ABSTRACT Although the ~200 impact craters known on Earth represent only a small fraction of the craters originally formed, the available data suggest an excess of craters by one order of magnitude, in number, in the interval ca. 470–440 Ma during the Ordovician. Most of these “excess” craters may be related to the breakup of the L-chondrite parent body (LCPB) in the asteroid belt at 465.8 ± 0.3 Ma. This is the only obvious peak in the crater-age record that can currently be attributed to an asteroid breakup and shower event. Spatial crater densities in regions with high potential for crater preservation (e.g., Canada and Scandinavia) support a one order-of-magnitude increase in the flux of large (>0.1 km) impactors following the LCPB breakup. A similar pattern as seen in the cratering record is emerging in studies of the flux of micrometeoritic chrome spinel through the Phanerozoic, with so far only one major spike in the flux, and associated with the LCPB breakup. Similarly, the record of K-Ar and (U-Th)/He gas retention ages of recently fallen meteorites only locates one major breakup, the LCPB event, during the Phanerozoic. On the other hand, astronomical backtracking studies of the orbits of asteroid family members indicate ~70 major family-forming breakups within the past ~540 m.y., which apparently have not left any clear imprint in Earth’s geological record. The chrome-spinel grains recovered in our studies dominantly represent large micrometeorites (>300 µm) and as such are also representative of the flux of larger meteorites to Earth. An observed, nearly constant flux of ordinary chondritic chrome-spinel grains throughout the Phanerozoic, except after the LCPB event, indicates that the present situation—with a clear dominance of ordinary chondritic matter in the large (>500 µm) micrometeorite and macroscopic meteorite fractions—has prevailed at least for the last 500 m.y. This is also supported by generally high ratios in our samples of chrome-spinel grains from ordinary chondrites compared to other types of spinel-bearing meteorites. The chrome-spinel data together with the abundance of fossil meteorites (1–21 cm in diameter) on the Ordovician seafloor also sets an upper limit at one order of magnitude on the increase in flux of large (>0.1-km-diameter) L-chondritic projectiles to Earth following the LCPB. Such an increase would not stand out in the global cratering record if ordinary chondritic impactors had only represented a small fraction of all Phanerozoic impactors. We argue that the origin of impactors delivered to Earth during the past 500 m.y. has mirrored the flux of large micrometeorites and meteorites, with ordinary chondrites being an important or, most likely, the dominant (in numbers) component throughout.

ABSTRACT Numerical models of meteorite delivery from impacts on the Moon have demonstrated that the impact event forming the lunar crater Tycho (~85 km diameter; ca. 109 Ma age) would have delivered considerable amounts of ejected material to Earth. The ejecta, containing lunar Ti- and V-rich chrome spinels, would have been distributed globally and admixed with seafloor sediments over a few meters of a typical marine stratigraphic interval. In order to locate such ejecta, samples weighing ~12–25 kg each, with one-meter spacing were extracted over an ~30 m interval of the deep-sea formed Calera Limestone, Albian and Aptian age (ca. 103–117 Ma), from the Pacifica Quarry, south of San Francisco. The limestone samples were leached in acids and residues searched for possible lunar Ti-rich chrome-spinel grains. In a total of 689 kg of limestone, 1154 chrome-spinel grains were found. Of these, 319 contain >0.45 wt% V 2 O 3 , of which 227 originate from equilibrated ordinary chondrites. The majority of the other 92 grains with >0.45 wt% V 2 O 3 are most likely from different types of achondritic meteorites. Among these, we found eleven particularly Ti-rich chrome-spinel grains. The elemental abundances of these grains were compared with chrome spinel from lunar, howardite-eucrite-diogenite (HED) and R-chondritic meteorites. This showed that only one of these grains could potentially be of lunar origin. The bulk of the other grains likely originate from HED meteorites based on oxygen isotopic analysis of similar grains in previous studies. Grains with TiO 2 >10 wt%, common among lunar spinels are not found, further supporting an HED source for the Ti-rich grains. In summary, Albian and Aptian strata in the Pacifica quarry do not likely record any major lunar impact event. Either the timing of the impact is located within a ca. 110–114 Ma unconformity in the middle part of the section or the impact is likely older than the interval searched.

