2013 Chemerdfinal

Chemie der Erde 73 (2013) 117–145
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Chemie der Erde

journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/chemer
Invited review
Extraterrestrial spinels and the astronomical perspective on Earth’s geological

record and evolution of life
Birger Schmitz a,b,∗
a
Division of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
b
Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Science, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Relict spinel grains (∼25–250 ␮m in diameter) from decomposed extraterrestrial material in Archean
Received 9 December 2012 to Recent sediments can be used to reconstruct variations in the flux of different types of meteorites to
Accepted 12 April 2013 Earth through the ages. Meteorite falls are rare and meteorites weather and decay rapidly on the Earth
surface, making it a challenge to reconstruct ancient fluxes. Almost all meteorite types, however, contain
Keywords: a small fraction of spinel minerals that survive weathering and can be recovered by acid-dissolution
Extraterrestrial spinels
of large samples (100–1000 kg) of slowly deposited sediments of any age. The spinel grains originate
Chromite
from either micrometeorites, meteorites or asteroids, and can give detailed information on the types
Astrostratigraphy
Fossil meteorites
of extraterrestrial matter that fell on Earth at specific times in the geological past. Inside the spinels,
Ordovician synchrotron-light X-ray tomography can identify 1–30 ␮m inclusions of most of the other minerals that
L chondrite made up the original meteorite. With advanced microanalyses of the spinels, such as Ne isotopes (from
Parent-body breakup solar wind, and produced by cosmic rays), oxygen isotopes (meteorite class and group) and cosmic ray
Condensed sediment tracks, it may be possible to unravel from the geological record fundamental new information about the
Meteorite K–Ar ages solar system at specific times through the past ∼3.5 Gyr. Variations in flux and types of meteorites may
Astrogeobiosphere reflect large-scale perturbations of the orbits of planets and other bodies in the solar system, as well as the
Asteroid impacts
sequence of disruptions of the parent bodies for the meteorite types known and not yet known. Orbital
perturbations may be triggered by near-by passing stars, giant molecular clouds, the galactic gravitational
field, supernova shock waves or unusual planetary alignments.
The spinel approach has so far been primarily applied to the middle Ordovician Period. In sediments of
this age the breakup of the L chondrite parent body at ∼466 Myr ago manifests itself by a two orders of
magnitude increase in L chondrite material. A total of 99 fossil meteorites (1–21 cm in diameter), of which
all or almost all are L chondrites, have been found in a small quarry in marine limestone of mid-Ordovician
age in southern Sweden. The identification of the meteorites as L chondrites relies primarily on chemical
and isotopic analyses of relict spinel (chromite). In addition, coeval slowly formed marine limestone from
Sweden, China, and Russia is extremely rich in chromite grains (>63 ␮m) with L chondrite composition.
Based on a high content of solar wind Ne these spinels are interpreted as originating primarily from
micrometeorites. Typically 1–10 grains are found per kg of rock, compared to background concentrations
of 1–3 grains per 100 kg of similarly slowly deposited rock from other time periods. The elevated flux of L
chondrite material to Earth in the mid-Ordovician coincides with important biotic changes, known as the
Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, as well as global volcanism and tectonic reorganizations. This
indicates a possible primary or secondary connection between astronomical and terrestrial perturbations.
Further evidence for a relation between perturbations of the asteroid belt and the Earth comes from a
more general, long-term correlation of common breakup events in the asteroid belt, and repeated major
ice ages as well as environmentally driven biotic change on Earth. In essence, with the spinel approach
described here it will be possible to systematically, in great detail and on a strictly empirical basis, relate
major events in the larger astronomical realm to the sequence of biotic, tectonic and climatic events
on Earth. A pioneer astrostratigraphy can be established for Earth’s geological record, complementing
existing bio-, chemo-, and magnetostratigraphies.
© 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
∗ Correspondence address: Division of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Tel.: +46 768 560140.
E-mail address: [email protected]
0009-2819/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemer.2013.04.002
118 B. Schmitz / Chemie der Erde 73 (2013) 117–145
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
2. Mid-Ordovician extraterrestrial spinels and the breakup of the L chondrite parent body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
2.1. Mid-Ordovician fossil meteorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
2.2. Mid-Ordovician fossil meteorites by 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
2.3. Mid-Ordovician sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial spinel grains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
2.4. Elemental composition of ordinary chondrite chromite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
2.5. Oxygen isotopes in mid-Ordovician chromite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
2.6. Silicate inclusions in mid-Ordovician chromite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
2.7. Noble gases in mid-Ordovician spinels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
2.8. Spinels from a mid-Ordovician 600 m sized asteroid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
2.9. Mid-Ordovician spinels as proxies of sedimentation rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3. Spinels and the meteorite flux through the ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.1. Dissolving tons of rock per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.2. Future studies: some possible windows into the ancient skies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4. Large spinels from different meteorite types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5. Parent body breakup events and meteorite flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6. Perturbations in the asteroid belt and effects on Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7. Potential perturbations of the solar system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
1. Introduction parent body in the asteroid belt ∼466 Myr ago (Schmitz et al., 2001,
2003, 2008). The approach, however, can be applied to any time
The tradition is that astronomers look up at the sky and geol- in Earth’s history for which there are slowly accumulated sedi-
ogists look down at Earth. Here, a new approach is discussed that ments available. Changes in the meteorite and micrometeorite flux,
can relate events in the skies to events on Earth during the past which may have a number of astronomical explanations, can be
∼3.5 Gyr, by looking down deep into Earth’s sedimentary record. tied in detail, bed-by-bed in the geological strata, to the evolution
Classical geologists have a tradition to look on Earth as a more or of Earth’s life and the record of, for example, volcanism, climate and
less closed system. It took them a long time to accept that many sea-level. It is obvious that the astrosphere has a significant effect
of Earth’s craters are related to impacts of extraterrestrial objects on Earth in the shorter perspective, like day, month, year, solar 11-
rather than volcanism (Grieve and Stöffler, 2012). Only recently year cycle and the 21–400 Kyr Milankovitch cycles, but in the longer
has it been accepted that astronomical events can play a crucial perspective our understanding of any causal relationships is weak.
role in evolution of life on Earth (Alvarez et al., 1980; Alvarez, Studies of the meteorite flux to Earth in the distant past will also
2003). Here, I discuss a feasible way to reconstruct the detailed add to our understanding of meteorites and asteroids of today’s
variations in the flux of meteorites and micrometeorites to Earth world. Did the same types of meteorites fall on Earth in about the
during most of its history. This approach has the potential to tie same proportions as today? Or, do present meteorites only reflect a
the paleo-astronomical realm to the paleo-geobiosphere of Earth small fraction of the types of asteroid parent bodies that can deliver
through the ages. Conventionally, it has been believed that it would meteorites to Earth? How do large asteroid breakup events affect
not be possible to reconstruct paleo-variations in the flux of differ- the meteorite flux to Earth? Can the material that reaches Earth
ent types of meteorites. Meteorite falls are rare and meteorites and from such events at different times after the breakup tell us some-
micrometeorites weather and decay rapidly on the Earth surface. thing about how the largest asteroids are built up? These and many
A change in our understanding of this came with the realization other new questions in meteoritics can be addressed empirically by
from studies of rare fossil ∼462–466 Myr old meteorites, that most searches for extraterrestrial spinels in ancient sediments.
of the spinel group minerals in meteorites are extremely resistant More general questions are, what can variations in the mete-
to weathering in terrestrial sedimentary environments (Thorslund orite flux tell us about astronomical events at a solar-system or
et al., 1984; Nyström et al., 1988), and can be recovered from slowly even galactic scale? Did these events have any recognizable effects
formed sediments of almost any age over the past 3.5 Gyr (Schmitz on Earth’s environment and fauna? A few visionaries early real-
et al., 2003; Schmitz and Häggström, 2006; Cronholm and Schmitz, ized that the evolution of animals on Earth could be affected by
2007, 2010). Once recovered the spinel grains can give a plethora cosmic events. For example, Nininger (1942) suggested that faunal
of information of the original host meteorite or micrometeorite. cataclysms in Earth’s history could be related to impacts of large
Methods have been developed for determining the class, group and extraterrestrial bodies. Schindewolf (1954, 1963) argued that evo-
even petrologic type of the meteorite from which a sand-sized, lution is not gradual in the way Darwin proposed, but characterized
sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial spinel grain originated (e.g., by a series of coupled mass extinction and diversification events.
Schmitz et al., 2001, 2003; Alwmark and Schmitz, 2009a; Heck et al., He invoked gamma-ray bursts from exploding supernovae, trigger-
2010). Noble-gas measurements of such grains show that they con- ing extinctions but also the mutations necessary for the following
tain a record of the meteorite’s cosmic ray exposure age, exposure rapid faunal diversification. The idea that dinosaurs or other major
of solar wind during transport to Earth and regolith-derived gas groups of organisms were eradicated from Earth’s surface because
signals acquired on asteroid parent bodies (Heck et al., 2004, 2008; of asteroid or comet impacts was proposed repeatedly during the
Meier et al., 2010). In some spinel types and in silicate inclusions 20th century (De Laubenfels, 1956; McLaren, 1970; Urey, 1973),
in spinels, cosmic ray tracks can be reconstructed, tracks that were but these early claims, like numerous other extinction scenarios,
acquired in space at a specific time in the history of the solar system, were not based on any supporting physical evidence. A break-
and preserved in an ancient sediment on Earth (Riebe, 2012). through came when Alvarez et al. (1980) showed the existence of a
Most of the development of methods in the spinel approach global iridium anomaly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary
relies so far on studies of marine sediments that formed in the which they interpreted to reflect the impact of a major extrater-
mid-Ordovician, shortly after the breakup of the L chondrite restrial body causing one of the largest species mass extinction
B. Schmitz / Chemie der Erde 73 (2013) 117–145 119
events in Earth history. This theory has now withstood thirty years (Robin and Molina, 2006), are other proxies used in this research.
of intense testing (Schulte et al., 2010). A 10 km-sized impactor Studies of Earth’s cratering record, with presently ∼180 confirmed
hit the Yucatan peninsula 66 Myr ago forming the ∼150–200 km impact craters (Grieve, 2001; Reimold and Jourdan, 2012) also adds
large Chicxulub crater. The event eradicated the dinosaurs after to describing the intertwined history of life, Earth and the astro-
their ∼165 Myr successful existence on this planet (Lyson et al., nomical realm (Fig. 1). Fewer studies have provided robust data
2011), but also seriously affected most groups of common marine on variations in the flux to Earth of extraterrestrial debris in the
invertebrates. meteorite to dust size fractions. Most notably, 3 He has been used
Many suggestions have been published the past decades on how for tracing variations in the flux of interplanetary dust particles
evolution of life and astronomical events could be intertwined. For (Farley et al., 2012). Recovery of fossil meteorites in Ordovician
example, an observed 30 Myr cyclicity in life’s extinction pattern limestone (Schmitz et al., 2001) is the so far only method to recon-
has been related to the regular passage of the solar system at about struct meteorite fluxes. In the following, focus will be on the new
