Chondrite Formation: A Long Many-Stage Process, or Fast and Brutish?

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Chondrites, Formation, Nebula, Solar Nebula

Scientific paper

Chondrite formation has come to be seen as the outcome of a lengthy chain of almost-unrelated events: CAI formation; volatility fractionations of chondrule precursor material; partial remixing of the volatility fractions; the accretion of precursor dustballs; high-energy events that melted the dustballs; the addition of chondrule rims; accretion of chondrules and dust (matrix) into chondritic matter. Every stage can very logically be deduced from the properties of chondrites, but it is largely convenience that has caused us to view each event in isolation from the others. By now, however, decades of tradition has hardened this working relationship into the long multistage history that we consider orthodox. This paper argues that chondrite formation can with equal validity be seen as a much shorter, more chaotic, unsegmented process that was achieved in less than a million years, probably very much less than a million years (but perhaps on multiple occasions, each producing a different chondrite class). This process could then be placed in the early infall stage of nebula evolution (0 < t < 1 Ma), a time of profligate energy dissipation, instead of in the later, longer, quiescent nebula stage where chondrite formation is traditionally pictured, and where special circumstances must be invoked to accumulate then release enough energy to melt chondrules (e.g., lightning discharges). Several considerations point to fast rather than leisurely chondrite formation. One is that material of specialized chemical composition produced by evaporation and recondensation must be utilized very promptly in making chondrules, before it is remixed with the nebula and lost. An analogous point is that specialized types of chondrules, populations of which help define the various chondrite classes, also must be accreted promptly once they are made or they will mix with other nebular matter and be lost.

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