ABSTRACT In total, 33 and 65 chrome-spinel (Cr-spinel) grains in the >63 and 32–63 μm size fractions, respectively, were recovered from 12 beds in two stratigraphically separated groups along the 240-m-thick Monte Acuto section of the Maiolica limestone in central Italy, spanning from the Berriasian to the early Hauterivian. The chemistry of these detrital spinels suggests they may represent windblown ophiolitic detritus, showing the evolution of an ophiolite evolving from a mid-ocean-ridge basalt setting (Bosso section) to a suprasubduction-zone setting, including a backarc and an arc setting (Monte Acuto section). The source of the Maiolica detrital minerals may have been the obducting ophiolites of the Albanides and/or the Hellenides, which show a similar evolution. In this case, it is particularly important to note how the Cr-spinel detritus in the Maiolica limestone records this evolution over a relatively short period of time, lasting ~10 m.y.

ABSTRACT The Popigai (100 km in diameter) and the Chesapeake Bay (40–85 km diameter) impact structures formed within ~10–20 k.y. in the late Eocene during a 2 m.y. period with enhanced flux of 3 He-rich interplanetary dust to Earth. Ejecta from the Siberian Popigai impact structure have been found in late Eocene marine sediments at numerous deep-sea drilling sites around the globe and also in a few marine sections outcropped on land, like the Massignano section near Ancona in Italy. In the Massignano section, the Popigai layer is associated with an iridium anomaly, shocked quartz, and abundant clinopyroxene-bearing (cpx) spherules, altered to smectite and flattened to “pancake spherules.” The ejecta are also associated with a significant enrichment of H-chondritic chromite grains (>63 μm), likely representing unmelted fragments of the impactor. The Massignano section also contains abundant terrestrial chrome-spinel grains, making reconstructions of the micrometeorite flux very difficult. We therefore searched for an alternative section that would be more useful for these types of studies. Here, we report the discovery of such a section, and also the first discovery of the Popigai ejecta in another locality in Italy, the Monte Vaccaro section, 90 km west of Ancona. The Monte Vaccaro section biostratigraphy was established based on calcareous nannoplankton, which allowed the identification of a sequence of distinct bioevents showing a good correlation with the Massignano section. In both the Monte Vaccaro and Massignano sections, the Popigai ejecta layer occurs in calcareous nannofossil zone CNE 19. The ejecta layer in the Monte Vaccaro section contains shocked quartz, abundant pancake spherules, and an iridium anomaly of 700 ppt, which is three times higher than the peak Ir measured in the ejecta layer at Massignano. In a 105-kg-size sample from just above the ejecta layer at Monte Vaccaro, we also found an enrichment of H-chondritic chromite grains. Because of its condensed nature and low content of terrestrial spinel grains, the Monte Vaccaro section holds great potential for reconstructions of the micrometeorite flux to Earth during the late Eocene using spinels.

ABSTRACT We reconstructed a record of the micrometeorite flux in the Late Cretaceous using the distribution of extraterrestrial spinel grains across an ~2 m.y. interval of elevated 3 He in the Turonian Stage (ca. 92–90 Ma). From ~30 m of the limestone succession in the Bottaccione section, Italy, a total of 979 kg of rock from levels below and within the 3 He excursion yielded 603 spinel grains (32–355 μm size). Of those, 115 represent equilibrated ordinary chondritic chromite (EC). Within the 3 He excursion, there is no change in the number of EC grains per kilogram of sediment, but H-chondritic grains dominate over L and LL grains (70%, 27%, and 3%), contrary to the interval before the excursion, where the relation between the three groups (50%, 44%, and 6%) is similar to today and to the Early Cretaceous. Intriguingly, within the 3 He anomaly, there is also a factor-of-five increase of vanadium-rich chrome spinels likely originating from achondritic and unequilibrated ordinary chondritic meteorites. The 3 He anomaly has an unusually spiky and temporal progression not readily explained by present models for delivery of extraterrestrial dust to Earth. Previous suggestions of a relation to a comet or asteroid shower possibly associated with dust-producing lunar impacts are not supported by our data. Instead, the spinel data preliminary indicate a more general disturbance of the asteroid belt, where different parent bodies or source regions of micrometeorites were affected at the same time. More spinel grains need to be recovered and more oxygen isotopic analyses of grains are required to resolve the origin of the 3 He anomaly.