this frequency through the galactic equatorial plane (Rampino extraterrestrial spinel proxy, that while requiring tedious sediment
and Stothers, 1984; Rampino and Haggerty, 1996). In the galac- processing, may add significantly to the understanding of the evo-
tic plane, which has a higher concentration of interstellar dust, lution of the astrogeobiosphere.
additional external gravitational forces perturb the orbits of solar
system objects and catapult comets from the outer to the inner solar
system, with enhanced risk of impacts and environmental pertur- 2. Mid-Ordovician extraterrestrial spinels and the breakup
bations on Earth. Until today, however, no other extinction event of the L chondrite parent body
than that at the K-T boundary has been convincingly tied to an
asteroid or comet impact (Alvarez, 2003; Racki, 2012). Recently, 2.1. Mid-Ordovician fossil meteorites
however, it has been shown that the onset of the main phase of
the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in the Middle Ordovi- The spinel approach has its roots in a chance discovery of a
cian coincides with the breakup of the L chondrite parent body, fossil meteorite in middle Ordovician, ∼462 Myr old marine lime-
the largest documented breakup event in the asteroid belt the stone from the Brunflo quarry in central Sweden (Fig. 2). In 1952
last ∼3 Gyr (Schmitz et al., 2008). Frequent impacts on Earth of the manager of the Brunflo quarry handed over to Per Thorslund, a
kilometer-sized asteroids from this event could have spurred evo- paleontology professor at Uppsala University, a polished limestone
lution in accordance with the so called intermediate disturbance plate with a dark ∼10 cm clast in it. Thorslund was intrigued by the
hypothesis, initially applied to diversity changes in coral reefs and plate and asked a petrographer for advice, who identified the clast
tropical rain forests. as a pseudomorph after some kind of terrestrial ultramafic rock.
The accretion of extraterrestrial matter through Earth’s history Thorslund concluded that the clast probably had become attached
is a new cross-disciplinary research field (see Peucker-Ehrenbrink to algae at the shores of the large epicontinental sea that covered
and Schmitz, 2001). The astrosphere can be tied to the geobio- Baltoscandia during the Ordovician. The stone had drifted to the
sphere by detailed searches for extraterrestrial signatures in Earth’s deeper, sediment-starved parts of the sea, where it sank to the
sedimentary strata. This can be combined with studies of the astro- sea floor and became embedded in the sediments. The plate was
nomical skies, creating a true “astrogeobiosphere” perspective. stowed away in Thorslund’s office for 27 years. In the 70s min-
Nesvorný et al. (2002, 2007, 2009) have used recently acquired eralogy professor Franz-Erik Wickman was pursuing pioneering
information about abundant mid-Ordovician fossil L chondrites research identifying astroblemes in the Swedish bedrock, such as
(see Section 2) in combination with astronomical data and sim- the Siljan crater in central Sweden. Wickman was introduced to
ulations to try to trace the origin of L chondrites to the asteroid the clast-bearing limestone plate in 1979 and realized that the clast
family that represents the residual signature in the asteroid belt was a fossil meteorite, the Brunflo meteorite. The meteorite shows
of the exploded L chondrite parent body. Likely candidates are the original chondrule textures, but is completely replaced by diage-
Flora and the Gefion asteroid families. Likewise, based on dynam- netic minerals, except for relict spinel in the form of chromite.
ical simulations the Baptistina asteroid family was suggested to The composition of this chromite, and earlier detailed work on
have broken up ∼160 Myr ago, an event supposedly ejecting the the chemistry of the chromite phase of recent meteorite finds and
asteroids that formed the Tycho crater on the Moon 109 Myr ago falls by the group of Klaus Keil, allowed the identification of Brun-
and the Chicxulub crater on Earth 66 Myr ago (Bottke et al., 2007). flo as a fossil ordinary chondrite (Thorslund and Wickman, 1981;
However, spectral data for the main Baptistina family asteroid rule Thorslund et al., 1984; and chromite work: Keil, 1962; Bunch et al.,
out a relation to the K-T boundary impactor and suggest a rather 1967; Snetsinger et al., 1967). Based on the chromite composition
young age, 80 Myr ago, for the breakup event (Masiero et al., 2011; Brunflo was assumed to belong to the H chondrite group, but see
Reddy et al., 2011). Section 2.2 on recent reclassification to the L chondrite group.
Reconstructing astronomical history from extraterrestrial sig- Relatively soon after the publication of the Brunflo find a sec-
natures in the sedimentary record mostly suffers from the ond mid-Ordovician fossil meteorite, Österplana 001, was found on
“needle-in-the-haystack” problem. In a normal marine setting, like a dump pile in the Thorsberg quarry in southern Sweden (Nyström
on the middle shelf, sedimentation rates are typically 10 cm per et al., 1988) (Figs. 2, 3). The meteorite is altered to phyllosilicates,
Kyr, so a complete record of the Earth’s Phanerozoic Eon (the last calcite and barite but contains abundant relict chromite with ordi-
541 Myr) in this environment, would be represented by a 54 km nary chondritic composition. In the Thorsberg quarry, limestone
thick sequence of strata. In the decades after the discovery of ∼4–5 Myr older than in the Brunflo quarry is quarried for the
the iridium anomaly at the K-T boundary (Alvarez et al., 1980), a production of mainly floor plates, window sills and other build-
number of tools have been developed to systematically search for ing stone. A local amateur geologist and fossil collector, Mario
signatures of asteroid or comet impacts in the sedimentary record. Tassinari, read about the discovery in the local news paper, con-
The most commonly used proxies are osmium isotopic and irid- tacted the quarry workers and asked them to lay aside any further
ium concentration anomalies (Paquay et al., 2008; Miller et al., meteorite-resembling objects instead of throwing them away. This
2010; Ravizza and VonderHaar, 2012). Chromium isotope anoma- was the basis in 1992 for a scientifically controlled, systematic
lies (Kyte et al., 2011), impact spherule-beds (Glass and Simonson, search project for fossil meteorites on the mid-Ordovician sea floor
2012; Krull-Davatzes et al., 2012), shocked quartz (Bron and Gostin, (Figs. 4–10). By 1996 thirteen meteorites, all L (or LL) chondrites,
2012), and Ni-rich spinels formed on Earth in impact vapor clouds had been found in the Thorsberg quarry, and it became obvious
Fig. 1. Mass extinctions, ice ages and impact craters during the past 730 Myr. Stratigraphic subdivisions and numerical ages from the 2012 Geological Time Scale (Gradstein
et al., 2012). The exctinction events and their intensities are from a compilation in Keller (2005). Only extinction events with a higher than 15% intensity at the genus level are
presented. Ages and sizes of impact craters larger than 20 km follows the Earth Impact Database, early 2013 (http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/). The approximate
timing of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) and the breakup of the L chondrite parent body in the asteroid belt 466 Myr ago are also shown. The illustration
is only intended to give a first-order overview, and many details can be debated.
Fig. 2. Location of quarries and sections where fossil meteorites and micromete-
orites have been found in Sweden and western Russia: Brunflo quarry in central
Sweden; Kinnekulle with the Thorsberg and Hällekis quarries (see Fig. 3) and Gullhö-
gen quarry, southern Sweden; Komstad quarry and Fågelsång section, southernmost
Sweden; and Lynna River section near St. Petersburg, Russia.
that there were “too many” meteorites on the ancient sea floor
compared to the expected abundances based on our understand-
ing of the meteorite flux in today’s world (Schmitz et al., 1996,
Fig. 4. The active Thorsberg quarry where 99 fossil meteorites have been found. The
1997). Literature studies soon gave a hint of a possible explana- exposed section starts with the Botten bed, whereas the Golvsten (i.e. “floor stone”)
tion. With the advances in the early 60s in U–He and K–Ar dating and Arkeologen beds are under the floor surface of the quarry, see further Fig. 10.
of recently fallen meteorites, it became apparent, that although
most meteorites have gas retention ages going back to ∼4 Gyr,
there exists a large group of L chondrites with shock features and
young gas retention ages, around 400–500 Myr (Kirsten et al., 1963;
Anders, 1964; Hintenberger et al., 1964; Keil, 1964; Heymann,
1967). This had been attributed to a major asteroid disruption
event, the breakup of the L chondrite parent body around 500 Myr
ago (Anders, 1964; Bogard, 1995; Keil et al., 1995; Haack et al.,
1996). Nowhere in the quite extensive literature had the sugges-
tion been made that traces of this dramatic event possibly could be
found in Earth’s geological record.
Both the Brunflo and the Österplana fossil meteorites have
been recovered from so called Orthoceratite Limestone, that has
a long quarrying history at several places in Sweden. This type
of limestone formed over several hundred thousand km2 of the
Baltoscandian Shield during a ∼20 Myr period in the late Early
and Middle Ordovician, when a large epicontinental sea covered
the area (Lindström, 1971; Jaanusson, 1972; Schmitz et al., 1996;
Lindström et al., 2000). Distances to the shores at the meteorite-
yielding localities in Sweden were large, and the limestone formed
very slowly, at a rate of a few mm per Kyr. This is similar to deep-sea
clays in the central Pacific Ocean today, however, water depths at
meteorite-yielding localities on the Baltoscandian Shield were only
on the order of 100–300 m (Chen and Lindström, 1991; Schmitz
et al., 1996). The limestone is relatively pure with 80–90% calcite
and is arranged in a series of massive beds mostly 2–20 cm thick,
separated by iron-stained or marly surfaces, interpreted as sub-
Fig. 3. Location of Hällekis and Thorsberg quarries at Kinnekulle, Västergötland,
marine firm- or hard-grounds or very slowly deposited sediment
southern Sweden. layers (Lindström, 1962, 1979). Sediment deposition at the sea floor
Fig. 7. The fossil meteorite Österplana 035 (informal name: Sex 001), that was found
in the Sextummen bed in 1996. The meteorite is 8 × 6 cm in cross section. This is one
of the meteorites with best preserved petrological textures, such as chondrules. The
outer parts of the meteorite have been peeling off because of weathering on the
sea floor. Similar weathering patterns can be seen in recent desert meteorites. The
Fig. 5. The systematic search since 1992 for fossil meteorites in the Thorsberg meteorite is surrounded by a grey worm track. In the lower part of the plate a piece
quarry was performed with the three quarry owners and brothers Göran Thor (upper of a fossil nautiloid shell is seen.
photo), Sören Thor and Stig Thor (left and right in lower photo) and the local ama-
teur geologist Mario Tassinari (middle of lower photo). In the upper photo Göran
Thor shows the level for the find of a fossil meteorite in the Sextummen bed. diameter) have been recovered in the Thorsberg quarry (Figs. 4–10).
Although the meteorites can be readily identified by petrological
was intermittent, with short pulses of sedimentation during, for criteria with trained eyes, the main criterion to identify a meteorite
example, storm events followed by long periods, perhaps 0.1–1 Kyr, is by their content of relict spinels, almost exclusively chromite. All
with very little deposition, and sea-floor dissolution and hard- other common meteoritic minerals have been replaced by mainly
ground formation. The abundant cone-shaped, elongated cephalo- calcite and clay minerals, but petrological textures are commonly
pod shells in the limestone do not show any preferred orientation, preserved. All of the recovered meteorites have yielded chromite
indicating a tranquil sea-floor environment with no strong bottom with the very characteristic ordinary chondrite elemental compo-
currents; however, there may have been currents higher up in the sition. Chromites of L and LL chondrites have too similar elemental
water column preventing fine-grained material from settling. compositions to be distinguished, whereas H and L chromite grains
show markedly different average compositions, particularly for
2.2. Mid-Ordovician fossil meteorites by 2012 TiO2 , but some overlap occurs (see Section 2.4). From each fossil
meteorite, several chromite grains are analyzed in order to obtain a
Twenty years (as of December 2012) after the initiation of the good average elemental composition. Based on this approach, all or
search project for fossil meteorites, 99 meteorites (1–21 cm in almost all fossil meteorites found by 2012 are L (or LL) chondrites
Fig. 6. The fossil meteorite Österplana 060 (informal name: Gla 2:004) still in situ in the quarry. The meteorite was found in the Glaskarten 2 bed in June 2009. The observers
are Simonetta Monechi and Alan Hildebrand.
Fig. 8. Close up of Österplana 035. Note chondrule texture and a cm-sized clast in
upper right part. Lower photo shows the chondrule texture. Scale at bottom is in
mm.
Fig. 10. Distribution of the 99 fossil meteorites found by September 2012 in the
Thorsberg quarry. The division of the column in different beds is based on traditional
use by quarry workers. Some of the names may be at least hundred years old.
(Schmitz et al., 2001). Average chondrule diameters for recent L

