Cosmic spherules from the Ordovician of Argentina

Abstract

The discovery of magnetic spherules in acid-insoluble residues from conodont samples encouraged a systematic search for Ordovician micrometeorites from Northwestern Argentina. Some 220 melted micrometeorites were recovered from the magnetic fraction of 6 samples (total rock weight: 23 kg) from the Cordillera Oriental (Santa Rosita Formation) and 17 from 5 samples (total rock weight: 8.9 kg) from the Argentine Precordillera (Las Aguaditas, Gualcamayo and Las Vacas formations). The specimens resemble I-type cosmic spherules, in their chemistry and distinct dendritic and polygonal crystalline structures. They represent a flux of micrometeorites several orders of magnitude greater than present. The wide differences in spherule abundance between the Precordillera and the Cordillera Oriental samples could reflect uncertainties in the sedimentary rates or temporal variations in the flux of extraterrestrial matter to Earth. The micrometeorite-bearing formations span the late Tremadocian to the late Darriliwian (~480-460 Ma), which is consistent with a period of elevated flux of extraterrestrial material, as recorded several thousand kilometres away from coeval horizons in Scotland, Sweden and central China.