ABSTRACT The present-day ocean-climate system configuration took shape during the Miocene Epoch. Toward the end of the epoch, in the late Tortonian at ca. 8.5 Ma, there was an exceptional event: collisional disruption of an >150-km-diameter asteroid, which created the Veritas family of asteroids in the asteroid belt. This event increased the flux of interplanetary dust particles rich in 3 He to Earth and probably caused a period of increased dust in the atmosphere, with consequent alteration of global and local environmental conditions. A late Miocene 3 He anomaly likely related to the Veritas event has been registered in deep-sea sediments from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 926 (Atlantic Ocean), ODP Site 757 (Indian Ocean), and in the late Tortonian–early Messinian Monte dei Corvi section near Ancona, Italy. Here, we report the results of a study in the Monte dei Corvi section aimed to recover extraterrestrial chrome-spinel grains across the 3 He anomaly interval, as has been done for the similar late Eocene 3 He anomaly in the nearby Massignano section. In this study, three ~100 kg samples were collected from the Monte dei Corvi section: two within the 3 He peak interval and one outside the anomaly interval as a background reference sample. In total, 1151 chrome-spinel grains (>63 µm) were recovered, but based on chemical composition, none of the grains has a clear extraterrestrial origin. This supports the inference that the 3 He anomaly is indeed related to the Veritas event and not to an approximately coeval breakup of a smaller H-chondritic body in the asteroid belt, an event registered in meteoritic cosmic-ray exposure ages. Spectral studies of the Veritas asteroids indicate that they are made up of carbonaceous chondritic material. Such meteorites generally have very low chrome-spinel concentrations in the grain-size range considered here, contrary to the very chromite-rich ordinary chondrites. The terrestrial grains recovered were classified, and their composition showed that all the grains have an ophiolitic origin with no substantial compositional and distributional change through the section. The source area of the terrestrial grains was probably the Dinarides orogen.

Two prominent, and apparently globally distributed, δ 13 C excursions have been documented from the Upper Ordovician, namely the early Katian Guttenberg isotope carbon excursion (GICE) and the latest Ordovician Hirnantian isotope carbon excursion (HICE). The former excursion, which has lower δ 13 C values than the HICE, is now recorded from dozens of localities in North America and Baltoscandia, and it appears to be present also in China. In North America the GICE ranges from the uppermost Phragmodus undatus Midcontinent Conodont Zone to near the top of the Plectodina tenuis Midcontinent Conodont Zone, an interval corresponding to the lower part of the Diplacanthograptus caudatus Global Graptolite Zone. The base of the GICE lies somewhat above the Millbrig K-bentonite. In Baltoscandia the GICE occurs in the upper Diplograptus foliaceus through the lower Dicranograptus clingani Graptolite Zones, and in the upper Amorphognathus tvaerensis Conodont Zone. Its base is a few meters above the widespread Kinnekulle K-bentonite. In Baltoscandia and in Oklahoma the GICE ranges through a part of the Spinachitina cervicornis Chitinozoan Zone. In North America the GICE is regionally in a transgressive-regressive succession. The bathymetric conditions in the GICE interval in Baltoscandia were somewhat complex and have been the subject of different interpretations, but there is no obvious correlation between the GICE and apparent sea level changes. A review of the relations between the GICE and potential climatic and water temperature indicators, such as lithofacies, faunas, and 18 O geochemistry, does not suggest a close correlation to specific environmental conditions. The cause of formation of the GICE is enigmatic, but there is no direct evidence that it was coeval with a period of extensive glaciation in the Gondwana. The GICE is a powerful chemostratigraphic tool that is useful for detailed local and even transatlantic correlations.

The late Eocene may have been a period with an enhanced flux of extraterrestrial matter to Earth related either to a comet or an asteroid shower. The evidence comes from two very large and several medium-sized impact craters, at least two microtektite-microkrystite layers, and a stratigraphic interval with enhanced extraterrestrial 3 He, all within the period ca. 36.3–34.3 Ma. Here, we show that the distribution of sediment-dispersed extraterrestrial (ordinary chondritic) chromite (EC) grains in the Massignano section, central Italy, can be used to test whether the flux of ordinary chondritic matter to Earth was enhanced in the late Eocene. In twelve limestone samples, each weighing ~12–15 kg, from 1.25 m to 10.25 m above the base of the section, only 1 EC grain was found. Based on the total amount of limestone analyzed, 167 kg, this corresponds to 0.006 EC grain kg ‒1 limestone. This is a factor of five lower than the 0.029 EC grain kg ‒1 recovered in 210 kg of latest Cretaceous–Paleocene limestone from the Bottaccione Gorge section at Gubbio, central Italy. The difference can readily be explained by an approximately threefold higher sedimentation rate in the late Eocene at Massignano. In essence, our results speak against a late Eocene asteroid shower. Apparently, there was no significant increase in the flux of extraterrestrial chromite at this time, such as that after the disruption of the L-chondrite parent body in the mid-Ordovician, when the EC flux was enhanced by two orders of magnitude. We also discuss the potential to search for lunar minerals in the Massignano section in order to test the recent hypothesis that late Eocene 3 He enrichments originated from impact-ejected lunar regolith.

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