and LL chondrite finds and falls are significantly larger than for H
chondrites (∼0.5, 0.6, and 0.3 mm, respectively). Chondrule sizes
measured in six fossil meteorites by Bridges et al. (2007) indicate
they are L chondrites. Most importantly, an L chondrite origin has
been confirmed for some of the meteorites by analyses of chromite
oxygen isotopes as well as elemental analyses of silicate inclusions
in the chromite grains (see Sections 2.5 and 2.6).
The meteorites have been found throughout a limestone suc-
cession 4.7 m thick over a total area of less than 20,000 m2 of
the mid-Ordovician sea floor (Figs. 4–10). The quarried lime-
stone sequence represents somewhere between 1.3 and 2.5 Myr of
deposition. The limestone is tectonically undisturbed, with well-
developed horizontal beds that can be traced for many hundreds
of meters in the quarry. The systematic quarrying of these beds
provides a near ideal setting for a detailed reconstruction of the
distribution of meteorites on the ancient sea floor. However, only
a fraction of the rock record over this area has been used for
production of sawed plates and thus efficiently searched for fos-
sil meteorites. The section is divided by the quarry workers into
19 beds, each with its characteristic lithological and sedimento-
logical features and with different values for commercial purposes
(Fig. 10). Meteorite recovery in a respective bed is related to the
extent to which a particular bed is used for production of sawed
slabs. This has to be considered in estimates of the paleoflux of
Fig. 9. Upper photo: Göran Thor liberates fossil meteorite Österplana 032 (informal meteorites (Schmitz et al., 2001). There is no doubt that meteorites
name: Bot 003) from the quarry wall in September 2000. Lower photo: The meteorite from different beds and different hard-ground surfaces within a
is the largest found and measures 21 × 6.5 × 4 cm. Note the profound hard-ground
particular bed represent different falls. Meteorites from the same
surface a few cm below the base of the meteorite, but the meteorite has landed on
soft sediment and sunken into it. hard-ground surface or bed, but of different petrologic types, may
also represent different falls. It is impossible that meteorites, for
example, from one major strewn field would have drifted on the (Grossman et al., 2009), where also L chondrite chromite may have
sea floor for 1–2 Myr, and then became fixed at different levels low TiO2 values (Alwmark and Schmitz, 2009b). Chondrule size
throughout the section. Meteorites decompose, geologically speak- studies, oxygen isotopes in the chromites, and chemistry of inclu-
ing, rapidly (20–30 Kyr) in terrestrial environments (Bevan et al., sions in the chromite show that Brunflo without doubt is an L4
1998; Bland, 2001). There is no indication of a tailing off in the chondrite. It thus attests to a high flux of L chondrites also ∼4–5 Myr
meteorite abundance upwards through the section. Meteorites in after the meteorite-rich sediments in the Thorsberg quarry formed
the upper beds can have as angular shapes as meteorites further (Alwmark and Schmitz, 2009a,b; Heck et al., 2010).
down in the section. Bridges et al. (2007), using maximum chromite The quarry at Thorsberg provides a unique window into the
diameter as proxy, showed that there are different petrologic types flux of meteorites to Earth immediately after the largest docu-
among the fossil meteorites, ruling out an origin from a single or mented parent body breakup in the asteroid belt during the past
only a few fall events. Also the consistently different cosmic ray 2–3 Gyr. Thanks to the abundant and excellently preserved relict
exposure ages of chromite from meteorites at different levels in spinel grains in the fossil meteorites, it is possible to reconstruct
the section indicate that many different falls are recorded (see Sec- even detailed aspects of the ancient meteorite flux.
tion 2.7). There is presently no way of distinguishing if meteorites
of the same petrologic type on the same hard-ground surface rep- 2.3. Mid-Ordovician sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial spinel
resent fragments of the same fall or different falls. Based on this grains
reasoning, a detailed study of the stratigraphic positions of the 40
meteorites that had been found by 2000 concluded that they repre- The search for fossil meteorites in sediments is a tedious and
sented at least 12 different falls (Schmitz et al., 2001). By that time slow process, and requires cooperation with an active quarry using
∼6000 m2 of the mid-Ordovician sea floor had been quarried. With the right industrial methods. In order to test the hypothesis that
the help of the quarry log book, with a detailed account of the total the high abundance of fossil L chondrites found in the Thorsberg
area of rock surface exposed through sawing, it could be confidently quarry indeed represents an enhanced flux of L chondrite mate-
concluded that meteorites are at least one to two orders of magni- rial to the entire Earth we developed an alternative approach to
tudes more abundant on the ancient sea floor than if the meteorite reconstruct the meteorite flux. It has been built on the assump-
flux would have been the same as today. Recent meteorite searches tion that most micrometeorites and meteorites that fell on the
in wet and cold desert areas or meteor sky-watch camera networks ancient Ordovician sea floor were not preserved as recognizable
indicate that statistically on the order of one >10 g meteorite falls fossil meteorites, but instead decomposed and disintegrated. The
per 10,000 km2 per year (Halliday et al., 1989; Huss, 1991; Bevan resistant spinel grains were liberated and dispersed on the sea
et al., 1998; Bland, 2001). With such a flux in the mid-Ordovician not floor and later incorporated in limestone as the soft sea-floor sedi-
even one meteorite would have been found in the rock pile quarried ments lithified. By dissolving large samples (from a few kilograms
by 2000 at Thorsberg. A similar flux estimate is planned including to tons) of slowly deposited limestone in hydrochloric (HCl) and
also the 59 meteorites found after 2000, but the results will not dif- hydrofluoric (HF) acid, these very resistant extraterrestrial (ordi-
fer significantly from those previously obtained. The quarrying of nary chondritic) chromite (EC) grains (∼63–250 ␮m in diameter)
the sea floor has proceeded with about the same pace throughout can be recovered. With this approach we have located in mid-
the past twenty years and has typically yielded 4–6 meteorites per Ordovician condensed (=very slowly formed) sediment sections
year, indicating that meteorites are relatively evenly distributed worldwide, a consistent stratigraphic level in the strata, at or close
over the sea floor. In the past years 15 new meteorites have been to the base of the Lenodus variabilis Conodont Zone, below which
found also in the 1.4 m interval immediately above the beds that meteoritic EC grains are exceedingly rare, 1–2 grains per 100 kg
had yielded meteorites by 2000 (Fig. 10). These are the youngest of rock, whereas above this level concentrations lie typically at
beds in the section and are of low quality for commercial purposes. 1–10 L chondrite grains per kg (Figs. 11–13). The concentrations
They are basically just removed from the quarry in order to obtain remain this high upward over a stratigraphic interval representing
access to the high-quality limestone underneath. The many mete- at least 2 Myr. This pattern has been reproduced in condensed lime-
orites from this interval are pure chance finds and attest to a very stone sections at sites in Sweden, western Russia and central China
high content of meteorites in these strata as well. (Schmitz et al., 2003; Schmitz and Häggström, 2006; Cronholm and
One fossil meteorite has also been found in the Gullhögen Schmitz, 2010; Lindskog et al., 2012). The average element and oxy-
quarry, 35 km to the southeast of the Thorsberg quarry (Tassinari gen isotope compositions of the abundant chromite grains show
et al., 2004) (Fig. 2). In this quarry, limestone is only quarried to that they are dominantly (or always) of L chondrite origin. High
be crushed for e.g. road fill, and systematic searches for meteorites concentrations of solar wind implanted Ne in most of the grains
cannot be performed. However, in a limestone block that had fallen indicate that a major fraction originate from decomposed microm-
off a truck, Mario Tassinari located a meteorite, Gullhögen 001, one eteorites (Heck et al., 2008, 2010; Meier et al., 2010).
cm in diameter, with chromite having the typical L chondrite com- In a composite section for the Thorsberg quarry and the aban-
position. According to conodont analyses the block originates from doned, but vertically more extended Hällekis quarry 4 km to the
the same stratigraphic level as the middle to upper part of the northwest (Fig. 3), a clear two orders of magnitude change in the
meteorite-yielding interval at Thorsberg. This chance find attests abundance of EC grains is recorded, beginning at the base of the L.
to the fact that meteorites are common in mid-Ordovician rocks variabilis Zone (Fig. 13). From this level and upwards ∼3 m through
outside of the Thorsberg quarry as well. the section we found 1–3 EC grains per kg of rock in each of 10
The Brunflo meteorite, from 600 km to the north of Thorsberg, samples studied (Schmitz and Häggström, 2006). In the 9 m interval
was long an enigma. Having been tentatively classified as an H below the base of the L. variabilis Zone only 5 EC grains were found
chondrite based, among other properties, on the lower TiO2 val- in a total of 379 kg of rock from many different beds in the interval.
ues (1.9 wt%) in its chromite compared to equilibrated L chondrites The dramatic change in EC concentration cannot be explained by a
(TiO2 = 2.7 wt%) (Thorslund et al., 1984), it has been speculated that change in sedimentation rates. The section is made up of the same
it could represent a remnant of the projectile body that impacted type of condensed Orthoceratite Limestone throughout, and con-
and broke up the L chondrite parent body. However, critical re- odont and trilobite zones show no evidence of being significantly
examination by Alwmark and Schmitz (2009b) shows that the more condensed or expanded in any part of the section studied.
low TiO2 can be explained by the meteorite being somewhere in We interpret the level in the strata where the L chondrite chromite
the L4 range between unequilibrated and equilibrated meteorites begins to be common as representing the time for the breakup of
Fig. 11. The more extended Hällekis section, four km northwest of the Thorsberg quarry. From this section a profile of the distribution of sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial
chromite (EC) grains has been established, see Fig. 13. Below the yellow line EC concentrations are 1–2 grains per 100 kg, above the line, 1–3 grains per kg. The beds at the
yellow line formed when the L chondrite parent body broke up in the asteroid belt. Asteroid breakup art work by Don Davis.
the L chondrite parent body in the asteroid belt (Fig. 11). This is (Fig. 13). In this part of Sweden the paleobasin was deeper, and
also supported by cosmic ray exposure ages of the fossil meteorites conditions were anoxic on the sea floor, resulting in the formation
as measured in their relict chromite (Heck et al., 2004). The sec- of black, organic-rich Orthoceratite Limestone. Here the concen-
tion in the active Thorsberg quarry begins stratigraphically about trations of EC change from 2 grains per 125 kg of rock sampled
one meter above the first EC-rich level in the Hällekis section. The over ∼8 m of section to 2–6 grains per kg in the overlying 2 m
young (0.05–0.2 Myr) cosmic ray exposure ages of the oldest mete- (Häggström and Schmitz, 2007). Within the uncertainty of about
orites and the gradual increase in ages upwards through the section 1–2 m in the biostratigraphic correlations, one can say that the
support an origin of all the fossil meteorites from a breakup event change in EC abundance at Fågelsång-Komstad takes place at the
when the first EC-rich beds formed (see further Section 2.7). same stratigraphic level as in the Hällekis-Thorsberg section. Also,
A similar distribution of EC grains through condensed mid- single limestone samples from just above the base of the L. variabilis
Ordovician Orthoceratite Limestone has been found in the Zone in the Siljan area and Öland, ∼300 km north and southeast of
combined Fågelsång-Komstad quarries section in the southern- Thorsberg, respectively, yield about 2 EC grains per kg rock (Schmitz
most part of Sweden, 350 km south of the Thorsberg quarry et al., 2003). Thus, the mid-Ordovician two-orders of magnitude
Fig. 12. Four typical extraterrestrial chromite (EC) grains (>63 ␮m) recovered from the Hällekis section in beds that formed shortly after the breakup of the L chondrite
parent body. Scale bars = 100 ␮m.
Fig. 13. Distribution of extraterrestrial chromite across two mid-Ordovician sections in Sweden and one in China (Puxi) (Schmitz et al., 2008). Note two orders of magnitude
increase in chromite abundance in L. variabilis Conodont Zone. Interval with fossil meteorites in Thorsberg section is marked. See also Fig. 11 for the stratigraphic level of the
L chondrite breakup event in the Hällekis section.
enrichment in EC occurs over an area of at least 250,000 km2 of

