1. Fossil micrometeorites from Monte dei Corvi: Searching for dust from the Veritas asteroid family and the utility of micrometeorites as a palaeoclimate proxy
- Author
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Suttle, Martin David, Campanale, Fabrizio, Folco, Luigi, Tavazzani, Lorenzo, Meier, Matthias M.M., Miller, C. Giles, Hughes, Gerallt, Genge, Matthew J., Salge, Tobias, Spratt, John, and Anand, Mahesh
- Subjects
Micrometeorites ,Asteroids ,Veritas ,Fossilisation ,Palaeoclimate - Abstract
We searched late Miocene sedimentary rocks in an attempt to recover fossil micrometeorites derived from the Veritas asteroid family. This study was motivated by the previous identification of a pronounced 3He peak (4-5x above background) within marine sediments with ages between ∼8.5–6.9 Ma ago (Montanari et al., 2017. GSA Bulletin, 129:1357–1376). We processed 118.9 kg of sediment from the Monte dei Corvi beach section (Italy), the global type-section for the Tortonian epoch (11.6–7.2 Ma). Samples were collected both before and within the 3He peak. Although a small number of iron-rich (I-type) fossil micrometeorites were recovered from each horizon studied (Ntotal = 20), there is no clear difference between the pre- and intra- 3He peak samples. All micrometeorites are compositionally similar, and three out of five horizons yielded similar abundances and particle sizes. Micrometeorites extracted from sediments at the base of the 3He peak were exclusively small (ø, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 355, ISSN:0016-7037, ISSN:1872-9533
- Published
- 2023