Exposure history and terrestrial ages of ordinary chondrites from the Dar al Gani region, Libya

Abstract—We measured the concentrations of noble gases in 32 ordinary chondrites from the Dar al Gani (DaG) region, Libya, as well as concentrations of the cosmogenic radionuclides 14C, 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, and 41Ca in 18 of these samples. Although the trapped noble gases in five DaG samples show ratios typical of solar or planetary gases, in all other DaG samples, they are dominated by atmospheric contamination, which increases with the degree of weathering. Cosmic ray exposure (CRE) ages of DaG chondrites range from ˜1 Myr to 53 Myr. The CRE age distribution of 10 DaG L chondrites shows a cluster around 40 Myr due to four members of a large L6 chondrite shower. The CRE age distribution of 19 DaG H chondrites shows only three ages coinciding with the main H chondrite peak at ˜7 Myr, while seven ages are <5 Myr. Two of these H chondrites with short CRE ages (DaG 904 and 908) show evidence of a complex exposure history. Five of the H chondrites show evidence of high shielding conditions, including low 22Ne/21Ne ratios and large contributions of neutron‐capture 36Cl and 41Ca. These samples represent fragments of two or more large pre‐atmospheric objects, which supports the hypothesis that the high H/L chondrite ratio at DaG is due to one or more large unrecognized showers.