southern and central Sweden.
The same pattern has been reproduced to the east near St.
Petersburg in Russia in a mid-Ordovician section with marine con-
densed limestone at Lynna River (Lindskog et al., 2012) (Fig. 2).
This is a classical section through the mid-Ordovician were many
paleontological and sedimentological studies have been performed
since the early 20th century. In strata just below the level cor-
responding to the base of the L. variabilis Zone only 2 EC grains
were found in a total of 38 kg of rock from three beds. In each
of five beds of the section corresponding to the L. variabilis and
succeeding Yangtzeplacognathus crassus zones, extremely high con-
centrations of EC were found, 5–10 grains per kg of rock (Lindskog
et al., 2012). In the mid-Ordovician the Lynna River site was located
1100 km east of the Thorsberg quarry, on the same Baltoscandian
plate as Sweden, in the easternmost extension of the large pale-
obasin where Orthoceratite Limestone formed (Fig. 14).
Very similar results as for the Baltoscandian sections have been
obtained at Puxi River in the Hubei district of central China in a
section with condensed mid-Ordovician limestone (Cronholm and
Schmitz, 2010) (Fig. 13). In the mid-Ordovician the Puxi River site
was located on the South China Plate, separated by a couple of thou-
sand kilometers of open ocean to the east of the Baltica Plate (Cocks
and Torsvik, 2002) (Fig. 14). In the Puxi River section 110 kg of lime-
stone representing the 8 m interval of section below the base of the
L. variabilis Zone yielded only 1 EC grain. Above the base, through
the succeeding 9 m of section, 13 beds searched yielded in the range Fig. 14. Southern hemisphere paleogeography of the Middle Ordovician world
0.6–4 EC grains per kg limestone. From the upper interval in total ∼470 Myr ago, modified from Cocks and Torsvik (2002, 2005) and Fortey and Cocks
290 L chondrite chromite grains were found in 178 kg of limestone. (2003). Studied localities marked by crosses.
The sediment-dispersed EC grains and fossil meteorites thus

each give independent evidence for a two orders of magnitude
increase in the flux of L chondrite material to Earth around 470 Myr
ago. For the fossil meteorites, the enhanced flux is estimated from
comparison with the recent flux of meteorites to Earth, and for
the sediment-dispersed EC grains, by studying variations in the
EC abundance through the mid-Ordovician sediment column. The
change in EC concentrations appears to represent a world-wide,
stratigraphically usable time marker.
2.4. Elemental composition of ordinary chondrite chromite
Relict ordinary chondrite chromite recovered from sediment

samples or fossil meteorites can be readily identified by its unique
elemental composition (Fig. 15). This can be done with a well-
calibrated, standard EDX-analyser attached to a scanning-electron
microscope. In the 1960s pioneering work on the geochemistry
of the chromite phase in many meteorite groups laid the founda-
tion for identifying extraterrestrial spinel grains from sediments
(Bunch et al., 1967, 1970; Snetsinger et al., 1967; Bunch and
Keil, 1971). Further studies by Schmitz et al. (2001) and Wlotzka
(2005) have extended the data base and confirmed the trends that
were already established. Focus is on the “coarse” chromite of the
ordinary chondrites (Ramdohr, 1963, 1967). This chromite from
equilibrated ordinary chondrites has narrow ranges in elemen-
tal signatures. The most characteristic features are high Cr/(Cr+Al)
mol% ratios of >0.85, and narrow ranges in V2 O3 , ∼0.6–0.8 wt%
and TiO2 , ∼2.1–3.4 wt%. However, within the narrow compositional
ranges there are also small differences that can be used to sep-
arate the three groups, L, H and LL. One of the most diagnostic
oxides is TiO2 , with an average in chromite of 2.2 wt% in H chon-
drites, 2.7 wt% in L chondrites, and 3.4 wt% in LL chondrites. There is
overlap in the compositional ranges for H, L and LL chromite, so ele-
mental signatures are not diagnostic for individual grains, only for
populations of grains. Unequilibrated ordinary chondrites of petro-
logic type 3 contain much fewer and on average smaller chromite
grains than equilibrated ordinary chondrites. Because these mete-
orites also are much rarer, the likelihood of finding such EC grains
in the >63 ␮m fraction of a sediment is small. Chromite from type 3
chondrites can show large compositional variability, within a sin-
gle meteorite and between meteorites, and single grains can be
heterogeneous in their composition (Bunch et al., 1967). Some of
this variability is also seen in chromites from L4 chondrites, which
are not fully equilibrated (Grossman et al., 2009). In an evaluation
of 13 recent L4 chondrites, Alwmark and Schmitz (2009b) showed
that chromites from these meteorites are chemically very similar
to those of equilibrated L5–L6s, except that most of them have
TiO2 values between 1.4 and 2.1 wt%, instead of the typical L5/6
value around 2.7 wt%. When identifying extraterrestrial chromite
from an ancient sediment, the effects of weathering on the grains
must also be considered. Although the chromite grains generally
are extremely resistant to weathering some diagenetic effects on
element signatures have been observed. The Ti and V are generally
unaffected by diagenesis, and also Cr, Al and Mg show consider-
able stability. Iron, on the other hand, has a tendency to be lost
from the grains and replaced primarily by Zn, but possibly also by
Mn. The ZnO contents can be high, 2–10%, but are often highest on
exposed surfaces of the grains, like in cracks in the grains. The FeO
contents of the grains can decrease by up to 10%, from 28–32 wt%
to 18–22 wt%, but the FeO + MnO + ZnO contents almost always are Fig. 15. Chemical composition (averages) of chromite grains from 28 fossil mete-
in the range 26–33 wt%. orites and 31 recent H and L chondrites (Schmitz et al., 2001, plus some new data).
Schmitz and Häggström (2006) defined a sedimentary EC grain, Note that the fossil meteorites plot with the L chondrites. The following recent chon-
i.e. of ordinary chondrite origin, as being characterized by high drites were analyzed. H3: Brownfield 1937; H4: Bath, Dimmitt, Kesen; H5: Abajo,
Agen, Forest City, Hessle, Jilin, Pultusk; H6: Archie, Benoni, Estacado, Kernouve,
Cr2 O3 contents of ∼55–60 wt%, FeO in the range of ∼25–30 wt%, low
Ozona, Mills; L3: Julesburg; L4: Barratta, Saratov, Waltman; L5: Ausson, Elenovka,
Al2 O3 at ∼5–8 wt%, and MgO of ∼1.5–4 wt%. The most discriminat- Ergheo, Etter, Tsarev; L6: Aztec, Baroti, Holbrook, Modoc 1905, New Concord, Wal-
ing feature, however, are the narrow ranges of V2 O3 , ∼0.6–0.9 wt%, ters.
and TiO2 , ∼2.0–3.5 wt%. It must be stressed that for a grain to be

classified as an EC grain, it has to have a composition within the
defined ranges for all the elements listed. For example, a grain
with TiO2 and V2 O3 within the defined ranges, but with an Al2 O3
concentration significantly outside this range is classified as “other
chrome spinel”. This does not mean that the grain is terrestrial or
not from an ordinary chondrite, it just means that its origin cannot
be confidently determined based on composition alone. Based on
the finding by Alwmark and Schmitz (2009b) that many L4 mete-
orites have low TiO2 concentrations, Cronholm and Schmitz (2010)
revised the “accepted” EC range for TiO2 to ∼1.4–3.5 wt%. Because
L4 grains make up only a minor fraction of all EC grains recovered,
and not all L4 meteorites have chromite with lower TiO2 , this gen-
erally has no implications for the distribution trends of EC grains in
sedimentary sequences.
A worthwhile future study would be to determine the distri-
bution of trace elements at parts per million levels in chromite
of different recent ordinary chondrite falls and finds. It is likely
that there are also trace elements that vary in a systematic way Fig. 16. Plot of whole-rock ı18 O versus 17 O for equilibrated ordinary chondrites.
between the different ordinary chondrite groups. Trace elements Shaded boxes represent the 1 error on the whole-rock group mean values for anal-
yses of 22, 26 and 20 recent H, L and LL chondrites, respectively, by Clayton et al.
to consider would particularly be those with an ionic radii similar
(1991); figure modified from Greenwood et al. (2007). Isotope ratios are defined
to the elements that now are used to classify the grains. Trace ele- as: ı18 O = ((18 O/16 Osample /18 O/16 Oref ) − 1) × 1000 and similarly for ı17 O using the
ment variations could be highly diagnostic and would diminish the 17
O/16 O ratio. Values are expressed as per mil (‰) deviation from the international
need for difficult oxygen isotopic analyses in order to provide more reference standard V-SMOW (Vienna-Standard Mean Ocean Water). When ı18 O is
plotted against ı17 O, samples related to each other by mass dependent fraction-
robust group assignments for single chromite grains.
ation processes define linear arrays. Silicate rocks on Earth plot as such an array
which is generally referred to as the Terrestrial Fractionation Line (TFL), having a
slope of approximately 0.52. The TFL is a reference for determining the degree to
2.5. Oxygen isotopes in mid-Ordovician chromite which extraterrestrial material deviates from the isotopic composition of the Earth’s
oxygen reservoir. The term 17 O is used to quantify the extent to which a sample
departs from the TFL and is defined as 17 O = ı17 O − 0.52ı18 O (Clayton and Mayeda,
Oxygen three-isotope measurements have confirmed an L or
1996).
LL chondrite origin of chromite grains from mid-Ordovician fos-
sil meteorites and marine limestone. For recent ordinary chondrite
falls and finds whole-rock oxygen isotope analyses have been used Chromite grains from one of the five fossil meteorites ana-
successfully to assign individual meteorites to their H, L or LL groups lyzed by Heck et al. (2010), Österplana 029, had earlier been
(Clayton et al., 1991; Clayton, 1993). For whole-rock samples both analyzed for oxygen three-isotopes using laser-assisted fluorina-
ı18 O and 17 O increase from H to L to LL groups (Fig. 16; see tion by Greenwood et al. (2007). These authors determined the
figure caption for definitions of ı18 O and 17 O). In the oxygen oxygen isotopic composition of a batch of about 130 chromite
three-isotope diagram the H chondrites are clearly separated from grains (total mass of ∼0.9 mg) from this meteorite. Based on
the L and LL meteorites, that lie close to each other and partly
overlap. Heck et al. (2010) performed SIMS oxygen three-isotope
analyses on single chromite grains from four of the Thorsberg
fossil meteorites and the Brunflo meteorite. They also analyzed
chromites from four recent meteorite falls (Guarena H6; Hessle H5;
Ergheo L5; Saint-Séverin LL6). Just as for the whole-rock results for
recent chondrites, the chromite oxygen isotope results for recent
H chondrites are clearly separated from those of the recent L and
LL meteorites, which give overlapping results (Fig. 17). All four
Thorsberg fossil meteorites plot with the recent L or LL meteorites,
distinctly separated from the H chondrites. For the Brunflo mete-
orite Heck et al. (2010) could provide the ultimate evidence that
this is an L or LL chondrite, rather than an H chondrite (Fig. 17).
The average major and minor elemental composition of chromite
grains from each of the four Thorsberg fossil meteorites with an L or
LL oxygen isotope composition is identical to that of chromite from
the 26 fossil meteorites that had been analyzed by 2000 (Schmitz
et al., 2001). This is a strong evidence that all or almost all of the fos-
sil meteorites found in the Thorsberg quarry are L or LL chondrites.
Heck et al. (2010) also analyzed sediment-dispersed EC grains from
Fig. 17. Oxygen three-isotope results based on SIMS analyses of extraterrestrial
two beds in the Thorsberg quarry and two beds from the same bios-
chromite grains from fossil meteorites and from mid-Ordovician limestone from
tratigraphically constrained interval in the Puxi River section in Sweden and China (Heck et al., 2010). Error bars are 2. Solid lines labeled H, L and
China. These grains gave the same average oxygen isotope compo- LL are defined by average 17 O values of ordinary chondrite data from Clayton et al.
sition as the recent L or LL chondrites and the five analyzed fossil (1991), see Fig. 16. The colored fields associated with each type of ordinary chondrite
meteorites (Fig. 17). The average elemental compositions of the is defined by the standard deviation of the individual 17 O values within each ordi-
nary chondrite group. For definitions of ı17 O, ı18 O and 17 O, see caption for Fig. 16.
sediment-dispersed grains both from Sweden and China are also
FMC B = fossil meteorite Brunflo; FMC T = average for four fossil meteorites from
very similar to that of chromite from the fossil meteorites, consis- the Thorsberg quarry; SEC = sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial chromite grains;
tent with a common origin (Cronholm and Schmitz, 2010). TFL = terrestrial mass-fractionation line, see Fig. 16.
Fig. 18. Back-scattered electron images of silicate inclusions in polished, relict extraterrestrial chromite. (a) Solitary Ca-poor pyroxene inclusion in chromite grain from fossil
meteorite Österplana 034; (b) olivine and Ca-rich pyroxene inclusions in chromite from fossil meteorite Brunflo; and (c) close-up of (b).
From Alwmark and Schmitz (2009a).
Fig. 19. Fayalite (Fa) content in olivine and ferrosilite (Fs) content in Ca-poor pyroxene of inclusions in chromite (see Fig. 18) of recent and fossil meteorites and sediment-
dispersed micrometeorites. All inclusions of fossil mid-Ordovician chromite show an L chondrite composition (Alwmark and Schmitz, 2009a).
abundance, size and chemistry of its relict chromite Bridges et al.

