The chronology and cooling history of type 7 chondrites: insights into the early impact events on chondritic parent body

Type 7 chondrites, which record a higher degree of heating process than typical type 3 to type 6 chondrites, are characterized with textures and petrography of partial melting. Understanding the timing and cooling history of incipient melting event for type 7 chondrites could provide insights into the complex thermal process of the early solar system. Here, we studied two chondrites NWA 12272 and NWA 11021. Both samples display partial melting characteristics of LL chondrites, including interconnected plagioclase/high-Ca pyroxene network, zoned plagioclase and lack of chondrules, which concurs with their classification of LL7 chondrites in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. The 53Mn-53Cr isotopic data of NWA 12272, determined by mineral separates and bulk samples, yielded an isochron with a 53Mn/55Mn ratio of (1.40 ± 0.59) ×10-6 and a corresponding absolute age of 4558.8 ± 2.3 Ma (anchored to D’Orbigny angrite). Combined with the cooling rate estimated by the integration of REE-in-two-pyroxene thermometry and two-pyroxene thermometry, Mn-Cr isochron age of 4558.8 ± 2.3 Ma and Ca-phosphate Pb-Pb age of 4517 ± 6 Ma, we suggest that NWA 12272 experienced a two-stage cooling process after the incipient melting: it exposed to a relatively cold environment with a rapid cooling rate of ~30-100 °C/yr at 1150-1000 °C, and soon reburied with a slower cooling rate of ~13 °C/Ma at 1000-475 °C. Although the Mn-Cr isotopic study was not conducted for NWA 11021, the average Ca-phosphate Pb-Pb age of 4509 ± 7 Ma and high-temperature cooling rate (~1-30 °C/yr) of NWA 11021 are indistinguishable from or slightly lower than those of NWA 12272. Assuming NWA 11021 cooled from the same incipient melting event as NWA 12272, it could have recorded a similar two-stage cooling process. We suggest that the studied LL7 chondrites were most likely formed in the early solar system when additional impact heat overlapped on the “heated” type 5-6 chondrites. Integrated with the previous cooling rates of LL6-7 chondrites, the prevailing two-stage cooling rates of LL chondrites provide compelling evidence for the fragmentation-re-accretion process in the early history of LL chondrite parent body. This early impact event also happened in other ordinary chondrite groups and some iron meteorites.