymptotic giant branch stars, or in supernovae. Four grains with anomalous C isotopic compositions were also detected. 12C/13C as well as Si ratios are similar to those of mainstream SiC grains; the N isotopic composition of one grain is also consistent with a mainstream SiC classification. Presolar silicate grains were found in three of the seven AMMs studied, and are heterogeneously distributed within these micrometeorites. Fourteen of the 18 presolar silicate grains and 3 of the 4 C-anomalous grains were found within one AMM, T98G8. Presolar silicate-bearing micrometeorites contain crystalline silicates that give sharp X-ray diffractions and do not contain magnesiowüstite, which forms mainly through the decomposition of phyllosilicates and carbonates. The occurrence of this mineral in AMMs without presolar silicates suggests that secondary parent body processes probably determine the presence or absence of presolar silicates in Antarctic micrometeorites. [source] Dust from comet Wild 2: Interpreting particle size, shape, structure, and composition from impact features on the Stardust aluminum foilsMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 1-2 2008A. T. Kearsley By comparison to laboratory shots of known particle dimensions and density, using the same velocity and incidence geometry as the Stardust Wild 2 encounter, we can derive size and mass of the cometary dust grains. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of foil samples (both flown on the mission and impacted in the laboratory) we have recognized a range of impact feature shapes from which we interpret particle density and internal structure. We have documented composition of crater residues, including stoichiometric material in 3 of 7 larger craters, by energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. Wild 2 dust grains include coarse (>10 ,m) mafic silicate grains, some dominated by a single mineral species of density around 3,4 g cm,3 (such as olivine). Other grains were porous, low-density aggregates from a few nanometers to 100 ,m, with an overall density that may be lower than 1 g cm,3, containing mixtures of silicates and sulfides and possibly both alkali-rich and mafic glass. The mineral assemblage is very similar to the most common species reported from aerogel tracks. In one large aggregate crater, the combined diverse residue composition is similar to CI chondrites. The foils are a unique collecting substrate, revealing that the most abundant Wild 2 dust grains were of sub-micrometer size and of complex internal structure. Impact residues in Stardust foil craters will be a valuable resource for future analyses of cometary dust. [source] On the origin of rim textures surrounding anhydrous silicate grains in CM carbonaceous chondritesMETEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE, Issue 5 2000Lauren BROWNING Bulk chemical analyses and observations of these rims indicate the presence of phyllosilicates and disseminated opaques. Because phyllosilicates could not have survived the chondrule formation process, chondrule silicate rims must have formed entirely by late-state aqueous reactions. As such, these textures provide a useful benchmark for isolating alteration features from more complex CM matrix materials. Both chondrule silicate and matrix silicate rims exhibit morphological features commonly associated with advancing stages of replacement reactions in terrestrial serpentinites. Contacts between many matrix silicate rims and the adjacent matrix materials suggest that these rims formed entirely by aqueous reactions in a parent-body setting. This contrasts with previous assertions that rim textures can only form by the accretion of nebular dust but does not imply an origin for the rims surrounding other types of CM core components, such as chondrules. [source] Near-infrared polarimetry and modelling of the dusty young planetary nebula IRAS 19306+1407MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2007K. T. E. Lowe ABSTRACT We present near-infrared polarimetric images of the dusty circumstellar envelope (CSE) of IRAS 19306+1407, acquired at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) using the UKIRT 1,5 ,m Imager Spectrometer (UIST) in conjunction with the half-waveplate module IRPOL2. We present additional 450- and 850-,m photometry data obtained with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), as well as archived Hubble Space Telescope (HST) F606W - and F814W -filter images. The CSE structure in polarized flux at J and K bands shows an elongation north of north-east and south of south-west with two bright scattering shoulders north-west and south-east. These features are not perpendicular to each other and could signify a recent ,twist' in the outflow axis. We model the CSE using an axisymmetric light scattering (als) code to investigate the polarization produced by the CSE, and an axisymmetric radiation transport (dart) code to fit the spectral energy distribution. A good fit was achieved with the als and dart models using silicate grains, 0.1,0.4 ,m with a power-law size distribution of a,3.5, and an axisymmetric shell geometry with an equator-to-pole ratio of 7:1. The spectral type of the central star is determined to be B1i supporting previous suggestions that the object is an early planetary nebula. We have constrained the CSE and interstellar extinction as 2.0 and 4.2 mag, respectively, and have estimated a distance of 2.7 kpc. At this distance, the stellar luminosity is ,4500 L, and the mass of the CSE is ,0.2 M,. We also determine that the mass loss lasted for ,5300 yr with a mass-loss rate of ,3.4 × 10,5 M, yr,1. [source] Spectropolarimetry of the 3-,m water-ice feature towards young stellar objectsMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2002R. P. Holloway Abstract We present spectropolarimetry of the 3-,m water-ice feature towards five young stellar objects embedded in molecular clouds, including the Becklin,Neugebauer object, with wavelength range and spectral resolution much improved over previous studies. There is ice-feature polarization excess in four of the five sources and our observations indicate that the polarization is caused by the dichroic absorption of aligned grains in at least three of these. The ice-feature polarization excess is always accompanied by a systematic variation in the position angle of polarization, indicating that the ice-mantled grains are fractionated in the line of sight through a changing magnetic-field orientation. The results are compared with a recently published mid-infrared survey and we find good correlations between the polarization of the 3-,m ice feature and the 10-,m silicate feature, compelling evidence for the presence of water-ice mantled silicate grains, and which suggests that the core/mantle ratio does not differ widely between objects, an important result for grain models. [source] | ||||||||||