(2007) considered this meteorite to be an L6 chondrite. The oxy-
gen isotopic results by Greenwood et al. (2007) for Österplana 029
are very similar to the results for single-grain analyses by Heck
et al. (2010), further supporting that this is an equilibrated L or LL
chondrite.
In summary, the oxygen isotopic studies give strong support
that all or most of the common fossil meteorites and sediment-
dispersed EC grains in the mid-Ordovician strata have a single
asteroidal source, very likely the breakup of the L chondrite par-
ent body. We know from independent evidence, K–Ar ages of
recent L chondrite finds and falls, that this body broke up at about
470 ± 6 Myr ago, which is very similar to the biostratigraphic age of
466 Myr for the sediments rich in fossil meteorites (Korochantseva
et al., 2007; Gradstein et al., 2012).
2.6. Silicate inclusions in mid-Ordovician chromite
Encapsulated in the chondrite chromite grains from mid-

Fig. 20. Silicate inclusions in a chromite grain from the Farmington chondrite as
Ordovician limestone and fossil meteorites are relict inclusions
revealed by 3-D synchrotron X-ray tomography at the Paul Sherrer Institute, Villigen,
of many of the other types of minerals that made up the bulk of Switzerland. Field of view is 150 × 150 ␮m.
the decomposed original meteorite (Figs. 18–20) (Alwmark and
Schmitz, 2009a; Alwmark et al., 2011). The most common minerals, dominated by material from deeper parts of the parent body.
in the form of small anhedral inclusions (<1–10 ␮m), are olivine and Bridges et al. (2007) in their study of Ordovician fossil meteorites
pyroxene. In addition, sporadic merrillite and plagioclase are found. found indications of a higher proportion of meteorites of lower
The resistant chromite has protected these minerals for almost half petrologic type than among recently fallen L chondrites, however,
a Gyr from weathering processes. Olivine in particular is very sus- this was based on only six fossil meteorites.
ceptible in the terrestrial environment to decomposition through
weathering. By element analyses of the inclusions, the fayalite (Fa) 2.7. Noble gases in mid-Ordovician spinels
content of the olivine and the ferrosilite (Fs) content of Ca-poor
pyroxene can be determined (Alwmark and Schmitz, 2009b). These The chondrite chromite grains from mid-Ordovician fossil mete-
two parameters are used in classifying recent meteorite finds and orites and limestone also hold a record of noble gases induced by
falls into H, L or LL groups (Keil and Fredriksson, 1964; Van Schmus the solar wind and galactic cosmic rays (Heck et al., 2004, 2008;
and Wood, 1967). Thus by analogy to this classification system, a Meier et al., 2010; Alwmark et al., 2012). The Ne from cosmic rays is
similar approach can be applied for fossil single chromite grains a spallation product formed when high-energy protons hit the tar-
with inclusions. Inclusions in chromite from three of the Thorsberg get material, whereas solar wind Ne represents implanted atoms
and the Brunflo fossil meteorites, and from two sediment-dispersed traveling with the solar wind. Grains from fossil meteorites are
EC grains from two beds in the Thorsberg quarry, have been ana- dominated by cosmic ray induced Ne, whereas in the sediment-
lyzed for Fa and/or Fs content (Fig. 19) (Alwmark and Schmitz, dispersed grains this signal is over-printed by a strong solar wind
2009a). The results were compared with the ranges of Fa and Fs Ne component. This is a reflection of the different penetration
in chromite inclusions in 12 classified recently fallen, equilibrated depths of the energetic galactic and the less energetic solar radi-
(type 4–6) chondrites of the H, L and LL groups. The three groups ations. The former can reach depths of up to 2 m in a meteoroid,
give clearly defined and separate fields in a Fa versus Fs plot, with whereas the latter only penetrate the outermost 100 nm. This dif-
all the fossil meteoritic material falling within the L group field. ference in how the Ne signal is acquired attests to a micrometeorite
Since for olivine-pyroxene compositions, there is no major overlap origin of most of the sediment-dispersed EC grains (Heck et al.,
between the L and LL fields, as is the case for oxygen isotopes and 2008). The consistently different Ne signals for the two popula-
the elemental composition of ECs, the inclusion study represents tions of grains from the same beds, sediment-dispersed or in situ
the best evidence so far that the abundant ECs in mid-Ordovician in a meteorite, show that signals are original, acquired in space,
sediments are of L rather than LL chondrite origin. rather than in the sedimentary rock. This is further corroborated
Inclusions in chromite can be found through stepwise layer-by- by a complete absence of extraterrestrial Ne in terrestrial chrome
layer polishing of epoxy-mounted grains, but this is a very tedious spinel grains recovered from the same beds (Meier et al., 2010).
and imprecise method. The method includes repeated mild polish- We do not rule out that some extraterrestrial Ne has been lost from
ing followed by studies of the recovered surfaces in the scanning many EC grains during diagenesis, but believe that even partially
electron microscope. This process has to be repeated until an inclu- preserved signals can give insights about major trends in anciently
sion is found. The method is destructive, and also chromite grains acquired extraterrestrial noble gases. The 3 He record of the EC
without inclusions will be lost. Therefore a method was developed grains does not reproduce the Ne trends, instead it appears that this
to search for inclusions in chromite grains from ordinary chondrites gas has experienced substantial diffusion loss out of the grains. In
using 3-D synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy (Fig. 20) our studies of noble gases in single chromite grains, we have used a
(Alwmark et al., 2011). The studies were performed at the TOM- unique ultra-high-sensitivity mass spectrometer with a low-blank
CAT beamline at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. The extraction line at the Department of Earth Sciences at ETH Zürich.
method is non-destructive and time efficient for locating inclu- The mass spectrometer concentrates gases into the ion source by a
sions, and allows quantitative and morphological studies of both molecular drag pump as described by Baur (1999).
host chromite grains and inclusions in three dimensions. The 3-D Chromite grains from nine fossil meteorites from six beds across
imaging of 385 chromite grains from eight recently fallen chon- ∼3.8 m of vertical distance in the Thorsberg quarry show com-
drites (H4-6, L4-6, LL4, LL6) showed that about two-thirds of all paratively low cosmic ray exposure ages based on 21 Ne, from
chromite grains contain inclusions, regardless of meteorite group ∼0.1–0.2 to ∼0.8–1.2 Myr, and the cosmic ray exposure ages gen-
and petrologic type. However, the study showed a clear relation erally increase upward in the sediment column (Fig. 21) (Heck
between the size and number of the inclusions in the chromite and et al., 2004). The difference in cosmic ray exposure age between the
the petrologic type. With higher petrologic type, the inclusions in stratigraphically highest and lowest meteorite, ∼1 Myr, is similar to
chromite grains become larger and fewer. This is what one would the time difference in deposition on the sea floor based on biostrati-
expect from the increase in equilibration with higher grade thermal graphic estimates of sedimentation rates (see Schmitz et al., 1996;
metamorphism. Alwmark et al., 2012). The meteorites in the oldest bed quarried,
In principle, it is possible to also determine the petrologic type of Arkeologen, occur stratigraphically only ∼80 cm above the first
a fossil meteorite by scanning its chromite grains for inclusions, and level (in the Hällekis section) with abundant sediment-dispersed
compare the results with those for recent meteorites. In addition to EC grains, i.e., the level most likely representing the time for the
the number and size of the inclusions, the TiO2 concentration and breakup of the L chondrite parent body (Fig. 11). The young cosmic
the size of the chromite grains will give independent, robust infor- ray exposure ages, ∼0.05–0.2 Myr, of the Arkeologen meteorites
mation about petrologic type (Bridges et al., 2007; Alwmark and and the gradual increase upward of the exposure ages conforms
Schmitz, 2009a). Determining the petrologic type of fossil mete- with the idea that all meteorites originated from one breakup event,
orites could be important in testing, for example, if there was a and reached Earth at successively later times. The meteorite found
“memory” in the structure of the L chondrite parent body 470 Myr in the Gullhögen quarry, 35 km to the southeast, at the same bios-
ago of an original onion-like structure (Williams et al., 2000; p. 414 tratigraphically defined level as the meteorites with the highest
in Hutchison, 2004). It could be that the outer parts of the body were cosmic ray exposure ages at the Thorsberg quarry, gives a simi-
still richer in L3 and L4 material than deeper parts of the aster- lar high 21 Ne age, ∼0.9 Myr (Heck et al., 2008). All the measured
oid. Possibly, immediately after the breakup of the parent body, cosmic ray exposure ages are substantially lower than exposure
Earth was reached primarily by material from the outer parts of the ages of recent ordinary chondrite finds and falls, that lie typically
asteroid. Today, when secondary collisions of large asteroids from in the range of 4–60 Myr (Wieler and Graf, 2001). Orbital simu-
the breakup event produce material that reaches Earth, the flux is lations of very large collisions in the asteroid belt leading to a
This meteorite, Österplana 002 (informal name: Ark 002), is inter-

preted as a regolith breccia, with the solar wind signal acquired
while it resided in the regolith of the L chondrite body (Heck
et al., 2004). The surface-seated solar wind signal, acquired dur-
ing transport to Earth, is lost when the surface of a large meteoroid
is vaporized and melted during its passage through Earth’s atmo-
sphere, but the internal regolith signal is retained. In collections of
recent L chondrites regolith breccias make up about 3%, a value
not too different from the 1 out of 10 among mid-Ordovician
meteorites. In stark contrast almost all of the mid-Ordovician
sediment-dispersed chromite grains contain substantial amounts
of solar wind implanted Ne, attesting to the fact that they are
micrometeorites or fragments thereof. At least a part of the
chromite grain surface must have been shared with the surface of
the enclosing micrometeorite. Heck et al. (2008) analyzed batches
of 4–6 sediment-dispersed EC grains from eight samples repre-
senting three different beds in the meteorite-yielding part of the
composite Hällekis-Thorsberg section. In each of the samples they
found high levels of solar wind derived Ne, indicating that at least
one of the grains in each batch had to represent a micrometeor-
ite. Meier et al. (2010) took the issue one step further by analysing
37 individual sediment-dispersed L chondrite chromite grains, and
showed that at least 35 of them (∼95%) contain surface implanted
He and Ne of fractionated solar wind composition. The presence
of surface implanted solar wind gases indicate that the precursor
micrometeoroids were not heated to high temperatures. This con-
forms with what is known about the solar wind implanted noble
gases in recent interplanetary dust particles collected in the strato-
Fig. 21. 21 Ne cosmic ray exposure ages of chromite from eight fossil meteorites from sphere and micrometeorites from cryogenic lakes on Greenland.
the Thorsberg quarry, spanning samples from the Arkeologen to the Glaskarten 1 bed The contents of extraterrestrial noble gases are comparable with
(see Fig. 10) and the fossil meteorite (dark bars) from the Gullhögen quarry (Heck
the lower range of concentrations in stratospheric interplanetary
et al., 2004, 2008). The 21 Ne ages increase upward in the section, in consistence with
sedimentation rates, indicating that all meteorites originate from one breakup event
dust particles, and mostly higher than concentrations found in
having taken place shortly before the Arkeologen bed formed. This event in time recent micrometeorites. The least gas-rich chromites in the study of
most likely corresponds to the stratigraphic level where the first abundant EC grains Heck et al. (2008) have similar Ne concentrations as the most gas-
appear, at about 0.8 m below the base of the Arkeologen bed (see Figs. 11 and 13). The rich micrometeorites from Greenland ice (Olinger et al., 1990). The
total sedimentation time of the ∼4 m thick sedimentary section from which the fossil
fact that the mid-Ordovician SEC grains have retained all or most of
meteorites derive is ∼1–2 Myr based on conodont biochronology and the Geological
Time Scale (Schmitz et al., 1996; 2001; Zhang, 1998; Gradstein et al., 2004, 2012; their noble gases when landing on the sea floor, would be consistent
Mellgren and Eriksson, 2010). Error bars are 1, and include weighing uncertainties, with a shallow, slow (12 km/s) entry into the Earth’s atmosphere
ion statistics, and blanks. The results are grouped based on the beds from which the (Meier et al., 2010). This is typical for particles on circular heliocen-
fossil meteorites originate. Open large circles are averaged 21 Ne exposure ages of
tric orbits, such as the ones reaching Earth by Pointing-Robertson
all analyses from the same quarry bed. Different preatmospheric sizes of meteorites
and moderate losses of cosmogenic Ne during diagenesis may also have affected
drag.
the individual results, but not to the extent that the general trend for the data set One intial goal of the analyses of sediment-dispersed EC grains
was lost. Informal names of fossil meteorites are used in the figure. These names was to determine the cosmic ray exposure ages of the grains, but
relate the meteorite to the bed in which it was found (see Fig. 10), or quarry, for Gull in many cases the copious amounts of solar gases give 21 Ne/22 Ne
001. Bed names: Ark = Arkeologen; Gol = Golvsten; Sex = Sextummen; Tre = Tredje
ratios too close to solar values to reliably determine any excess of
Karten; Goda = Goda Lagret; Gla = Glaskarten 1. Quarry name: Gull = Gullhögen.
cosmogenic 21 Ne (Heck et al., 2008; Meier et al., 2010). A prospec-
tive future approach would be to somehow etch off the outermost
temporary increase in the meteorite flux to the inner solar sys- solar gas bearing layers of the chromite grains so that only the galac-
tem indicate that fragments from such events may reach Earth tic ray induced He and Ne component would remain. Meier et al.
considerably faster than the typical transit times of meteorites (2010), in addition to the fractionated solar wind component, also
falling today. A fast delivery is expected if the asteroid collision found significant amounts of cosmogenic 21 Ne in several sediment-
occurred close to a major orbital resonance in the inner asteroid dispersed EC grains. This yielded cosmic ray exposure ages up to
belt (Gladman et al., 1997; Zappalà et al., 1998; Nesvorný et al., ∼50 Myr, which exceeds both dynamical lifetimes for asteroidal
2007). Two important resonances are the 3:1 orbital resonance with micrometeorites of this size as well as cosmic ray exposure ages
Jupiter at about 2.5 AU, and the Saturn and Jupiter ␯6 resonance measured in chromites from larger fossil meteorites in the same
at 2–2.5 AU, depending on orbital inclinations (Heck et al., 2008). beds (<1.2 Myr) (Fig. 22). Such high cosmic ray exposure ages have
These two resonances have probably played a crucial role in trans- also been reported for micrometeorites from recent Greenland ice
port of asteroidal matter to the inner solar system through the ages. and were interpreted in terms of a cometary, or Kuiper belt, ori-
Based on the short cosmic ray exposure ages of the mid-Ordovician gin of the micrometeorites, with on the order 10 Myr transport
fossil meteorites, Nesvorný et al. (2009) suggested an origin from times to Earth (Osawa and Nagao, 2002; Kehm et al., 2006). The
the breakup event that created the Gefion asteroid family in the mid-Ordovician chromite grains, however, have a definitive ordi-
outer part of the main asteroid belt. In their simulations, numerous nary chondrite, i.e. asteroidal origin, showing that such material
fragments evolved into Earth-crossing orbits by the 5:2 resonance can also have high cosmic ray exposure ages. Meier et al. (2010)
with Jupiter. suggested that the grains collected their cosmogenic 21 Ne while
Only one of the ten fossil meteorites analyzed for Ne and He residing in the regolith layer of their parent body. About a third
isotopes in their chromite contained a solar wind Ne component. of the grains in the study showed exposure ages >3 Myr and up to
ejecta as well as a reinterpretation of the elemental signatures of

