Presence of all Three Allotropes of Impact-Diamonds in the Younger Dryas Onset Layer (YDB) Across N America and NW Europe

Details Presence of all Three Allotropes of Impact-Diamonds in the Younger Dryas Onset Layer (YDB) Across N America and NW Europe Presence of all Three Allotropes of Impact-Diamonds in the Younger Dryas Onset Layer (YDB) Across N America and NW Europe

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmpp23d..01w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #PP23D-01

Physics

4901 Abrupt/Rapid Climate Change (1605), 5416 Glaciation, 5420 Impact Phenomena, Cratering (6022, 8136), 6022 Impact Phenomena (5420, 8136), 6240 Meteorites And Tektites (1028, 3662)

Scientific paper

We report the discovery of all three diamond allotropes (cubic diamond, lonsdaleite, and n-diamond) in an extraterrestrial (ET) impact layer (the YDB), dating to the Younger Dryas onset at 12.9 ka. YDB diamonds are distributed broadly across N America and NW Europe at 15 sites spanning 9,000 km or 23 percent of Earth's circumference. N-diamonds and lonsdaleite, or hexagonal diamond, do not co-occur with terrestrial diamonds, but are found in meteorites. Lonsdaleite is found on Earth only in association with known ET impacts, and thus, is a definitive impact indicator. The diamonds were identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using selected area diffraction (SAED), which display reflections corresponding to the following lattice planar spacings definitive of diamond: (1) cubic: 2.06, 1.26, 1.07, and 0.89 A; (2) lonsdaleite: 2.184, 1.261, 1.092, and 0.826 A; and (3) n-diamond: 2.06, 1.26, 1.07, and 0.89 A, plus "forbidden" reflections of 1.78, 1.04, and 0.796 A. Nanodiamonds are rounded to highly angular, and range in size from 1 to 1700 nm with most between 1 and 50 nm. Concentrations are up to 3700 ppb, equaling more than 1 billion diamonds per cm3 of sediment (comparable to K/T levels of 3600 ppb). No diamonds were detected above or below the YDB layer at any site tested. These diamonds could not have formed from volcanic activity, because they combust at temperatures above 500° C in the presence of atmospheric levels of oxygen, and micrometeoritic diamonds are similarly destroyed. Also, the diamonds could not have accumulated from the constant rain of micrometeoritic debris, because multi-billions occur in YDB layer samples, but yet none have been found in non-YDB strata dating from 55,000 RCYBP to present. YDB diamonds are associated with abundance peaks in magnetic spherules, carbon spherules, soot, and iridium, which can peak in impact layers of known ET events, such as the K/T and the 1908 airburst at Tunguska, Siberia. Furthermore, a high proportion of the nanodiamonds are found deeply embedded within spherical particles of melted plant resins, a fact inexplicable by any normal terrestrial process. Altogether, this evidence strongly suggests that the widespread and abundant nanodiamonds constrained to the thin YDB layer resulted from a major ET impact/airburst at 12.9 ka.

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