the chromite grains. They instead favored that the impactor was a
non-magmatic iron meteorite. Schmitz et al. (2011) provided oxy-
gen isotopic data for the Lockne chromite grains, confirming an
L chondrite origin. They also showed that the chromite grains are
completely devoid of extraterrestrial He and Ne, in line with an ori-
gin from a large body at depths to which the galactic cosmic rays
could not penetrate. The Lockne impactor has been estimated to
have had a size of 600 m in diameter (Ormö and Lindström, 2000).
The penetration depth for galactic cosmic rays is 1–2 m, so less than
2% of the chromite grains of the impactor would have been exposed
to galactic cosmic rays. Schmitz et al. (2011) also showed that when
calculating the average platinum group element (PGE) concentra-
tion of the many Lockne ejecta samples analyzed by Tagle et al.
(2008), rather than using the regression slope approach of these
authors, the ejecta has ordinary-chondrite PGE ratios. The regres-
Fig. 22. Cosmic ray exposure ages calculated from cosmogenic 21 Ne excesses sion slope approach of Tagle and Claeys (2005) and Tagle et al.
observed in individual sediment-dispersed EC grains (SEC, diamonds) and other (2008) has also been criticized by Farley (2009) who showed that
chromite grains (circles), presumed to be of terrestrial origin based on their ele-
different results can be obtained just by switching x and y axes
mental composition. The grains originate from the Arkeologen or Sextummen beds,
see Fig. 10. All error bars are 1. The cosmogenic 21 Ne may have been collected by in the regression plots, and that single outlier data may affect the
the SEC grains while residing in the regolith layer of their parent body. The high pro- conclusions significantly.
portion of regolithic grains in 470 Myr old sediments may reflect that the outermost The extraterrestrial chromite grains in the Lockne ejecta most
parts of the exploded parent body was the material that first reached Earth.
likely represent the relict residues of weathered small pieces of the
From Meier et al. (2010).
impactor (Alwmark and Schmitz, 2007). The Lockne crater formed
in ∼500–1000 m deep water, and when an asteroid hits deep water
∼50 Myr, the remaining grains had much shorter cosmic ray expo- pieces of the impactor may escape vaporization as shown by the
sure ages (Fig. 22). The two populations of micrometeorite grains abundant unmelted meteorite fragments found in sediments from
in the same beds must have had very different exposure histories. the late Pliocene Eltanin impact site in the Southern Ocean (Kyte,
The grains with high cosmic ray exposure ages probably resided 2002). Detailed and robust biostratigraphy has established that
near the surface in the regolith of the L chondrite parent body, the Lockne crater formed at ∼458 Myr ago, ∼8 Myr after the first
where they picked up the bulk of their Ne from solar wind and micrometeorites from the breakup of the L chondrite parent body
galactic cosmic rays. The gas poor EC grains with low exposure ages showered the Earth (Grahn et al., 1996; Schmitz and Häggström,
were shielded from cosmic rays over the history of the solar system, 2006). This time lag is in agreement with modeling simulations of
and acquired their smaller amounts of solar wind gas only during large breakup events showing that the larger km-sized bodies typi-
the “fast” transport to Earth. The high amount of regolith material cally tend to reach Earth on the order of 1–30 Myr later than the dust
among Ordovician micrometeorites is explained by the fact that particles (e.g., Zappalà et al., 1998; Dermott et al., 2002). Poynting-
the bulk mass of the L chondrite parent body was not pulverized in Robertson light drag is important in transferring particles < 500 ␮m
the breakup event, but instead formed a collisional family, like the directly from the asteroid belt to the inner solar system, whereas
Gefion asteroid family (Nesvorný et al., 2009). Immediately after km-sized bodies usually slowly drift via the Yarkovsky effect into
the breakup event material from the outer parts of the parent body orbital resonances (e.g., Bottke et al., 2002), which can lead to rapid
and near-surface material may have represented a larger fraction change of orbital parameters and injection into the inner solar sys-
of the material reaching Earth, than at later times. tem (Gladman et al., 1997).
The terrestrial crater record is very incomplete, represent-
2.8. Spinels from a mid-Ordovician 600 m sized asteroid ing only a fraction of a percent of all craters that have formed
on Earth, and assigned ages of many craters have large uncer-
Only for a few of Earth’s ∼180 known impact structures has the tainties (Grieve, 2001). Nevertheless, Schmitz et al. (2001) noted
type of impacting projectile been determined (Grieve, 2001; Grieve a factor of three to four enhancement in well-dated craters
and Stöffler, 2012). Large projectiles creating craters larger than with ages of ∼450–480 Myr. Five out of the known 17 impact
1–2 km tend to completely vaporize upon impact, leaving behind craters in Baltoscandia are confidently dated by biostratigraphy
only a chemical fingerprint that may be fractionated by various pro- to the mid-Ordovician (Tvären, Lockne, Hummeln, Granby and
cesses, both in the ejecta plume and during diagenesis of the ejecta Kärdla). An increase in mid-Ordovician craters was also suggested
in sediments (Schmitz et al., 2011; Koeberl et al., 2012). In rare cases by Korochantseva et al. (2007). A study of the ages of lunar
whole pieces of the impactor are preserved as for the Eltanin and melt droplets formed by impacts similarly found a peak in the
Morokweng impact events (Kyte, 2002; Maier et al., 2006). A third mid-Ordovician interpreted as a reflection of an increased bom-
case is the Ordovician Lockne crater, 10 km in diameter, in central bardment of the lunar surface following the L chondrite breakup
Sweden. In iridium-rich (∼4.5 ppb Ir) ejecta samples from the rim event (Culler et al., 2000). Modeling suggests that such an increase
of the crater, Alwmark and Schmitz (2007) found extremely high in lunar impacts would be an expected effect of the breakup of the
concentrations of chromite grains (>63 ␮m) with L chondrite com- L chondrite parent body (Artemieva and Shuvalov, 2008).
position. More than 75 grains were found per kilogram of ejecta, The discovery in the Lockne crater ejecta of abundant relict
representing an enrichment by many orders of magnitude com- mineral grains from a large asteroid opens up some new, interest-
pared to background. This is the most EC-enriched sediment sample ing research venues. The Lockne crater is well exposed and access
known today. The grains were interpreted as relict remains of an can be gained to Ir-rich ejecta at many places along the crater
L chondrite impactor, representing the high-mass fraction in the rim (Sturkell, 1998). Most likely the samples also contain aster-
enhanced flux of extraterrestrial matter after the breakup of the oidal chromite, with different parts of the asteroid represented
L chondrite parent body. Tagle et al. (2008) challenged this view in the ejecta at different places in the crater. By quantifying the
based on Ir/Cr and platinum group element ratios in the Lockne number and sizes of silicate inclusions in the chromite grains, and
comparing with data for recent meteorite finds and falls of different compared to 0.7–1.8 EC grains per kg in the middle part of the
petrologic types (Alwmark et al., 2011), clues may be obtained as to EC-rich interval (Cronholm and Schmitz, 2010). There is no sim-
the mix of petrologic types in a 600 m large asteroidal body such as ilar gradual increase in EC grains upward through the section at
the Lockne impactor. The PGE-rich ejecta of the Lockne crater, with Hällekis-Thorsberg in Sweden. Instead a relatively stable trend is
a known L chondrite impactor, may also give a better understand- observed with EC grain concentrations typically close to 2 grains
ing of how extraterrestrial PGE interelemental ratios can become per kg rock through most of the middle and upper EC-rich part
fractionated during impact and in the sediment (Schmitz et al., (Schmitz and Häggström, 2006). The lower EC concentrations, ∼0.3
2011). grains per kg rock in the first meter of strata showing EC grains
at Hällekis-Thorsberg, however, could very well be related to a
2.9. Mid-Ordovician spinels as proxies of sedimentation rates weaker dust flux before the main dust pulse reached Earth after
the L chondrite breakup (Häggström and Schmitz, 2007). The most
A classical problem in studies of Earth’s geological record has EC-rich limestone beds are found at the Lynna River site in Russia,
been to determine the sedimentation rate of a specific bed or a with concentrations up to 10 grains per kg rock (Lindskog et al.,
series of beds in the rock strata. The dramatically enhanced flux of 2012). In the >63 ␮m fraction in these beds, EC is typically the most
extraterrestrial matter in the mid-Ordovician, and the robust proxy common opaque mineral, outnumbering even the very common
representing that flux (extraterrestrial chromite), opens up for new terrestrial ilmenite.
ways of reconstructing the formation of sediments in various pale- In the EC-rich part of the mid-Ordovician sections in Sweden,
oenvironments at this time. Sedimentation rates for a section are China and Russia there are some lithologically anomalous beds at
normally determined by interpolation, using the ages of, for exam- about the same biostratigraphic level, i.e., close to the L. variabilis–Y.
ple, bio- or magneto-zone boundaries as given in the most recent crassus conodont zones boundary (Schmitz et al., 2008; Lindskog
Geological Time Scale (Gradstein et al., 2012). The ages of the zone et al., 2012). Over large parts of Sweden, at this level in the column
boundaries in the time scale are typically established by interpo- of reddish condensed limestone, there is a prominent one-meter
lation between radiometrically dated ash layers. The estimates of thick grey, glauconitic interval rich in clay intercalations, the so
sedimentation rates by this approach can only give the average called Täljsten interval (Schmitz and Häggström, 2006; Eriksson
sedimentation rate for an extended part of a section. Intrazonal hia- et al., 2012). In Russia, the same level is represented by a distinct
tuses cannot be accounted for and sedimentation rates for a specific and anomalous ∼10 cm thick red clay bed in a context of other-
bed in the section cannot be determined. This was the challenge wise condensed red limestone (Lindskog et al., 2012). At the same
that originally led Alvarez et al. (1980) to measure the element stratigraphic level in the Puxi River section in China, there are
iridium in the K-T boundary clay at Gubbio in Italy. The intent was highly unusual so called micromounds (e.g., Lindström et al., 1991).
to determine whether the boundary clay was, in a geological con- These are clayey, biologically mediated, 0.2–0.5 m high, mound-
text, a slowly or rapidly formed bed. Its iridium content would give like structures that formed on the sea floor. The sedimentological
an estimate of the amount of extraterrestrial dust in the clay. By evidence thus indicates that worldwide there were unusual pertur-
comparison with the known recent flux of extraterrestrial dust to bations in the oceans coinciding with the peak in the enhanced flux
Earth, the rate of formation of the boundary clay was to be esti- of meteoritic debris to Earth. Based on high clay content and some
mated. The project, however, “failed” as the boundary clay turned faunal parameters, the grey Täljsten interval in Sweden has gener-
out to be the product of the largest known asteroid impact on Earth ally been interpreted as the expression of a sea-level fall (Tinn and
during the Phanerozoic. Other attempts have been made to relate Meidla, 2001; Mellgren and Eriksson, 2010; Eriksson et al., 2012).
iridium content to sedimentation rate, but additional sources of This would have led to a more near-shore facies, with a higher detri-
iridium, mainly from seawater, complicate the interpretations. For tal input and higher sedimentation rates. The amount of EC grains
example, the relatively high iridium concentrations in condensed in the beds that make up the Täljsten is similar to the condensed red
deep-sea sediments were once believed to be mainly of extraterres- limestone beds above and below. The EC data for the Täljsten inter-
trial origin, but later studies using osmium isotopes have indicated val thus do not support faster sedimentation and a sea-level fall.
instead that the iridium dominantly (70–85%) originates from sea Rather the emerging data suggest a large-scale oceanic event, with
water (Peucker-Ehrenbrink, 1996; Dalai and Ravizza, 2006). enhanced plankton productivity in the water mass, perhaps with
The distribution of EC grains in China, Russia and Sweden in similarities to the global Kellwasser events in connection with the
mid-Ordovician sediments formed after the L chondrite breakup major mass extinction event at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary
event, provides new information about relative variations in sed- (Tribovillard et al., 2004).
imentation rates, including on a bed-by-bed basis. The EC grains
at all three sites are dominantly of a micrometeoritic origin, based
on noble gas measurements of the grains (Meier et al., 2010, 2013; 3. Spinels and the meteorite flux through the ages
Alwmark et al., 2012). After the breakup event, the micrometeorites
were transported to Earth in a large cloud of dust by Poynting- 3.1. Dissolving tons of rock per year
Robertson drag. The dust cloud was most likely quite homogeneous
over large astronomical distances. In the time perspective of tens The insights gained from studies of Ordovician extraterrestrial
to a few hundred thousand years, the dust flux to Earth would not spinels allow for a “first-order” reconstruction of variations in the
have differed significantly. Any major difference in EC grain content meteorite flux to Earth through the ages. From many periods of
in, for example, two limestone beds adjacent to each other, would Earth’s history we know of preserved sediments that formed very
in most cases mainly reflect differences in sedimentation rate. By slowly, far from land and sediment sources. In today’s world, the
comparing trends in EC distribution through time from several sec- brown pelagic clays of the central Pacific represent such condensed
tions, it would also be possible to disentangle if any changes in flux sediments, forming at rates of a few millimetres per thousand years.
have occurred with time or whether differences between sections Some well known examples of ancient condensed sediments are
are entirely related to site-specific variations in sedimentation rate. the Orthoceratite Limestone in Baltoscandia and China, the late
From the EC distribution across the section at Puxi River in China Devonian limestones of the Montaigne Noire region in France,
one can see that sedimentation rates gradually decrease by a fac- the Jurassic Ammonitico Rosso limestones of southern Europe,
tor of two to four upward through the section. Beds in the upper and the early Paleogene limestones of the Italian Apennines. By
part of the section generally contain 2–4 EC grains per kg rock, analysing large (100–1000 kg) samples of condensed sediments for
spinels, “windows” into the meteorite flux at particularly inter- different time periods should ideally give an as complete a spec-
esting periods in Earth’s history can be created. The size of the trum as possible of the types of meteorites and dust reaching
samples required to obtain a representative set of relict extrater- Earth. The material representing each time “window” would need
restrial minerals relates both to sedimentation rate and to the flux to represent a composite sample collected at different levels in a
rates of meteorites at the particular time of interest. The more section or in different sections in order to bypass bias from unusual
rare a specific type of meteorite is, and the lower the content of meteorite showers or asteroid breakups in the water column or
weathering-resistant spinels in that meteorite type, the larger the atmosphere. It is important to make major efforts in selecting the
samples must be. By searching for meteoritic minerals in smaller optimal type of condensed limestone. A sediment formed at 1 mm
size fractions than 63 ␮m, one would find more grains, but they rather than 3 mm per Kyr would require two thirds less labor
would also be more diluted with terrestrial grains, increasing the and acid. Only the most condensed sediments are useful for this
“needle-in-the-haystack” problem. The optimal approach appears approach, as shown by the results from 167 kg of hemipelagic lime-
to adjust the size of the studied sediment samples so that rep- stone from the late Eocene Massignano section in Italy (Schmitz
resentative collections of meteoritic grains larger than ∼30 ␮m et al., 2009). This sample yielded 373 terrestrial chrome spinel
are found. Such grains can also be analyzed for their elemental grains and only 1 EC grain. The EC result is congruent with esti-
and oxygen isotopic compositions with relatively straightforward mated sedimentation rates for the Massignano section a factor of
methods, such as EMPA and SIMS. So far we have studied a few large three higher than, for example, the condensed Paleocene sediments
pilot samples of condensed limestone from periods other than the at Gubbio (see above).
mid-Ordovician for relict extraterrestrial spinels. For example, from
the Scaglia Rossa section at Gubbio in Italy, 210 kg of limestone from 3.2. Future studies: some possible windows into the ancient skies
different levels of the early Paleocene and uppermost Cretaceous
interval were searched for spinels. These sediments are pelagic and For future studies some particularly interesting time windows
formed at ∼2–5 mm per Kyr. In this sample 6 EC grains and one pal- have been identified from which information about the meteorite
lasitic chromite grain were found (Cronholm and Schmitz, 2007). A flux would be of value:
flux rate of 0.26 chromite grains from unmelted micrometeorites
per m2 per Kyr was estimated for the early Paleocene. The num- - Late Quaternary to recent deep-sea sediments or polar ice, 0–1 Myr
ber of grains recovered are too few, however, for any speculations ago. Analyses of the extraterrestrial spinels from “recent” con-
about the distribution of different meteorite types in the flux at densed pelagic clay or carbonate ooze would be a test of whether
∼66 Myr ago. Similar results where obtained in a study of similarly our approach gives results in accord with recent meteorite fall
condensed Ordovician limestone deposited before the L chondrite statistics. The spinel assemblages from micrometeorites recov-
disruption event. In 379 kg of limestone, 5 EC grains were found, ered from melted Greenland or Antarctic ice (Engrand and
giving a flux rate for chromite about half as that for the Paleocene Maurette, 1998; Suavet et al., 2010) could also represent a
(Schmitz and Häggström, 2006). These estimates, however, are only standard against which results for older “windows” can be com-
valid at the order-of-magnitude scale. In an ongoing study of con- pared and discussed.
densed limestone from the Frasnian-Famennian boundary of the - Late Eocene interval with high extraterrestrial 3 He, 35 Myr ago. For
Montaigne Noire region on the order of 10–15 EC grains per 400 kg the late Eocene a comet or an asteroid shower has been proposed
rock have been found, well in line with the other results (Schmitz based on high amounts of extraterrestrial 3 He over a stratigraphic
et al., in prep.). Test samples of 30–100 kg from several other sites interval representing 2.2 Myr, together with several microtektite
and periods have also been studied, e.g. Ammonitico Rosso lime- or krystite beds and iridium anomalies (Montanari et al., 1993;
stone of Jurassic age from Adnet in Austria and early Paleocene Farley et al., 1998; Glass et al., 2004; Farley, 2009). Two of the
limestones from the Zumaia section in Spain. Typically only sin- largest Cenozoic impact craters, Popigai (90–100 km diameter)
gle extraterrestrial grains were found in these samples. Clearly, in and Chesapeake Bay (40–90 km diameter), together with several
order to recover on the order of one hundred chondritic grains from smaller craters, formed at the same time as the 3 He anomaly
the most condensed parts of a section such as at Gubbio, with a developed (Montanari et al., 1998). This is also the time for cli-
sedimentation rate of 2–5 mm per Kyr, one would need to dissolve mate change from the early Paleogene greenhouse climate to the
about three tons of rock. present ice-house climate (Zachos et al., 2001). The first major
At the present a specially designed laboratory at Lund Uni- Antarctic ice sheets formed at this time, and from then continen-
versity is being built that can handle 5–10 tons of sedimentary tal ices at the poles have more or less continuously grown in size.
limestone per year for recovery of extraterrestrial minerals. The Could externally forced perturbations of the solar system have
laboratory will be based on simple mechanical principles. Rock triggered a comet or asteroid shower and also affected Earth’s
samples are placed in large plastic barrels and the acid is trans- orbit with climatic effects? According to Farley et al. (1998),
ported by acid-resistant pumps between different containers. After enhanced 3 He and excess craters reflect a comet shower; Fritz
the rocks are dissolved, surplus acid is removed and neutralized. et al. (2007) argue that 3 He originates from lunar regolith ejected
The acid leaching will consume a factor of two as much HCl as rock by an L chondrite asteroid shower; Tagle and Claeys (2004) argue
is dissolved, but this is still an insignificant amount of acid com- for an asteroid shower based on an L chondritic PGE signature of
pared to that used routinely in various industrial applications. After Popigai crater rock; and Kyte et al. (2011), based on chromium iso-
HCl leaching of 5 tons of rock, about half a ton of clay will remain. tope measurements of the Popigai distal ejecta bed, give support
Further steps in the recovery of EC grains will involve sieving at for a likely asteroid belt source of the impactor. Detailed quan-
∼30 ␮m, tenside treatment to deflocculate clays, HF leaching, and tifications of the extraterrestrial spinels in condensed sediments
in some cases heavy liquid separation. From 5 tons of carefully from this time could give important information about the events
selected condensed limestone we estimate to recover on the order in space.
of 150–500 extraterrestrial spinel grains > 63 ␮m, and one order - Earliest Paleocene after the K-T boundary, 66–64 Myr ago. Was the
of magnitude more grains in the 32–63 ␮m fraction. Focus will K-T boundary impactor part of a generally enhanced flux of some
be on the >63 ␮m grains, because they allow much more detailed type of extraterrestrial material to Earth or does it represent a
chemical and petrological studies. The smaller size fraction can be lone impactor? It is known from Cr isotopic studies of the K-T
used for reconstructions of the flux of rare meteorite types and boundary clay that the impactor either was a comet or a carbona-
meteorite types with smaller spinel grains. The large samples from ceous chondrite (Kyte, 1998; Trinquier et al., 2006). Carbonaceous
- Jurassic to early Cretaceous, Ammonitico Rosso, 180–140 Myr ago.

In the Mediterranean region there are abundant outcrops of the
highly condensed Ammonitico Rosso sediment. In fact, this lithol-
ogy is remarkably similar in appearance to the mid-Ordovician
meteorite-rich limestones from Sweden. Close in time to the
Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, 145 Myr ago, the >70 km in diam-
eter Morokweng impact crater formed in South Africa. A fossil LL
chondrite fragment of the impacting asteroid has been found in
the impact suevite (Maier et al., 2006). Were LL chondrites a more
common component in the flux at this time? From Ammonitico
Rosso deposits in Italy, condensed hard-ground levels have been
described (e.g., Castellarin et al., 1974) from which abundant
cosmic melted spherules were recovered. These deposits would
probably also yield abundant extraterrestrial spinel grains. There
are excellent sections of the Ammonitico Rosso on the Trento
Plateau, Italy; in the Adnet region, Austria, and the Betic Cordillera
Fig. 23. The upper Maastrichtian–lower Danian section at Zumaia, northern Spain.
in southern Spain (Fig. 24).
The K-T boundary is at the level where the person dressed in red stands. The - Late Devonian-Griotte facies, ∼375 Myr ago. From the late Devo-
lower Danian limestones are relatively condensed hemipelagic deposits. The lime- nian to early Carboniferous, three large impact craters are known
stones record a detailed Milankovitch cyclicity, opening up for detailed temporally (Fig. 1; including the 52 km large Siljan crater in Sweden) and fau-
contstrained estimates of the flux of micrometeorites in the time after the K-T
nal turnovers are conspicuous in the late Devonian (Reimold et al.,
boundary.
2005). Argon isotope dating of recent H chondrites may indicate
a breakup event affecting the H chondrite parent body at about
this time (Swindle et al., 2009) (see Section 5). In southern France
meteorites and micrometeorites contain characteristic spinels and other places in Europe a very condensed type of limestone
that readily can be extracted from sediments and would represent formed in the Late Devonian, the “Griotte” pelagic, cephalopod-
fragments of the K-T boundary impactor (Bjärnborg and Schmitz, rich limestone, also very similar to the Ordovician Orthoceratite
2013). There are excellent condensed earliest Paleocene sections Limestone. There are many potential sections of condensed lime-
at Gubbio in Italy and at Zumaia in northern Spain (Fig. 23). stone from this period, e.g., Montaigne Noire, southern France,
- Middle Cretaceous, ∼120–80 Myr ago. The formation of the Tycho the Fiumara Assi section in Calabria, and Griotte Limestones of
crater on the Moon 109 Myr ago may have ejected substantial the Pyrenees and Cantabria. Spinel searches in these sediments
amounts of lunar debris into Earth crossing orbits. Artemieva and could unravel whether the impact craters formed at this time can
Shuvalov (2008) envision that Earth was covered by meteorites be tied to a collision event involving the H chondrite parent body
from the Tycho crater with a mean density of 0.1–0.3 kg per m2 . in the asteroid belt.
This extraneous component would represent a recognizable frac- - Early Ordovician condensed sediments, ∼485 Myr ago. This sample
tion in a deep-sea sediment having formed at a typical rate of would primarily address the question of which types of mete-
∼5 kg per m2 per Kyr. This sample would perhaps also lie in the orites dominated the flux to Earth before the disruption of the
tail of the increased flux from the breakup of the large Baptistina L chondrite parent body. Today debris from the L and H chon-
asteroid in the asteroid belt, an event that occurred somewhere drite parent bodies dominate the flux, but what was the situation
between 160 and 80 Myr ago (Bottke et al., 2007; Farley et al., before their disruptions? This is a major and fundamental blank
2012). A 3 He anomaly possibly related to the breakup event was spot on our map of knowledge about the solar system, and this
found in 80 Myr old strata in the Italian Apennines (Farley et al., sample is of particular interest. Excellent condensed sections of
2012). These sediments are relatively condensed and could be a early and middle Ordovician sediments exist at many places in
worthwhile target for searches of extraterrestrial spinels. Baltoscandia and in central and southern China.
Fig. 24. The condensed, middle to late Jurassic, Fortuna section in the Betic Cordillera of southeastern Spain. A very condensed stratigraphic interval in this section records
the Callovian-Oxfordian transition, a major event in Earth’s history. Photo by V. Pujalte.
- Snowball Earth-meteorites from the ices, ∼850 to 580 Myr ago. Prob-
ably major parts of the oceans were repeatedly covered by ices
during many million years during the Snowball Earth episode.
Large numbers of meteorites must have accumulated on the ices,
and when ices rapidly melted, the meteorites fell to the sea floor.
Bodiselitsch et al. (2005) reported an Ir anomaly at the base of
the cap carbonates covering Snowball Earth tills in South Africa,
but the extraterrestrial origin of the Ir still awaits confirmation.
Nevertheless, searching for extraterrestrial minerals in adequate
cap carbonates formed directly after the Snowball Earth event
may be rewarding. Perhaps the type of extraterrestrial flux may
also give clues on the reasons for the global glaciation. For exam-
ple, the climate anomaly may represent the effect of a near-by
passing star perturbing orbits of bodies in the solar system. This
could have both affected Earth’s orbit, and led to changes in the
delivery of meteorites to Earth. The large Copernicus crater on Fig. 25. In CM2 meteorite Acfer 331 there are two major populations of spinel grains
the Moon formed at 800 Myr ago, and Ar–Ar evidence for several that may survive when a CM2 meteorite weathers on a sea floor. The opaque, black
other coeval impacts on the Moon indicate it may be related to Cr-rich spinels are distinctly separated from the transparent, colorless, pink to red
or blue Mg–Al spinels. Each of the major populations, can be divided into smaller
an asteroid or comet shower (Zellner et al., 2009). Possibly there groups based on heterogeneity and Cr-content.
was a major asteroid breakup that may have also left signals in From Bjärnborg and Schmitz (2013).
the geological record on Earth.
- Proterozoic and Archean sediments 3500–1000 Myr ago. We have
no knowledge at all about what types of meteorites impacted fraction of the micrometeorite flux to Earth today (Gounelle, 2011;
Earth during the Proterozoic and Archean. The spinel separation Taylor et al., 2012), and the same probably applies to the past, hence
approach may provide the first feasible method to establish this it is crucial to quantify whether it is likely to recover spinels from
knowledge. The main problem will be to find condensed sedi- this fraction of the flux in the ancient sediments. Bjärnborg and
ments. There is no biostratigraphy that can be used for assessing Schmitz (2013) dissolved eight gram of the Acfer 331 CM2 car-
sedimentation rates, and it is difficult to distinguish pelagic bonaceous chondrite in hydrofluoric acid in order to quantify the
settings in the sedimentary record (Bose et al., 2012). The ques- abundance of >28 ␮m durable spinels. The results showed that large
tion is whether any pelagic sediments are preserved at all. A spinels are surprisingly common in CM2 meteorites. Both com-
trial-and-error approach has to be adopted on different litholo- mon transparent Mg-Al and opaque chrome spinels were found
gies, including pilot tests on smaller samples, until the first few (Fig. 25) (see also, Simon et al., 1994). As regards Mg-Al spinels,
extraterrestrial grains are found. Acfer 331 contains on average 4.6 grains per gram in the 63–250 ␮m
fraction and 130 grains in the 28–63 ␮m fraction. Black, opaque
chrome spinel grains are absent from the >63 ␮m fraction, but in
4. Large spinels from different meteorite types the 28–63 ␮m fraction, 65 grains per gram were found (Fig. 26).
The Mg–Al spinel grains can be further divided into two groups,
In order to determine the origin of extraterrestrial spinels the Cr-rich, commonly pink or red, and the Cr-poor, colorless or
from sediments and fossil meteorites, a thorough understanding is blue, grains (Fig. 27). The Mg-Al spinels are also characterized by
required of the distribution of >30 ␮m spinels in different meteorite significant intragrain heterogeneity and abundant inclusions of e.g.
types. Spinels are generally rather neglected in studies of recent diopside and Fe-Ni metal (Fig. 28). The content of spinels in the
meteorite finds and falls. Chromite dominates the oxide fraction of smaller size fraction, 28–63 ␮m, of CM meteorites is comparable
ordinary chondrites, in enstatite chondrites oxides are rare, and in R at the order of magnitude level to the content of >63 ␮m sized
chondrites chromian spinel dominates. In carbonaceous chondrites chromite grains in ordinary chondrites. Thus it should be possi-
a wide range of oxide minerals occur, e.g., magnetite, chromite and ble to recover CM spinels from ancient sediments, but the smaller
different spinel group varieties (Rubin, 1997). In the silicate inclu- size fraction of the acid residue should be searched.
sions of iron meteorites, chromite is found, but its composition A data base with spinel information similar to that for Acfer
is more variable and complex than in ordinary chondrites (Bunch 331 should be established for all the important meteorite groups.
et al., 1970). Achondrites and mesosiderites contain chromite with In order to rule out terrestrial origins of recovered spinels, data
large grain-to-grain compositional variability, whereas pallasites bases for the distribution and composition of spinels in terrestrial
contain chemically homogeneous chromite grains that tend to be rocks are also required; a very useful such data base has been pro-
larger (up to 1–3 mm large) than in other meteorite types (Bunch duced by Barnes and Roeder (2001). In a sedimentary assemblage
and Keil, 1971). of mixed spinel grains from many different meteorite types, oxy-
In order to use sedimentary extraterrestrial spinels to recon- gen isotope analyses may contribute complementary information
struct the relative proportions of different types of meteorites and about the detailed origin of individual grains. Thus the proportions
micrometeorites over time in the sedimentary record, it is neces- of the different types of meteorites in the flux at a particular time
sary to establish a detailed database quantifying the abundances and their variations with time could be determined in great detail.
and detailed proportions of various types of spinel minerals in the
meteorites that are falling now. Dissolving a meteorite in hydroflu- 5. Parent body breakup events and meteorite flux
oric acid will give a relatively good representation of the spinel
mineral assemblage that will survive extensive weathering on the Changes in the micrometeorite flux to Earth may primarily
sea floor as well as subsequent recovery through acid dissolution of relate to perturbations of the orbits of solar-system bodies and/or
sediments (Bjärnborg and Schmitz, 2013). This has been shown by to asteroid or comet breakup events. Other factors may be changes
comparing the HF-dissolved residues of recent L chondrites with in the Near Earth Asteroid population or nearby passages of major
the spinel assemblages of fossil L chondrites in mid-Ordovician comets. For a start, the spinel approach may give a refined under-
limestone. The CM carbonaceous chondrites make up an important standing of the sequence of major breakups of meteorite parent
Fig. 26. The opaque Cr-spinel grains (28–63 ␮m) from the CM2 meteorite Acfer 331 are mostly (A) angular, but (B) euhedral, octahedral grains are also common. (C) Most
Cr-rich spinel grains are heterogeneous in composition and some show distinct zoning in BSE image. The opaque Cr-spinels can be identified by narrow ranges of maximum
TiO2 (0.6–1.6 wt%) and V2 O3 (0.5–1.0 wt%) contents.
From Bjärnborg and Schmitz (2013).
bodies through the ages. The disruptions may either be random asteroid breakup events has been reconstructed so far mainly based
events or reflect larger disturbances of the solar system, such as on the K–Ar (or Ar–Ar) ages of recent meteorite finds and falls (for
perturbations of the Oort comet cloud, triggering a comet shower reviews, see Keil et al., 1995; Bogard, 1995, 2011). The K–Ar ages of
to the inner solar system (Perryman, 2009). The sequence of major recently fallen meteorites span the entire age of the solar system,
and measure the gas retention age i.e., the time when the K–Ar
radiometric clock is reset to zero by diffusion of argon from inter-
nal parent body metamorphism or impact heating. Most meteorite
types have K–Ar ages dating back to the early solar system, with
ages generally older than 3.4 Gyr, and in many cases older than
4 Gyr. The ordinary chondrites, on the other hand, show an interest-
ing bimodal distribution with impact-reset ages of either <1.5 Gyr
or >3.4 Gyr (Figs. 29 and 30) (Bogard, 1995, 2011; Swindle et al.,
2009, 2013). The common gas retention ages of >3.4 Gyr for ordi-
nary chondrites and all other meteorite types most likely reflect the
more intense bombardment in the early solar system, as shown
also for the surface of the Moon, where most large craters date
from this period. The common gas retention ages of <1.5 Gyr (and
mostly < 1 Gyr) for all three groups of ordinary chondrites represent
a major mystery, as discussed in detail by Bogard (1995, 2011). Why
do only the three ordinary chondrite groups, and no other meteorite
type, show these young gas retention ages? A possibility would be
that there has been an enhanced bombardment the last 1 Gyr in the
region where the ordinary chondrite parent bodies reside.
The K–Ar dating of the parent body disruptions give often rather
imprecise ages. For a long time, the breakup of the L chondrite par-
ent body was thought to have happened at about 500 Myr ago (Keil
et al., 1995; Haack et al., 1996), but this age estimate was based on
data with a spread from ∼420 to 580 Myr ago, reflecting the com-
plexity of the K–Ar approach. The main problem is that meteoritic
material may not be completely degassed upon impact, yielding too
large ages for the breakup events. With the new spinel approach the
signatures of large breakup events can be located at very precise
levels in Earth’s sedimentary record. Using conventional bio- and
magnetostratigraphy and the Geological Time Scale (e.g., Gradstein
et al., 2012), this level can be given an absolute age with a resolu-
tion on the order of one to a few Myr. The precision of the relative
age, i.e., compared to other events in the geological record, is even
higher because the time of the breakup event can be defined even
to a single bed in the strata. This implies a relative time resolution
of the order of 0.1–10 Kyr, at least for dating the arrival of the first
material to Earth from a breakup event. It now appears from studies
of EC grains in Ordovician limestone that the L chondrite breakup
Fig. 27. (A) In the CM2 meteorite Acfer 331 the pink and red Mg–Al spinel grains can be defined to a level close to the base of the L. variabilis Con-
have generally a higher content of Cr and Fe than the colorless grains. The plot odont Zone in the Darriwilian Stage (see Section 2.3). According to
shows wt% FeO versus wt% Cr2 O3 for separated grains > 63 ␮m. The spot indicates the
the latest Geological Time Scale this corresponds to ∼466 ± 1 Myr
mean content whereas the vertical and horizontal lines show the spread in content
measured within the grain. (B) Enlargement of area B showing the grains with lower ago (Gradstein et al., 2012). It is compelling that if one reads the pre-
Cr2 O3 and FeO contents. 1996 literature on the L chondrite breakup event, before the first
From Bjärnborg and Schmitz (2013). reports on abundant fossil L chondrites appeared (Schmitz et al.,
Fig. 28. Most Mg–Al spinels > 63 ␮m from the CM2 chondrite Acfer 331 are heterogeneous in composition and have abundant inclusions. Here SEM-backscattered electron
images show the variations in polished sections, where areas with lower concentrations of heavy elements, mainly Fe and Cr, are darker. (A) Patchy heterogeneity with
smooth transitions. (B) Patchy heterogeneity with more distinct transitions. Grain has abundant inclusions, probably diopside. (C) This grain is Cr-homogeneous, but the
Fe-content increases toward grain boundaries and cracks. Small, rounded bright inclusions of presumably perovskite. (D) Grain with two distinct zones of different Cr content.
The grain also has a triangular bright inclusion, probably of diopside. (E) Chevron-zoned grain with alternating bands of higher/lower Cr content. (F) Cr-poor grain with a
patchy center of higher Cr-content, and small rounded inclusions of varying composition, including most likely diopside and Fe–Ni metal.
From Bjärnborg and Schmitz (2013).
1996), some of the best isotopic analyses already then indicated a and 450–500 Myr ago. The reality of an event 450–500 Myr ago,
breakup age of around 470 Myr ago, rather than the then generally however, is not supported by the data for fossil micrometeorites
accepted age of ∼0.5 Gyr. Bogard (1995) highlights two particularly and meteorites from this time. These assemblages, based on oxy-
carefully executed studies, one of the Chico L6 impact melt breccia gen isotopes and elemental composition (see Section 2), appear to
(Fujiwara and Nakamura, 1992; Bogard et al., 1995) and another of be completely dominated by L chondrites, without a single con-
the shocked Peace River L6 chondrite (McConville et al., 1988). A firmed H chondritic contribution so far. The crucial message here,
sample from the interior of the Chico impact melt dike gives a Rb–Sr however, is that any hypothesis about breakup events based on
isochron age of 467 ± 15 Myr ago, whereas the Ar–Ar ages of sev- K–Ar measurements of meteorites can now be tested by searches
eral samples of melt and unmelted parts of Chico indicate an excess for spinel grains in condensed sediments. Our ongoing studies of
40 Ar component, yielding Ar–Ar ages higher than the Rb–Sr ages condensed sections of Frasnian-Fammenian age (372 Myr ago) in
by 10–15%. McConville et al. (1988) determined an Ar–Ar resetting southern France, although very preliminarily, show a 1:1 distribu-
age of 450 ± 30 Myr ago of the Peace River chondrite, based on both tion in H versus L chondrite micrometeorites (based so far on only
whole rock samples and spots degassed with laser from shock-glass 13 recovered EC grains), similar to the distribution in today’s flux
veins. Recently, some groups have readdressed the Ar–Ar approach of meteorites. This may indicate either that a 1:1 relation has been
to date the L chondrite parent body breakup. By using refined the norm throughout much of the late history of the solar system,
techniques to identify and remove trapped Ar components in sev- interrupted only by short term aberrations like after the breakup of
eral L chondrites, an age of 470 ± 6 Myr ago was established for
the breakup (Korochantseva et al., 2007). In another careful Ar–Ar
study of the NWA 091 shocked L6 meteorite, including Cd-shielding
during neutron irradiation, the breakup age was determined to
475 ± 6 Myr ago (Weirich et al., 2012). Apparently, the discovery of
the L chondrite grains in the mid-Ordovician sediments has pro-
vided a powerful means to calibrate the K–Ar approach to date
ancient breakup events.
The K–Ar ages of H chondrites, which are as abundant as the
L chondrites in the present day flux to Earth, have recently been
dealt with in greater detail (Swindle et al., 2009; Bogard, 2011).
Included in the data set are now also many shock darkened H chon-
drites. The H chondrites show a clear bimodal pattern with ages
of either > 3.4 Gyr or <1.5 Gyr, and all but two of the latter plot at
<1 Gyr. It is clear that many heavily shocked H chondrites were
affected by one or several major events in the past 1 Gyr, but the
pattern is much muddier than for the L chondrites dominated by the
event at ∼470 Myr ago. The three highest peaks in the H chondrite
Ar–Ar plot are at 280, 350 and 460 Myr ago (Fig. 30). The peaks may Fig. 29. K–Ar ages of recent L chondrites, from Swindle et al. (2013). The plot shows
be reflections of one large impact event with only partial resetting individual probability distributions for ages of individual meteorites (dashed line)
and a combined probability distribution (solid line) for all of the data. The diagram
recorded in some of the samples analyzed. Swindle et al. (2009)
takes into account the uncertainties in the individual data points in a graphical way
argue that the presently best estimate may be two thermal events by giving each data point equal area. There is a clear bimodal distribution in the
affecting the parent body (or bodies) of recent H chondrites at ∼300 impact resetting ages of the L chondrites. See further Swindle et al. (2013).
is likely that a pulse of micrometeorites of a specific type would

follow in the wake of such an event. Probably many such smaller
breakup events are represented in Earth’s sedimentary record by
changes in the extraterrestrial spinel component.
There is a conundrum underlying our present understanding of
changes in the extraterrestrial dust flux to Earth through the past
66 Myr. Detailed searches for extraterrestrial 3 He in the Cenozoic
sediment record have located two episodes with enhanced fluxes
of interplanetary dust particles, one in the late Miocene at around
8 Myr ago, and the other in the late Eocene at ∼35 Myr ago (Farley,
2009). The 8 Myr dust event has been tied to the breakup of the
asteroid that formed the Veritas family (Farley et al., 2006). This
is an event estimated to have happened 8.3 ± 0.5 Myr ago, based
on tracking of the orbits of Veritas family members backwards in
time to their source (Nesvorný et al., 2003). With the prominent
7–8 Myr peak in the cosmic ray exposure ages of recent H chon-
drite falls and finds, one would expect the original Veritas asteroid
Fig. 30. K–Ar ages of recent H chondrites, from Swindle et al. (2013). The plot shows to be the parent body of the H chondrites, but spectral data do
individual probability distributions for ages of individual meteorites (dashed line) not support this. The Veritas family is of low-albedo, primitive, C
and a combined probability distribution (solid line) for all of the data. The diagram or D type taxonomy (Di Martino et al., 1997), not S type, which is
takes into account the uncertainties in the individual data points in a graphical way thought to represent the ordinary chondrites. Neither do the recent
by giving each data point equal area. There are essentially no impact resetting events
recorded for H chondrites between 1.3 and 3.5 Gyr. See further Swindle et al. (2013).
H chondrites show any K–Ar resetting that would be a likely effect
of a major collision like the one that formed the Veritas family.
Spinel searches in 6–8 Myr old sediments could possibly unravel
the L chondrite parent body. Alternatively, the results can be rec- what type of extraterrestrial matter reached Earth from the Ver-
onciled with an H chondrite breakup event somewhere between itas breakup as well as the exact timing of a smaller H chondrite
450 and 375 Myr ago. More detailed studies, however, are required breakup relative to the Veritas event. The situation is similar for the
before any firm conclusions can be reached on this matter. Late Eocene event, where a 3 He anomaly extends over 2.2 Myr, and
The LL chondrites show the same bimodal K–Ar ages, with ages were two major impact signatures, from the Popigai and Chesa-
either older than 3.4 Gyr, or younger than 1.3 Gyr (Dixon et al., 2004; peake Bay impactors, are recorded (see Section 3.2). Kyte et al.
Swindle et al., 2013). Partly because of their greater rarity in the flux (2011), based on Cr-isotopes, relate the 35 Myr dust and impactors
today, fewer analyses have been performed on LL chondrites. An to the formation of the Brangäne asteroid, with a 50 ± 40 Myr age
age of 625 ± 163 Myr was measured on a single multi-grain aliquot based on orbits. This is an S type asteroid family likely made up of
from the (well preserved) fossil LL meteorite fragment recovered ordinary chondrites. Kyte et al. (2011) also note a peak in cosmic ray
from a drill core into the Morokweng impact crater (Jourdan et al., exposure ages for H chondrites in the interval 36–33 Myr ago and
2010). Swindle et al. (2013) compiled data for two Antarctic LL suggest that the 35 Myr event relates to an enhanced flux of H chon-
chondrites, one with a Rb–Sr isochron age of 1.197 ± 0.054 Gyr and dritic material to Earth. Trying to understand the 35 Myr dust event,
a slightly higher Ar–Ar age, ∼1.26 Gyr, and the other having a Rb- Schmitz et al. (2009) searched for extraterrestrial spinels in the 3 He
Sr age of 1.270 ± 0.190 Gyr. Weirich et al. (2009) Ar–Ar dated two rich interval of the Late Eocene at Massignano, but found only one
shocked LL chondrites and obtained scattered values in the range ordinary chondritic grain in 167 kg sediment (see Section 3.1). The
900–1250 Myr ago (see also, Swindle et al., 2011). Again it can- 35 Myr event must have been orders of magnitudes smaller than
not be said with any certainty whether the spread over the total the 470 Myr event that resulted in common chromite grains from
range for LL chondrites from ∼600 to 1300 Myr ago reflects partial micrometeorites in the sediments. The mid-Ordovician event has
retention of Ar and one single event in this time interval, or several been associated with either the ∼6000 member Flora asteroid fam-
major impacts on the LL chondrite parent body (or bodies) over this ily, or the ∼1000 member Gefion family, which resulted from two
interval. of the largest documented breakup events during the past billion
For many recent ordinary chondritic meteorite finds and falls years (Nesvorný et al., 2007, 2009; Kyte et al., 2011). It appears that
cosmic ray exposure ages have also been determined giving infor- the effects of major breakup events on the flux of material to Earth
mation on the time an object has traveled in space as a small is also strongly dependent of where in relation to particular orbital
(<∼1 m) object. The cosmic ray exposure ages rarely coincide with resonances the breakup occurs (Zappalà et al., 1998).
K–Ar ages, for example, many L chondrites have K–Ar ages of
∼470 Myr and cosmic ray exposure ages of ∼40 Myr. The typical
cosmic ray exposure ages for H chondrites lie around 7–8 Myr, and 6. Perturbations in the asteroid belt and effects on Earth
15 Myr for LL chondrites (Wieler and Graf, 2001). The discrepany
between K–Ar and cosmic ray exposure ages reflects that the latter That an extraterrestrial event at the K-T boundary had a cru-
only represent smaller breakup events. For example, today’s L chon- cial effect on the evolution of life can be concluded from more
drite finds and falls may originate from a kilometer-sized asteroid than thirty years of intense research on this event (e.g., Alvarez
that was blasted off a 200 km-sized L chondrite parent 470 Myr et al., 1980; Schulte et al., 2010). The main evidence is the pre-
ago, but then broke up into smaller pieces and dust because of a cise coincidence in the stratigraphic record between the worldwide
minor collision 40 Myr ago. Judging from the characteristic group- occurrence of an iridium-rich ejecta layer and the last appearance
ings of cosmic ray exposure ages of the ordinary chondrites, these of the typical Cretaceous fossil fauna. In the following, some coin-
smaller breakup events are crucial in determining which types of cidences between events in the asteroid belt and on Earth will
meteorites that reach Earth at a particular time. There must have be discussed. These coincidences, admittedly, may just be coinci-
been many such smaller breakup events through Earth’s history, dences, but as Miss Marple, the detective hero of Agatha Christie’s
and although they would not lead to the same dramatic change novels once said: “Any coincidence is always worth noting. You
in the meteorite flux as one of the major K–Ar resetting events, it can always throw it away later if it is only a coincidence”. The
main point here is to show how the spinel approach can poten- time interval (Grieve, 2001), but one or a few larger craters may
tially tie the histories of Earth and the astronomical realm to each have been destroyed or are covered by sediments. In Baltoscandia
other. the first EC grains from the breakup of the L chondrite parent
The long period from ∼3.4 to ∼1 Gyr ago when no K–Ar gas reset- body occur at the same level in the strata where the main phase
ting impacts appear to have occurred in the asteroid belt reflects of the diversification of brachiopod species starts (Schmitz et al.,
tranquil conditions in at least the parts of the asteroid belt where 2008). The origination event is preceeded by an extinction event,
the parent bodies of the ordinary chondrites reside. At least the lat- but because of the relatively low number of brachiopod species
ter part of this period is known also as a very tranquil period in before the GOBE, this extinction event does not stand out in the
Earth’s history. The one billion years from ∼1.85 to 0.85 Gyr, are record. All the succeeding major mass extinction events during the
named the Intermediate Ocean, but also, more sardonically, the Phanerozoic are actually coupled extinction-origination events, but
“Boring Billion” (Hazen, 2012), because so little appears to have most focus has been directed to the extinction phase. In order for
happened in terms of evolution of life, and no obvious major envi- a new fauna to invade, the old fauna must first be removed. Per-
ronmental perturbations such as ice ages or major impacts are haps the best evidence for the eradication of the dinosaurs by the
known on Earth from this long time interval. During the entire Chicxulub impactor comes from the rapid diversification of mam-
period single-celled eukaryotes represented the highest form of life mal species after the K-T boundary (Fastovsky and Sheehan, 2005).
on Earth. Then around ∼0.85 Gyr ago, the Earth enters, what could The 20 Myr after the breakup of the L chondrite parent body is
be called the “Dynamic 0.85 Gyr”, starting with the ∼200 Myr of also characterized by prominent volcanism and dramatic tectonic
repeated Snowball Earth glaciations, the Cryogenian Period from reorganizations (Thompson et al., 2012). Whether the relations
∼0.85 to 0.64 Gyr ago, and the concurrent emergence of multicel- described here simply reflect random coincidence, or if there is
lular animal life (Smith, 2009). The most recent 0.85 Gyr of Earth’s a common cause for extraterrestrial and terrestrial perturbations,
history are characterized by a spectacular evolution of animals from requires further investigations.
single-celled eukaryotes to today’s humans, and at least four major In the late Ordovician, after the GOBE has stabilized, there is a
ice age episodes, Snowball Earth, late Ordovician, Carboniferous- minor glaciation event, and towards the end of the Ordovician one
Permian, and the late Cenozoic, the one we live in (Fig. 1). During of Earth’s five major mass extinction events occur, but no strong
the period also many large impact craters formed both on Earth and evidence for any coeval perturbations in the asteroid or comet flux
the Moon. The ice age before the Snowball Earth glaciations dates are known. The next major event on Earth is in the late Devonian,
back as far as to 2.4 Gyr ago, the Huronian glaciation, which has at ∼372 Myr ago with another of the big mass extinctions, at the
left a record primarily in North America. Only one large crater, the Frasnian-Famennian stages boundary. The late Devonian-early Car-
30 km diameter and 1.63 Gyr old Shoemaker crater in Australia, is boniferous is also a time when three large impact craters formed,
representing the Boring Billion years on Earth (Grieve, 2001). The the Charlevoix (54 km), Siljan (52 km), and Woodleigh (40 km)
large, 250 km diameter Sudbury and 300 km diameter Vredefort craters (Fig. 1). Not long after the late Devonian mass extinctions
craters are dated to 1.85 and 2.0 Gyr ago, respectively. On the other the Earth enters into the long (∼80 Myr) and severe Carboniferous-
hand, the onset of the Cryogenian Period appears to coincide with Permian glaciation. The next major event, at the Permian-Triassic
an asteroid shower on the Earth-Moon system as evidenced from boundary, 252 Myr ago, is the largest mass exctinction event in
common and widely distributed lunar impact glasses with K–Ar Earth history, but no evidence of extraterrestrial forcing exists. The
ages around 0.8 Gyr ago (Zellner et al., 2009). One of the Moon’s mass extinction event at the K-T boundary 66 Myr ago, is clearly
most prominent “young” craters the 93 km diameter Copernicus related to an extraterrestrial event, and it remains to be established
crater also formed at 0.8 Gyr ago (Eberhardt et al., 1973; Bogard whether the K-T impactor possibly relates to a breakup of a major
et al., 1994). The common Moon impacts and the weakly defined carbonaceous chondritic parent body. It is notable that the onset of
K–Ar ages of the LL chondrites in the range 1.2–0.6 Gyr ago may the cooling leading to today’s ice age, coincides rather precisely (on
be related to an LL chondrite parent body breakup and accompa- a geological scale) in the Late Eocene 35 Myr ago with the period of
nying asteroid shower at around the time of the Snowball Earth enhanced 3 He in sediments, and formation of two unusually large
glaciations. Another coincidence that may indicate an extraterres- craters on Earth, Chesapeake Bay and Popigai.
trial forcing is the ca. 250–300 Myr recurrence seen for the three There are other data and facts that may concur with a period
past major ice ages (Fig. 1), which is not too different from the esti- of enhanced impacts and perturbations of the orbits of the bodies
mated period of ca. 225–250 Myr for the Sun’s orbit around the of the inner solar system during the past ∼0.85 Gyr. The combined
galaxy (Perryman, 2009). age data from lunar spherules, lunar impact melts and lunar craters
The next crucial event in the history of life is the emergence indicates that after ∼3.2 Gyr ago the impact rate on the Moon may
of shelled animals at the base of the Cambrian ∼540 Myr ago, but have been stable within a factor of two, except for a peak during the
biodiversity remained low, with comparatively few species, until last 0.5 Gyr or so (Culler et al., 2000; Levine et al., 2005; Hartmann
the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) in the mid- et al., 2007). This peak is mainly seen in the data for the smaller
Ordovician at ∼470–450 Myr ago. This is one of the most important craters, and the largest peak in K–Ar ages for lunar spherules is at
events in the history of life. At the genera level, it represents an even 470 Myr ago, reflecting most likely that the spherule collections are
more prominent change in biodiversity than some of the later major weighted to representing smaller craters.
extinction events, but the GOBE is primarily a “mass origination” At least three major hits on the three ordinary chondritic par-
event. It represents the most intense phase of species radiation dur- ent bodies from ∼1 to ∼0.3 Gyr would probably require significant
ing the Paleozoic and led to irreversible changes in the faunas of perturbations of orbital parameters in the parts of the inner solar
Earth’s sea floors. For the GOBE there is now data indicating a close system where the increase of cratering occurs. The increase in fre-
temporal coincidence with the 466 Myr ago breakup event of the quency of K–Ar resetting impacts on asteroid bodies are likely to
L chondrite parent body (Schmitz et al., 2008). Bed-by-bed studies be accompanied by comparable variations in the flux of impactors
of the fossil fauna in the mid-Ordovician sedimentary strata indi- that hit the inner planets and our Moon or a general increase in flux
cate that the GOBE takes place over the ∼20 Myr in the immediate of bodies of a size that can reset portions of meteorite parent bodies
aftermath of the breakup of the L chondrite parent body. The period without destroying the bodies (Swindle et al., 2009). The latter fact
is characterized by an at least two orders of magnitude increase can explain the protracted range of K–Ar ages for ordinary chon-
in the flux of meteorites to Earth (Schmitz et al., 2008). Many drites in case they do not just reflect three major impact events as
small craters (∼3–30 km in diameter) are known on Earth from this favored here.
It is remarkable that in the past 110 Myr there are many very orbital radius of Neptune, with new comets replacing those that
large craters on the Earth-Moon system, Tycho on the Moon, and have been expelled from the solar system by the outer planets.
e.g., Chicxulub, Popigai, Chesapeake Bay, Kara-Kul and Kara on This would increase the new-comet rate by a factor of ∼40 (Frogel
Earth (Fig. 1). One can note that the eminent astrogeologist, the and Gould, 1998). Near encounters with stars that can perturb the
late Eugene Shoemaker in his last and unfinished paper, in his last Oort cloud is a feasible process in the geological time perspective as
paragraph writes: “For a number of years I have suspected that shown by the Hipparcos satellite data. García-Sánchez et al. (1997,
the long-term average cratering rate may have increased late in 1999) identified 1194 stars that could pass close enough to signif-
geological time, perhaps as much as a factor of two. Hints of this icantly perturb the Oort cloud, i.e., within 2–3 pc. In recent space,
increase comes from comparison of the terrestrial cratering rate within a time framework of ±10 Myr, the object Gliese 710 has
estimated from the present flux of asteroids and comets and from a predicted closest approach of less than 105 AU, ∼0.5 pc, which
the Phanerozoic crater record of North America and Europe with the would lead to a minor comet shower, but increasing the cratering
3.2 Ga crater record of North America and Europe with the 3.2 Ga rate by only 5% (García-Sánchez, 2000; García-Sánchez et al., 1997,
crater record of the Moon. The number of small craters on the rim 2001). In the 100–1000 Myr perspective, however, more dramatic
deposits of the large young lunar craters Copernicus and Tycho also comet showers most likely have occurred.
suggest a late increase in the cratering rate” (Shoemaker, 1998; see Other factors that potentially can perturb the Oort comet cloud
also McEwen et al., 1997). are giant molecular clouds, the galactic gravitational field, and
It is possible that parent body breakups as well as Earth glacia- supernova shock waves (Perryman, 2009). In the 1980s and 90s
tions relate to astronomical disturbances of the inner solar system there was an extensive discussion in the literature on whether
during the past 0.85 Gyr. The main point made here, however, is that the undulating movement of the solar system perpendicularly to
the spinel approach can give new and crucial quantitative proxy the galactic equatorial plane could cause periodic comet showers
data that can resolve issues about the frequency of impacts in the at ∼30 Myr intervals to the inner solar system (e.g., Hills, 1981;
inner solar system and the precise timing and sequence of asteroid Rampino and Stothers, 1984; Hut et al., 1987; Rampino, 1998;
breakup events, both smaller ones that reset cosmic ray exposure Stothers, 1998). At the time it was generally held that many, if
ages, and larger ones that reset K–Ar ages. Earth’s cratering record not most, large craters on Earth were related to comet impacts
is very incomplete, only a percent of all craters formed are known (e.g., Shoemaker, 1998; Stothers, 1998). The periodic cometary
and for only a fraction of these do we know the precise impact age hypothesis was attractive in its simplicity, tying the astro- and the
and/or the type of impactor involved (Jourdan, 2012). Any infer- geobiosphere together, but it has not withstood the test of time.
ences based on such a data set will be very uncertain. In Earth’s Large uncertainities in the crater ages and the very fragmental
sedimentary record, at least for the last ∼0.6 Gyr, there are traces crater record preclude robust conclusions about cratering period-
of most or all major asteroid and comet impacts on Earth, as well as icities. For some of the largest known craters (e.g., Morokweng,
the different micrometeorites that reached Earth at different times. Popigai, Chicxulub), the data now tend to support an asteroidal
The problem is that the “haystack” in which the extraterrestrial rather than a cometary impactor (but then remains the issue that
signatures, “the needles”, are hidden is so large. some or many comets may be very similar to asteroids in their
composition). Recent evaluation of data from the Hipparchos satel-
lite indicate that the passage through the equatorial plane may
7. Potential perturbations of the solar system rather take place every ∼41 Myr (Perryman, 2009). The galactic
tide has been proposed to be the dominant cause of orbital evo-
Much has been written on possible perturbations of the solar lution in the Oort cloud, inducing a loss rate of comets by about a
system in the longer term (>10 Myr) geological perspective. The lit- factor 1.5–2 larger than due to stellar perturbations (Heisler and
erature, however, tends to be speculative and many of the proposed Tremaine, 1986). Adiabatically varying galactic tide should deliver
scenarios lack adequate empirical verification by proxy approaches. comets individually, whereas a close molecular cloud encounter
It is beyond the scope of this paper to give more than a brief sum- should trigger a comet shower. Passages of the solar system through
mary of the astronomical processes at stake. The most commonly the galactic spiral arms have been thought to affect climate and life
discussed processes include near-by encounters with stars, pas- on Earth by changes in the cosmic ray flux (Gies and Helsel, 2005;
sages through interstellar molecular or dust clouds, or unusual Svensmark, 2012). Upon entering the spiral arms shock fronts may
planetary alignments within the solar system (e.g., Varadi et al., perturb the solar system. Astronomical simulations further indi-
1999, 2003; Perryman, 2009). There are also processes on a larger cate that the dynamics of the solar system is chaotic, and unusual
astronomical scale, such as galactic gravity waves and galactic can- planetary alignments may perturb orbits of bodies over regions of
nibalism, for which the potential effects on the solar system are the solar system at times (Varadi et al., 1999, 2003). If it turns out
not well understood. There are major factors, such as dark matter that most craters on Earth have formed by bodies from the main
and dark energy, or the expansion of the universe, that we do not asteroid belt, this may indicate that the planetary orbital evolu-
understand well, so it appears likely that there are also unknown tion is a dominating factor. So far much of this research is based on
processes that may have affected the solar system. theoretical speculations and modeling work. Careful studies of the
The Oort Cloud of comets is inferred to surround the solar sys- extraterrestrial fraction of Earth’s sedimentary record may provide
tem to distances on the order of 104 –105 AU. It consists of some the empirical basis on which a more robust understanding of how
1012 –1013 comets with a total mass about ten times that of Earth the history of life on Earth and cosmos are intertwined.
(Oort, 1950; Weissman, 1996; Perryman, 2009). Perturbations of
the Oort cloud by nearby encounters with random passing stars has
been suggested to trigger comet showers to the inner solar system. Acknowledgements
This would lead to an increase also in the cometary micrometeorite
flux to Earth, but the insufficient knowledge about cometary spinels Many persons have made important contributions to the devel-
would make it difficult to locate a cometary spinel spike in the sed- opment of the spinel approach. The main gratitude goes to Mario
imentary strata. Cometary showers could also have indirect effects, Tassinari for his persistent and devoted contribution in the recovery
such as increasing the flux of micrometeorites from inner solar sys- of Ordovician fossil meteorites, work that was awarded by an Hon-
tem bodies having been hit by comets. A comet shower could also orary Doctorate at Lund University in 2011. Anders Cronholm and
suddenly fill up the space up to ∼30 AU from the sun, within the Fredrik Terfelt are playing heroic and crucial roles in developing the
spinel approach. Previous and present students and post docs have Bogard, D.D., Garrison, D.H., Norman, M., Scott, E.R.D., Keil, K., 1995. 39 Ar-40 Ar age
made important contributions: Carl Alwmark, Karolina Bjärnborg, and petrology of Chico: large-scale impact melting on the L chondrite parent
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Chemie der Erde 73 (2013) 117–145

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Chemie der Erde

Extraterrestrial spinels and the astronomical perspective on Earth’s geological

(Schmitz et al., 2001). Average chondrule diameters for recent L

enrichment in EC occurs over an area of at least 250,000 km2 of

The sediment-dispersed EC grains and fossil meteorites thus

2.4. Elemental composition of ordinary chondrite chromite

Relict ordinary chondrite chromite recovered from sediment

and TiO2 , ∼2.0–3.5 wt%. It must be stressed that for a grain to be

abundance, size and chemistry of its relict chromite Bridges et al.

2.6. Silicate inclusions in mid-Ordovician chromite

Encapsulated in the chondrite chromite grains from mid-

This meteorite, Österplana 002 (informal name: Ark 002), is inter-

ejecta as well as a reinterpretation of the elemental signatures of

- Jurassic to early Cretaceous, Ammonitico Rosso, 180–140 Myr ago.

is likely that a pulse of micrometeorites of a speciﬁc type would

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